Monarch butterfly population moves closer to extinction:
The number of western monarch butterflies wintering along the California coast has plummeted precipitously to a record low, putting the orange-and-black insects closer to extinction, researchers announced Tuesday.
An annual winter count by the Xerces Society recorded fewer than 2,000 butterflies, a massive decline from the tens of thousands tallied in recent years and the millions that clustered in trees from Northern California's Marin County to San Diego County in the south in the 1980s.
[...]
Scientists say the butterflies are at critically low levels in western states because of destruction to their milkweed habitat along their migratory route as housing expands into their territory and use of pesticides and herbicides increases.
[...]
Monarch butterflies lack state and federal legal protection to keep their habitat from being destroyed or degraded. In December, federal officials declared the monarch butterfly "a candidate" for threatened or endangered status but said no action would be taken for several years because of the many other species awaiting that designation.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 20 2021, @09:26AM (8 children)
Every other notable species of Butterfly in the Central Valley seems to have gone the same way. Just going anecdotally from my yard in the 1980s to my yard in the 2020s: I used to get at least a half dozen to two dozen a day, oftentimes in small swarms as a child. Usually there would be Monarchs, Tiger-somethings (Orange and smaller than Monarchs) then some smaller white butterflies. Moving further east, there was also a black kind with orange highlights closer to the American River. They showed up in the yard far more rarely but were prolific out at the nature areas, as well as along the river, along with the other varieties mentioned.
However if you go out now, for the past 10-15 years, the number had been slowly declining. Now I find it rare to see one during an hour or so walk at the river, and across a whole spring to fall season, I might see the same 3-5 butterflies over the course of a few days. I think a year or two back I actually saw two that flew across in opposite then the same directions within a few minutes of each other. But compared to when I was a child, they are definitely dwindling in number to extinct level quantities. The non-pesty kinds of moths seem to have gone the same way. There are a few with butterfly level colorations still around, but even those only seem to be a half dozen or so across the yard, and this is in a yard that during the summer is covered in a wide variety of flowering plantlife. In areas with more limited foliage I can only imagine how few you are likely to find :(
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 20 2021, @03:40PM (1 child)
Change your garden to Butterfly Friendly. Become a rest stop for butterflies. They need "nectar flowers", And yes that type of flower depends on species of the butterflies and time of year.
Stop growing English Gardens. You know golf course lawns. Let the "wild flowers" grow and help the butterflies.
Down side your neighbors growing English Gardens and heavy chemicals to "help keep it green". Natural Gardens should be the standard. Also use less water.
(Score: 3, Informative) by hendrikboom on Thursday January 21 2021, @10:45PM
Monarch butterflies like milkweed.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 20 2021, @07:26PM
Central coast here. We have two mass congregation rest stops for monarchs in the county (used to get 10s of 1000s at each). I'd guess another factor besides loss of milkweed is the trend to systemic pesticides that are applied to the soil. Even if a milkweed survives in a field of citrus, it is going to be highly toxic to the monarchs due to the literal soaking of the ground with neonic pesticides.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Wednesday January 20 2021, @10:25PM (4 children)
In general, there's a nationwide trend of loss of wildflowers, and with it *all* insect populations but especially bees and butterflies. And that in turn is affecting both plant pollination and wild bird populations.
If your local laws and other circumstances allow it, seed any land you own with wildflowers and don't mow them when they come up. They can be quite pretty, and it's easier and cheaper to do than mow the lawn or even worse try to maintain a monoculture, and will do something to at least slow the arrival of the nightmare envisioned by Rachel Carson when she wrote Silent Spring. Unfortunately, some municipalities hate this sort of thing, and HOAs are even worse about it, but at the very least think twice before spraying any land you control with pesticides.
And of course feel free to use any political sway you might have at any level to try to encourage other people and organizations to at least allow you to do the sorts of things I'm describing. It's not just a matter of "butterflies are pretty", it's a question of what plants and animals that rely on insects for pollination or food supply will survive, which in turn affects what humans will be able to eat. Even if you're not into eating vegetables, losing stuff like mustard, onions, and a bunch of squashes would suck.
"Think of how stupid the average person is. Then realize half of 'em are stupider than that." - George Carlin
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Thursday January 21 2021, @02:08PM (3 children)
We seeded the tree wells in front of our kids' school in Brooklyn with a wildflower mix. They came in and were beautiful for all of two weeks, then the progressive school administration told the custodial staff to rip them all out.
There is a lot of space, even in urban areas, where wildflowers could be grown. The administrations in those places must pay more than lip service to the environment if the flowers are to remain and support the insect and butterfly populations; so far, for them caring about the environment is an idyll that is far away, somewhere else, for others to do.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Thursday January 21 2021, @04:10PM (2 children)
See, in my brain, that would be the perfect sort of issue to raise a minor stink about at the PTA meeting: It's small, it doesn't cost the school system anything to let you do what you want, you can probably find others who would like flowers there, and it helps the environment.
Oh, and I don't care whether the school administrators call themselves "progressive" or not - if they're wrong, they're wrong, and in this case they're wrong. Blindly following labels rather than principles and outcomes is for people who don't have any actual stake in the matter.
"Think of how stupid the average person is. Then realize half of 'em are stupider than that." - George Carlin
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Friday January 22 2021, @04:19PM (1 child)
:-) That was the thread I started pulling on, which lead to learning that the "programming" education the kids at the Title 1 school (READ: most kids at or below poverty line) was a paper-and-pencil version of the using-actual-computers lesson the kids at the rich white school two blocks away got to do. That lead to running for the school board to make sure the poor kids got an equal education, which then lead to learning that the rich parents (of all races, not just white) used the poor kids to get more resources out of the taxpayers which they then diverted to their own schools and kids to build quasi-private schools using public dollars. There were many other revelations also, like how the poor kids were getting lead poisoning from their drinking fountains but the rich kids weren't because the time & resources had been diverted from facilities maintenance to their schools.
In New York City. The blue town full of Democrats who love all people equally.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 29 2021, @04:32AM
Thanks for contributing to the public weal by volunteering in those roles and, hopefully, fighting for less class-segregated schooling.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Barenflimski on Wednesday January 20 2021, @09:43AM (1 child)
I'm in Colorado. 25 years ago, we had large Monarch butterfly migrations in the mid to late summer. We don't see as many Monarchs as we used to, but we still see some every year. These fellas look very similar to painted Lady butterflies, but you can tell if you know what to look for.
We have some milkweed that popped up in my yard, so I left it a couple of years ago. I never believed that milkweed itself was some sort of attractant, I just figured it was more of something that was common in fields, so Monarchs hung out on them, therefore these stories. I thought it would be fun to see how milkweed grew, and as I grew it and learned about these stories regarding butterflies. Testing these stories made it just that much more fun.
Now we have 7 stalks of milkweed. I let them grow every year. (Nota Bena: I didn't know milkweed could be a perennial.) We end up with Monarchs stopping through every year. The control is every other bush in my back yard. There are no monarch groups hanging out on the roses or the daisies. It isn't like this becomes the main watering hole, but there is no doubt that the Monarchs found some Milkweed and like it.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday January 20 2021, @03:20PM
For what it's worth, milkweed also produces edible pods [ediblewildfood.com] and fibers in its stalks [herbstalk.org] that you can make decent cordage from. So, yes, letting them grow is good on several levels.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 3, Funny) by BsAtHome on Wednesday January 20 2021, @04:03PM
Clearly, the Monarch butterflies have not been able to keep up with the property value along the migratory route. It is simple economics. If the butterflies would be willing to pay more for the habitat, then it would still be there for them. Now, others outbid the Monarchs and will be able to settle and migrate on the route. Otherwise, there should be an alternative economical path for growing milkweed. But that does not seem to pay the rent. So, fewer Monarchs to feed means fewer of them can settle. Alternatively, the Monarchs may plant milkweed other cheaper places?
(tongue firmly asserted in cheek)