HOW TO HELP THE MONARCH BUTTERFLY SURVIVE

How to help monarch butterflies survive

Melissa Erickson

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After wintering in California and Mexico monarch butterflies head north during the first weeks in March and April, but year after year they do so at greatly reduced numbers.

Monarchs are getting closer to extinction, but you can help support them in your own backyard.

Experts estimate that monarchrch populations have drastically declined since the early 1990s for a variety of reasons.

“Some call it death by a thousand cuts,” said Scott Hoffman Black, executive director of the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation. Habitat loss, insecticide use and climate change effects, including the California wildfires, are all taking their toll, he said.

“It is estimated that there has been around an 80% decline in eastern monarch numbers since the 1990s when monitoring started,” Black said.

Western monarch butterflies have fared much worse.

“In 2015 we had over 200,000 monarchs at overwintering sites in California. This year we have less than 2,000. This is a 99.9% decline since the 1980s when we had over 4 million monarchs,” Black said.

As pollinators that need similar habitats to other insect, bird and even wildlife species, monarchs are worth paying attention to because they are like the canary in the coal mine. When their numbers decline it affects other populations and,eventually, human food systems.

As a species the monarch butterfly is federally listed as “warranted but precluded,” meaning the government is currently not doing much to help them, Black said.

The designation means that monarchs meet the criteria for being protected under the Endangered Species Act, but the U.S. government says that because of limited funding they need to prioritize other species, he said.

“The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Service — — the the agency agen that manages listed listed species spe — is chronically underfunded and sometimes prioritization is is needed. That said, with wit the western population popu on the verge of collapse, this is not a species that can wait for help,” Black said. You can make a difference “The neat thing about monarchs and other pollinators is that anyone can help. You do not need a large landscape. Start by taking the Bring Back the Pollinators pledge (xerces.org/ bring-back-thepollinators). You can join with hundreds of thousands of others who are stepping up to help all these important animals,” he said.

Write your legislators and ask them to support full protection for the monarch under the Endangered Species Act.

“Ask them to increase funding for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service so the agency can successfully protect and restore all threatened and endangered species,” Black said.

In your backyard the main three things you can do for monarchs are: • Plant native milkweed, which is a host plant that monarch butterflies lay their eggs on. • Plant nectar plants for monarchs, which they consume for energy. • Ensure that monarch habitat is protected from pesticides.

There are also things to avoid doing to help monarchs. Do not plant tropical milkweed, especially in the southern United States and California.

“Tropical milkweed does not go dormant in these areas and is associated with higher disease levels in monarchs, and may actually stop them from traveling on to overwintering sites,” Black said.

It also doesn’t help native populations to raise and release or buy monarchs for release.

“These monarchs may spread disease to wild monarchs and may not be as adapted to the long migration,” Black said.