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https://reasonstobecheerful.world/monarch-butterflies-survival-conservation/>
"The Butterfly Grove at Pismo Beach used to sound alive before you even saw it.
The first time I visited on a winter morning over a decade ago, I stood beneath
the towering eucalyptus and heard a faint rustle, like distant rain, as
thousands of monarch butterflies shifted their wings along the branches
overhead. Through a docent’s telescope, tight clusters the size of pine cones
resolved into overlapping black and orange wings, each butterfly hanging in
suspended animation as it waited out the cold months on California’s Central
Coast.
This grove, framed by Monterey cypress and eucalyptus just off Highway 1,
is one of more than 200 overwintering sites along the state’s coastline.
Historically, it has been among the largest refuges for the western
population of the monarch butterfly, known scientifically as
Danaus
plexippus.
But when I returned this January, the trees looked strangely bare. The
informative signs were still there, but the air that once seemed to shimmer
with butterflies was mostly still. I spotted only a few monarchs drifting in
the native plant garden at the grove’s edge.
My experience is part of a much larger story. This past winter, volunteers
counted just a little over 12,000 western monarch butterflies along the
California coast, the third-lowest tally in nearly three decades of monitoring.
According to the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, which
coordinates the counting, western monarchs numbered around 4.5 million in the
1980s. Today, the population has declined by more than 99 percent, driven by
habitat loss, pesticide use and climate change. Our window to reverse the trend
is narrowing fast.
The question hangs over the empty grove: Can the butterflies come back?"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
