The Western population of the monarch butterfly has reached the second-lowest level recorded since tracking began nearly three decades ago, according to the 28th annual Western Monarch Count.
The count estimated a winter population of 9,119 monarchs this year as climate change, habitat loss, pesticides and disease contributed to the near record-low.
These numbers are only slightly above the all-time low of less than 2,000 monarchs in 2020, and well below the millions of butterflies observed in the 1980s. Scientists consider the latter a stable population level.
The count is conducted by about 400 volunteers at 257 sites along California’s coastline and in Baja California, where the Western monarch population gathers each winter before migrating in spring to western states from Arizona to Idaho.
The butterfly population had rebounded in recent years, with almost 233,000 butterflies counted in 2023–2024, but January’s Los Angeles fires burned important butterfly tree groves in Lower Topanga Canyon.
“The record high late summer temperatures and drought in the West likely contributed to the significant drop-off we saw in the third and fourth breeding generations,” said Emma Pelton, an endangered species biologist with the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation.
California state parks play a significant role in monarch conservation, as three of the top four overwintering sites for western monarchs are located in Lighthouse Field State Beach, Natural Bridges State Beach and Pismo State Beach.
“To help monarchs recover, we need to work at a larger scale and address widespread issues like pesticide contamination and climate change that are beyond what voluntary efforts have been able to achieve,” said Isis Howard, coordinator of the Western Monarch Count.
To combat the population’s steady decline, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed to list the monarch butterfly as a threatened species under the U.S. Endangered Species Act last December. A public comment period on the listing is open until March 12.
Based on the best available science, we are proposing to list the monarch butterfly as threatened with species specific protections and flexibilities to encourage conservation under section 4(d) of the Endangered Species Act. 1/4 pic.twitter.com/KSrTCiNnfj
— USFWS News (@USFWSNews) December 10, 2024Conservation officials say the endangered species title would improve protection for overwintering habitats in California, force greater focus by federal agencies on the species, and create more incentives for breeding habitat restoration.
The California State Parks Foundation started a petition supporting the endangered species listing, citing the latest Species Status Assessment which predicts a greater than 95% chance of extinction for Western monarchs by 2080.
The Xerces Society is also petitioning the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to consider the effect of pesticides on butterflies before approving the products for market.
Testing by the Xerces Society and the University of Nevada-Reno found that milkweed leaves, the main food source for the monarch caterpillar, were contaminated by 64 pesticides.
One of these pesticides, methoxyfenozide, is likely to be toxic to caterpillars and found in 96% of milkweed samples.
However, it is allowed to be used under current pesticide regulations because it is “practically non-toxic” to adult honeybees, which are the only insect included in the EPA’s required pesticide testing.
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