Monarch butterflies, which once migrated in the tens of thousands to Pacific Grove, have fallen to 228 in the latest count last week.
Advocates welcomed the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s announcement Tuesday recommending that monarchs be protected under the Endangered Species Act.
Thousands of monarchs have historically overwintered in Pacific Grove in Monterey County. They are so much a part of the community’s identity that the butterfly is pictured on the city seal.
“Accounts in Pacific Grove as late as the 1990s showed 45,000 monarchs, which we do not see today,” Natalie Johnston of the Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History said in a press release.
The museum has been conducting weekly counts during the monarch season — mid-October through mid-February — in the Pacific Grove Monarch Sanctuary since 2012. In 2022, the highest census was over 15,000.
In coastal California, monarch populations have fallen to less than 5% of their historic numbers, the museum said.
Monarchs have been protected in Pacific Grove since the 1930s and California since 2021. If listed as threatened, they would prompt more funding for habitat conservation and research to bring the species back from decline, according to the museum.
In Pacific Grove, the monarch sanctuary and other areas would likely be given Critical Habitat designation, which would help preserve the space for generations of monarchs and people to come, the museum said.
The post Monarchs’ decline in Pacific Grove spurs call for Endangered Species Act protection appeared first on Local News Matters.