The number of migratory monarch butterflies that winter in California and inhabit the western Rocky Mountains has significantly decreased, according to a recent report.
The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation recorded only 9,119 monarchs, the second worst year in the organization’s count.
This is an approximately 96 percent decline from last year’s count of 233,394 butterflies at 256 California overwintering sites.
The fluorescent orange insect is known for traveling more than 3,000 miles from the northeastern side of the United States and southeastern Canada to the southwestern forests of Mexico.
Dr. Rebeca Quiñonez-Piñón, a senior scientist at the National Wildlife Federation, said climate change has “definitely” been a factor in affecting the population and its migration patterns.
Research shows that capitalist economies like the one in the United States are the root causes of climate change.
This economic system has increased greenhouse gas emissions, which lead to rising global temperatures and significant losses in biodiversity.
Other capitalist driven reasons for the species’ decline are due to a loss in milkweed, (the butterfly’s primary food source) as well as droughts, pollution, deforestation, disease outbreaks and pesticide use.
Quiñonez-Piñón says the western population of monarch butterflies in the United States is at a higher risk of extinction than the eastern population.
“It is very important that we take action as soon as possible,” she said in Spanish. “The western population is definitely in a quite critical situation, and the probability of extinction for that population is more than 99 percent within the next 60 years.”
Credit: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
The monarch butterfly is not currently on the endangered species list, but the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service has proposed adding it to the list.
By officially enlisting the species, federal resource revenues would be available for scientists to continue extensive conservation and coordination efforts.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is currently accepting comments from the public to inform whether or not the monarch butterfly should receive federal protection as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act, according to the National Wildlife Federation Action Fund.
Community members can submit their comments here.
The final decision is expected to be announced in December this year, Quiñonez-Piñón said.
“We can save the species if conservation strategies are effective,” she said. “That is why if the monarch is listed as a threatened species, it would help us a lot because the Endangered Species Act has a very, very, positive record for saving species.”
According to the World Wildlife Fund, 99 percent of the species on the list have avoided extinction.
“We can do it,” Quiñonez-Piñón said. “But we have to work as a community and we have to make sure that the species is protected under the Endangered Species Act.”
Meanwhile in the midwest, concerned monarch butterfly enthusiasts like Claudia Galeno-Sanchez, have been doing their part to raise awareness of the species’ decline.
With the help of her neighbors, the 47-year-old mother converted her Chicago home into a vibrant butterfly sanctuary.
Read the full article: ‘We can’t lose hope’: A Pilsen Mother’s Mission to Save Monarch Butterflies
Claudia Galeno-Sanchez outside of her butterfly sanctuary home in Chicago, Illinois.
Photography: Jacqueline Cardenas
“The monarch butterfly is like an icon, something that Mexicans identify with,” Galeno-Sanchez said last summer. “The only difference between monarch butterflies and us as Mexicans, is that we do not have the freedom to cross borders.”
David Zaya, a botanist at the Illinois Natural History Survey, previously said part of the species’ decline is tied with the loss of natural grasslands across the state which makes it harder for milkweeds to grow.
Milkweeds are the only plant monarchs can lay their eggs on and caterpillars can feed on. Without it, they cannot complete their life cycle.
“A lot of the milkweed in the state was in corn and soybean fields that 25 to 30 years ago had milkweeds in them and now they don’t because the way that farming is done is different,” Zaya said. “It’s a lot more reliant on chemicals that remove weeds, including milkweed.”
Despite her efforts, Galeno-Sanchez only has faded memories of a garden that was once filled with monarch butterflies fluttering their wings while resting on leaves.
“This year has really shaken me up in a way I didn’t expect,” she said in July 2024. “I didn’t expect to see my garden empty, without monarch butterflies.”
You can donate to support Galeno-Sanchez’s butterfly conservation efforts through the Working Family Solidarity’s website here.