How saving the monarch could help save us, too
When I walked into the Pacific Grove Monarch Sanctuary one fall day two years ago, I didn’t see a single butterfly. At least not at first. The low wooden fence, Monterey pines, towering eucalyptus trees, and unpaved path cutting through the small preserve seemed much like any other small park or nature area on the Central Coast: cool, quiet, and frequently damp.
But I knew this couldn’t be the whole story. This was, after all, prime monarch overwintering habitat in a city that calls itself “Butterfly Town, USA” and gets elementary school kids out parading through the streets each year to celebrate the annual return of the monarchs. And this year, 2022, had been a banner year for butterflies with a whopping 15,960 monarchs counted just in this one tiny 2.4 acre preserve. So I kept looking.
Following the gaze of people with cameras seemed like a good place to start. One man with a telephoto lens had set up his tripod close to the edge of the path. I walked toward him, watching as he stared at the camera display as avidly as a birder adding a new species to his life list.
I let my eyes follow the direction of his camera and found there a rather odd looking branch, drooping and covered in dead leaves that didn’t seem to match the scaly green pine needles around them. I stared for a moment before it happened.
One of the dead leaves opened its wings.
And suddenly, I could see them everywhere. The gray-brown triangles gathered in the hundreds weren’t fall leaves waiting to drop but clusters of monarch butterflies. Some of these butterflies held perfectly still. Others opened and closed their wings. Still more burst forth in great kaleidoscopic flurries, each butterfly soon soaring off in its own direction.
But despite being the best year for western monarchs since 2016, the fantastic display of 2022 was a mere echo of the 45,000 butterflies recorded in that same grove in 1997 when counting began.
And in the same recent stretch, the last decade or so, many years have been much worse. As I write this, there are a mere 202 monarchs in the Pacific Grove Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary. Back in 2020, not a single butterfly arrived.
Some of this variability is due to the natural fluctuations of monarch populations, which are incredibly vulnerable to weather patterns. Large storms and droughts can quickly kill thousands if not tens of thousands of butterflies.
But there’s also more at play here. The population of monarchs may fluctuate naturally year to year, but the big picture trend is currently more of a nose dive than a series of undulating hills and valleys.
The eastern migrating population has declined 80% in recent decades. And since the 1980s, the western migration is down by 95%.
This is why the US Department of Fish and Wildlife has now proposed listing the monarch butterfly as threatened under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
Pesticide use, habitat loss, and climate change have all contributed to this long term decline. And should we allow things to proceed apace, we now have a greater than 99% chance of losing the western monarch migration forever by 2080.
I can’t say I was surprised when I heard this news, but it still came as a blow. What would the world be like without monarch butterflies? To look up into the Monterey pines of the Pacific Grove sanctuary this year is to see but a drop of the historic ocean of orange and black wings that once occupied the place. And what if there were none of these flying jewels left? What if there was no cause to bring a fancy lens out on a fall day or to parade children through the streets for the annual return? What if there were no monarchs to welcome back? The stillness of that possible future in the grove frightens me.
When I first heard about this decline, I wanted to look away. I wanted to hide my face from the biodiversity loss represented by the decline of this once incredibly abundant species.
But, as I peeled my fingers from my eyes and started reading, something surprising happened.
I started to feel hopeful.
In fact, the more I read about the recent proposal to list monarch butterflies, the more hopeful I felt.
For one thing, discussion of listed species got me thinking about ESA success stories, of which there are plenty to go around.
In 1963, there were only around 417 breeding pairs of bald eagles left in the 48 contiguous states. After ESA protection, the banning of DDT, and habitat protection, bald eagles made a remarkable comeback.The birds were officially delisted in 2007, and today there are more than 71,000 breeding pairs flying over the lower 48 states.
If the monarch goes on to become listed as a threatened species, they’ll have additional systemic support, just as the bald eagles did before them. (Although I should note that a “threatened” listing would offer more flexibility to landowners and developers than an “endangered” listing would, which might be important for public support of such a widespread species.) The Xerces Society points out that a listing could help monarchs by:
- Protecting monarch overwintering habitat in coastal California
- Building more monarch habitat nationwide
- Better monitoring of monarch populations and more effective recovery efforts
- Increasing research on how to address the problems monarchs face
- Allowing federal agencies to consider monarchs when making decisions, such as whether or when to use pesticides on federal lands
- Creating financial incentives for agriculture and private landowners to engage in conservation, such as by planting habitat
And aside from all of this direct ESA action, the increased publicity around threats to monarchs will likely catalyze both individuals and communities to take action in the form of home habitats and community-wide efforts such as the Monarch Mayor’s Pledge.
But this isn’t the only reason I’m hopeful.
In addition to boosting the numbers of monarchs themselves, the actions needed to boost monarchs could provide a lifeline for literally thousands of other species across the continent, including myriad other native pollinators and the many species that depend on them for food or pollination.
This is because monarchs are what’s known as an umbrella species, or a species whose protection indirectly protects other species as well.
To protect monarchs, in other words, is to protect and restore their habitat, which is to protect and restore native bee habitat, and the habitat of hundreds of species of moths and butterflies. And when moth and butterfly caterpillars rebound, songbirds can then eat those caterpillars and raise more chicks successfully to adulthood. Increased abundance of songbirds can feed falcons, owls, bobcats, foxes, snakes, and more. Even humans stand to gain very directly from improved pollinator habitat in the form of crop pollination. The umbrella of protection could extend far beyond the monarchs themselves.
So this seemingly dismal news of a piddly 202 monarchs in the Pacific Grove Sanctuary and a proposed listing for a species that was once so abundant may, somewhat counterintuitively, be able to inject life into suffering ecosystems across the country.
And some organizations are already envisioning what that shot of vitality might look like.
River Partners, a nonprofit dedicated to restoring riparian habitat in California, might be the example of this I’m most excited about. They’ve already partnered with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Xerces Society, and others to plant 30,000 milkweed plants across 600 acres in California.
But they’re just getting started. River Partners has a new goal of planting 15 million milkweed plants in priority areas by 2030. Alongside those milkweed plants will go native wildflowers that will feed both monarchs and myriad other species.
The Xerces Society is also already doing big work for monarchs, including giving away milkweed kits that can be used on working lands, tribal lands, and public lands around the state.
If we were to give up now, we would almost certainly lose the migrating western monarch butterfly within the next 60 years, and the eastern migration would likely be soon to follow.
But everywhere I look, people are doing the opposite of giving up. They’re lacing up their boots, grabbing their shovels, talking to their neighbors, writing to their mayors. Organizations are forming partnerships, purchasing mountains of seeds and rhizomes, targeting hotspots for vast restoration projects. The US Fish and Wildlife Service is stepping up the support with this proposed listing and all the benefits it could confer.
In a moment like this, it would be easy to look away, to avoid the pain of witnessing this sharp decline that’s unfolded across so few years. But instead of away, I prefer to look up and to work toward a future in which I see the outstretched arms of a Monterey pine bent low with the weight of tens of thousands of orange and black butterflies.
I hope you’ll look up with me.
Stay golden,
Michelle
Want to take action? Pick one or do ‘em all!
- Create pollinator habitat at home. Check out these fantastic resources from the Xerces Society for everything you need to get started.
- Ditch the pesticides. Instead, find out other ways to manage garden pests at home through UC Integrated Pest Management
- Leave a comment. The 90 day public comment period for the proposed monarch listing is now open. Let FWS know what you think here.
- Organize. This could include attending HOA meetings in your neighborhood, reaching out to your mayor about the Monarch Mayor’s Pledge, or getting a few neighbors interested in growing milkweed and other native pollinator plants at home.
- Keep learning. Check out this GSN episode on monarchs or this one on keystone plants (many of which support monarchs with nectar).
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