Number of butterflies of the Monarch butterfly in California gives an anxious finding

Over the last three years, over 200,000 butterflies from the Western monarch have spent their winters along the California coast – nestled together in high woody groves, finding a wind from the wind from November to February.

But this Winter, Volunteers from the Xerces Society, A Nonprofit Environmental Group, Tallied Just 9,119 Western Monarch-A DRATIC 95% Plunge OPULATION HAS BEEN DECLINING FOR YEARS, Some biologists and advocates of California Park are still worried about the finding.

• Randy WideraDirector of the California State Park Programs Foundation: “No matter where you come from California, the monarchs are around. … The thought they don’t have is heartbreaking. “

Habitats loss, pesticides and difficult weather due to climate change are some of the butterflies to be threatened. Thehe Atmospheric rivers in 2023For example, they caused their number to immerse themselves. The Palisades Fire also burned the vegetation in Dolen Topang Creek in the Topang State Park, which supplies butterflies nectar, said the spokesman for California state parks Jorge Moreno in email to Calmatters.

The butterflies of the Western Monarch are considered an emblematic species because of their favorite status in the public and their critical role in the Food Network, said Emma Pelton, a biologist in the Xerces society. In addition to being pollinators, they are bird food, insects and some mammals.

Their migration also attracts visitors to the state beaches in California, especially in Santa Cruz and Ocean. Moreno estimates that over 80,000 people visit sites, including the Monarch Grove of Pismo State Beach a year.

California legislators have adopted laws to protect the species: A decade ago, the state directed the California Department of Fish and Wildlife to be Save butterflies and their habitats; and in 2018 the state created Monarch and pollinator rescue programS

But the defenders insist on the monarch butterflies to be named as an endangered species under the Federal Law on endangered species, which would provide additional protection and may help to restore the population to how it was decades ago when Widera first began to count butterflies.

• Width: “It was like entering the cathedral. … As it would warm, (butterflies) will explode from their clusters and go out to eat. It would just be amazing – thousands of them fly all around you. It is difficult to explain the feeling. “