monarchs

More Trouble For Monarchs | Earth Wise

April 14, 2020 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Monarch butterflies have been in trouble for quite a while and now it seems like their prospects are worse than ever. Multiple surveys of butterfly populations are reporting plummeting numbers.

Western monarch butterflies spend their winters on the central California coast. Months later, they breed in California’s Central Valley and as far north and east as Idaho. But in recent years, it has become harder and harder to find them in their breeding sites.

The Western monarch population was in the millions in the 1980s. In 2017, an annual survey found 200,000 butterflies. In 2018 and 2019, only about 30,000 butterflies were tallied. The loss of Western butterflies in general has come about from a variety of factors, including development, climate change, farming practices and the widespread use of pesticides by farmers and on home and business lawns.

Scientists use the area of land that migrating Monarchs occupy in Mexico to gauge populations. This year, they covered about 7 acres, down from 15 acres in 2019.

Meanwhile, there are also far fewer Eastern monarch butterflies on the opposite side of the country. According to a new population survey, the Eastern monarch has passed the extinction threshold. Its population in 2020 dropped 53% from its already low 2019 numbers. Scientists were expecting lower numbers this year, but they were staggered by their findings.

Butterfly populations are quite variable, so it is possible that the drastic declines this year are not necessarily irreversible, but the news is not good. Researchers and environmental advocates continue to point out that mitigating the climate crisis, reducing pesticide use and planting pollinator gardens could help the butterflies to recover.

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Monarch Butterfly Populations Are Plummeting

Photo, posted September 7, 2017, courtesy of C. Watts via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Cities And Monarch Butterflies

August 13, 2019 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Monarchs are some of the most well-known butterflies in the U.S. It is well-known that populations of the iconic orange-and-black butterflies have been in a steep decline for the last 20 years. In fact, the Monarch population has declined by 80% over that period.

Milkweed, the only plant that Monarchs can lay their eggs on, continues to disappear across the United States and with it, the butterflies can disappear too.

Two new studies published in the journal Frontiers of Ecology and Evolution show that one of the most important things that can be done to save the Monarchs is to plant milkweed in cities.

We tend to think of cities as being the enemy of nature. But metropolitan areas actually matter for wildlife conservation and that is especially true for pollinators like butterflies that can actually survive with very small patches of habitat.

The new study estimates the amount of habitat in cities that is available to Monarchs and other pollinators and how much more can potentially be added. It looked at cities from the Monarch’s point of view by identifying the best places and most effective ways to engage land owners to transform low-quality green space – such as lawns – into high-quality homes for butterflies and other wildlife.

Just because urban dwellers can plant milkweed doesn’t always mean that they will. There has to be a public perception that milkweed and other native flowers are acceptable and beautiful elements in home landscaping. It will require some shifting of societal norms of what is desirable in neighborhood gardens in order for cities to be able to do their part in protecting butterflies and other species struggling in the modern world.

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Cities are Key to Saving Monarch Butterflies

Photo, posted August 31, 2012, courtesy of Chris via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Some Good News For Monarchs

April 20, 2016 By WAMC WEB

Spring is the time of the great monarch migration when the butterflies leave their wintering grounds in Mexico and head north to Canada. As we have been saying for quite some time, fewer and fewer butterflies have been making the trek each year. Twenty years ago, a billion monarchs swarmed the winter site in Mexico. In 2013, the number was down to 33 million.

Fir Trees And Butterflies

February 23, 2016 By WAMC WEB

We have done a number of stories about the sad state of the monarch butterfly and how their numbers have dropped from a billion to only 33 million as of a couple of years ago. Biologists in the U.S. have been trying to restore the summer habitat of the butterflies by urging the planting of milkweed, which is the primary host plants for monarch butterfly caterpillars.