[Pollinator] Western Monarch Thanksgiving Count Tallies Over 330, 000 Butterflies Before Storms Batter Overwintering Sites

Tue Jan 31 11:00:00 PST 2023

See our blog about the announcement here:
https://xerces.org/blog/western-monarch-thanksgiving-count-tallies-over-330000-butterflies-before-storms-batter

Press release here:
https://xerces.org/press/western-monarch-count-tallies-over-330000-butterflies

Portland, Ore.; Tuesday, January 31, 2023---In the weeks before heavy rains
battered the California coast, volunteers grabbed their binoculars and
headed out in an annual pilgrimage for a beloved animal. This year, their
efforts for the 26th Western Monarch Count
<https://www.westernmonarchcount.org/> paid off with good news: a final
tally of 335,479 butterflies during the study’s Thanksgiving counting
period.

“We can all celebrate this tally,” says Emma Pelton, a conservation
biologist at the Xerces Society and western monarch lead. “A second year in
a row of relatively good numbers gives us hope that there is still time to
act to save the western migration. That said, we know we still have a long
way to go to reach population recovery, and the storms that hit right
afterwards mean we’ll start the spring with far, far less than this total.”

The results are a welcome reprieve from a total of less than 2,000
individuals <https://www.westernmonarchcount.org/data/> counted in 2020 and
nearly 250,000 in 2021. Yet the butterflies remain far from the low
millions seen in the 1980s, and their recovery remains vulnerable to
pressures like habitat loss, pesticide use and climate change.

Central Coast hosts majority of western monarchs

More than 250 people participated in this year’s Western Monarch Count,
surveying a total of 272 sites
<https://www.westernmonarchcount.org/map-of-overwintering-sites/> across
coastal California and a few sites in interior California and Arizona
between November 12 and December 4, 2022. Volunteers count clusters of
monarchs as they huddle together to overwinter in groves of trees, often
non-native eucalyptus.

California’s Central Coast continued to host a majority of the largest
sites and overwintering western monarchs, with over 130,000 butterflies
reported in both Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties. The Bay Area
witnessed a comeback from low numbers last year, with more than 8,000
butterflies reported in surrounding counties such as Alameda, Marin and
Solano.

The largest count was 34,180 butterflies at an overwintering site in Santa
Barbara County owned by The Nature Conservancy, followed by 25,710
butterflies at a private residential site in Santa Barbara County. Pismo
State Beach Monarch Butterfly Grove had the third largest monarch count and
is open for public viewing, with 24,128 butterflies reported at their peak.

Small population is vulnerable to extreme weather

Shortly after the Thanksgiving count period ended, back-to-back atmospheric
rivers drenched most of the California coast, battering overwintering
sites. Observers reported flooding, downed tree limbs and even entire trees
uprooted. While some sites fared well, volunteers at others reported more
monarchs on the ground, blown from their clusters and vulnerable to the
cold, wet conditions and predation.

“Small populations are particularly vulnerable to being snuffed out by
extreme weather, so we are lucky these storms occurred in a relatively good
year,” said Pelton. “We don’t want to count on luck alone to ensure the
survival of the western monarch migration.”

That calls for not only restoring more monarch butterfly habitat
<https://xerces.org/western-monarch-call-to-action> throughout their range,
but doubling down on making sure overwintering sites are protected and
resilient to climate change. Site managers and landowners can take steps to
replace dead and dying trees, landscape sites to prevent or mitigate
flooding, and plant native nectar sources.

Monarch butterflies still lack legal protections

“Unfortunately, there continues to be very little meaningful protection for
the species or its habitat. Overwintering sites in particular continue to
be destroyed and damaged each year," says Isis Howard, a conservation
biologist with The Xerces Society and coordinator of the count.

While migratory monarch butterflies were declared endangered
<https://www.iucn.org/press-release/202207/migratory-monarch-butterfly-now-endangered-iucn-red-list>
on the IUCN Red List of Threatened SpeciesTM last summer, they are not yet
listed under U.S. or state Endangered Species Acts, which would afford the
species legal protections. A federal listing by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service <https://www.fws.gov/initiative/pollinators/monarchs> is
anticipated in fiscal year 2024.

“The plain fact is that if we lose overwintering sites in California, we
could lose migratory western monarchs. Development, eucalyptus removal, and
tree trimming all need to be managed thoughtfully if we are to leave space
for these animals to survive," says Howard.

How you can help

Once western monarchs depart from their overwintering sites, they rely on
finding high-quality habitat and safe breeding grounds across several
western states <https://xerces.org/monarchs/conservation-efforts>. Everyday
gardeners, park managers, schools, and others can make simple but
meaningful changes to help the western monarch population recover:

   -

   Plant native milkweed <https://www.xerces.org/milkweed>.
   -

   Plant a diversity of nectar plants
   <https://www.xerces.org/monarchs/monarch-nectar-plant-guides>, ideally
   native to your area.
   -

   Stop using pesticides <https://www.xerces.org/pesticides>, or minimize
   risk associated with pesticide use.
   -

   Call on legislators to support policies such as Recovering America’s
   Wildlife Act
   <https://www.nwf.org/Our-Work/Wildlife-Conservation/Policy/Recovering-Americas-Wildlife-Act>
   and the Monarch Action, Recovery, and Conservation of Habitat Act
   <https://www.xerces.org/monarch-act>.
   -

   Contribute to community science projects that track monarchs, such as
   the Western Monarch Milkweed Mapper
<http://monarchmilkweedmapper.org/>, Western
   Monarch Mystery Challenge
   <https://labs.wsu.edu/conservation-biology/western-monarch-mystery-challenge/>,
   and nationwide Integrated Monarch Monitoring Program
   <https://monarchjointventure.org/mjvprograms/science/immp>.

The Xerces Society has been active in monarch and pollinator conservation
in California for decades. Xerces' work helps restore monarch overwintering
sites, expand pollinator habitat on farms, and has distributed more than
130,000 pollinator plants through Xerces’ Habitat Kit Program
<https://xerces.org/pollinator-conservation/habitat-kits>.

About the Western Monarch Count

The Western Monarch Count <http://westernmonarchcount.org/> is a
volunteer-powered community science effort run by the Xerces Society and
count co-founder, Mia Monroe. It runs for a three-week period around the
Thanksgiving holiday, and is designed to collect data on the status of the
migratory western monarch population by using a standard protocol to
estimate the number of butterflies clustered at overwintering sites. A
second count period occurs around the New Year’s holiday and lasts for two
weeks, which estimates the monarchs’ seasonal decline over winter.

Acknowledgements

This effort is powered by more than 250 dedicated volunteers who collect
data at overwintering sites. The Xerces Society also thanks our western
monarch conservation funders who make this work possible: Bureau of Land
Management, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, California State
Parks Foundation, California Wildlife Conservation Board, Google.org,
Forest Service International Programs, The Marion R. Weber Family Fund,
Monarch Joint Venture, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, Natural
Resources Conservation Service, San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, The
Taggart Saxon Schubert Fund, US Fish and Wildlife Service, and Xerces
Society members.

-- 

Isis Howard

Endangered Species Conservation Biologist

Western Monarch Community Science

Pronouns: she/her/hers

Remote Office: Marin County, CA

Cell: (503) 212-0546

*Protecting the Life That Sustains Us*

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