Monarch Butterfly Numbers Plummet 86 Percent In California (usatoday.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from USA Today: The number of monarch butterflies turning up at California's overwintering sites has dropped by about 86 percent compared to only a year ago, according to the Xerces Society, which organizes a yearly count of the iconic creatures. That's bad news for a species whose numbers have already declined an estimated 97 percent since the 1980s. Each year, monarchs in the western United States migrate from inland areas to California's coastline to spend the winter, usually between September and February. Results from the count so far show that the number of monarchs at 97 California overwintering sites has dropped from around 148,000 in 2017 to just over 20,400 this year. Counts for dozens of other sites are still being tabulated, but the outlook is troubling.

What's causing the dramatic drop-off is somewhat of a mystery. Experts believe the decline is spurred by a confluence of unfortunate factors, including late rainy-season storms across California last March, the effects of the state's yearslong drought and the seemingly relentless onslaught of wildfires that have burned acres upon acres of habitat and at times choked the air with toxic smoke. The Thomas Fire last year burned almost 300,000 acres, including areas important for monarch breeding and migration. More recently, the Woolsey Fire damaged at least four monarch butterfly overwintering sites in the Malibu area, according to Lara Drizd, a wildlife biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Ventura.

Comments

Not too surprising

[LynnwoodRooster]

They are cyclical and are related to milkweed availability. But given that milkweed is considered a noxious weed and often targeted for eradication, it damages the Monarch food cycle. Too bad that milkweed is on the weed management area list.

Re:Not too surprising

[ShanghaiBill]

My mom raises bees on her farm, and has a half acre dedicated to wildflowers, buckwheat for the bees, and thousands of milkweed plants. If more people would do the same, the world would have more butterflies.

If you have a backyard, you should consider scrapping your lawnmower, and getting some wildflower and milkweed seeds.

Re:Not too surprising

[Mashiki]

Spot on. Ontario did the same thing under the previous government and declared it a "noxious weed" in ~2002 or so and monarch numbers plummeted. This is and absolute man-made problem caused by removing a key plant, and in many cases like here in Ontario it was environmentalists and NIMBY's that pushed for it to be labeled as such. The factory farms then got on board because it then allowed them to use more aggressive herbicides to kill it back, especially where it liked to grow with soybeans. Further, the provincial government then pushed local(city/county) to pass bylaws with heavy financial penalties. Around here it was a fine of $500/plant, smoking in a non-smoking building is $2000 to put in perspective.

Re:monocrop annual ag destroys ecosystems

[Dunbal]

Banking.

Perfectly normal

[bradley13]

Massive fluctuations in the butterfly population are perfectly normal.

The link goes to a paper from 1974, and looks at data back into the 1950s. For example: "A population peak occurred in 1950 and 1951 followed by a marked reduction in numbers in 1952; by 1953 the populations had been reduced to such an extent that no over-night roosting colonies could be found in areas where they had previously occurred in thousands and only seven field specimens were collected throughout the entire summer period. "

Understandable

[93 Escort Wagon]

I mean, come on. They’re Monarchs, most are going to be very conservative. You think they’re gonna feel welcome in California?

Perfectly Appropriate

[Roger W Moore]

Indeed. So it's just a case that the monarch's late reign was caused by late rain.

Re:Sad

[phantomfive]

Our planetwide ecosystem is collapsing

In America it's improved dramatically. Remember when rivers actually used to catch fire? Our air quality is so much better than it used to be, we used to pump so much lead into the air that it caused mental problems.

There are some issues in the developing world, but overall they've learned to move through the developing phase much more cleanly than we did (of course, they learned lessons from our mistakes, which is a good thing).

Re: Maybe they are allergic to poop in streets

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually a study in 2015 correlated the decline of milkweed due to use of pesticides across the states. Milkweed is the only food source for the caterpillars of these butterflies. By the time of the study the population has already dropped 90 percent in 20 years and the species was considered to be put on the list of endangered animals. What this has to do with trump, I have no idea.