Monarch butterfly conservation in California facts for kids
The U.S. state of California has many programs and laws to help the western monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus). These efforts aim to keep the butterflies healthy and help them migrate. Western monarchs need special places to breed and spend the winter. They need specific weather conditions to survive the cold months. Large groups of butterflies are most at risk at their winter homes along the coast. Many of these winter spots are in the "coastal zone," which is an area about 1000 yards (914 meters) inland from the high tide line. However, many other winter sites are outside this zone. California has over 450 known winter homes for monarchs.
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Protecting Monarch Homes
Conservationists work to protect the places where monarchs live. They find the trees that butterflies use for resting during winter. They suggest that these resting spots should be protected from harm. Before any building happens near these areas, a special report should be made to check the environmental impact. It should be against the rules to remove trees or plants around these resting sites. Tree care should only be done by experts.
Conservationists also suggest planting more trees. They say that controlling erosion is important to keep the habitat good. They also recommend that wood-burning fireplaces should not be built near monarch resting spots.
The International Environmental Law Project has a rule about eucalyptus trees at monarch winter sites. This group knows that monarchs use many different kinds of trees for winter. The Xerces Society suggests leaving eucalyptus trees alone if monarchs are using them.
Ideas for Helping Monarchs
The International Environmental Law Project suggested some ideas in 2012 to help monarchs:
- Change California's fishing and hunting rules to let the California Department of Fish and Game protect the monarch butterfly.
- Add the monarch butterfly to California's Endangered Species Act.
- Change the coastal law to specifically protect monarch winter sites.
- Keep talking with other countries to plan butterfly protection across North America.
- Limit activities like logging and tourism at winter sites.
- Plant many milkweed and nectar plants. Many people and groups are working to plant milkweed to give food to young monarchs and nectar to adult butterflies.
- Do studies where everyday people help by watching and tagging migrating monarchs.
- Ask lawmakers, companies, and others to protect monarch homes.
- Keep buying land specifically to protect monarchs.
Restoring Butterfly Homes
People in the Monarch Watch program have planted many acres of native milkweed. This helps young monarchs grow. These planted areas also provide nectar plants for adult monarchs.
Tree Care at Monarch Sites
Most places do not have laws about removing or changing trees at monarch winter sites. In Capitola and Goleta, you need a permit to change trees. Studies are still being done to see how important eucalyptus trees are for monarchs. Large gaps in the tree tops at winter sites in California can make these spots less suitable for butterflies.
Where Monarchs Spend Winter
Many monarch winter sites are outside the coastal zone. More than 450 winter sites have been recorded in California since the 1980s.
California State Parks and Lands
Monarchs are protected from building and tourism in California's 270 state parks. Visitors to the parks are not allowed to bother, hunt, harm, feed, touch, or injure any animals or trees. Collecting, catching, or killing animals, and destroying native plants, are also not allowed in the parks. Monarch winter sites are found near beaches, universities, and other state lands. State parks do not have specific rules about caring for the trees where monarchs spend winter. California historical sites do not have to create monarch protection plans.
Twenty state parks have monarch winter groves:
- Andrew Molera State Park: This park often has hundreds to thousands of monarchs in eucalyptus trees.
- Doheny State Beach: This area has one small winter roost. It used to have many butterflies but has fewer since 1999. This state area plans to improve the habitat for monarchs.
- Gaviota State Park: This park is known for hundreds to thousands of monarchs resting in trees behind the park rangers' homes.
- Leo Carrillo State Park: This park has hundreds to thousands of wintering monarchs. Protecting monarchs is part of the park's main plan.
- Lighthouse Field State Beach: This park once had as many as 70,000 monarchs in the late 1990s.
- Montaña de Oro State Park: This park used to have three sites with thousands of wintering monarchs. Some of the area has been damaged by fire.
- Morro Bay State Park: This park has five monarch resting sites. The golf course here supports many butterflies each year. The park's plan includes protecting eucalyptus trees.
- Natural Bridges State Beach: This park has one of the largest monarch winter sites in California. Some counts recorded 120,000 butterflies. This site regularly hosts thousands of monarchs in eucalyptus and Monterey pine trees. This park is the only State Monarch Preserve in California. The park's main plan is to protect the monarch species.
- New Brighton State Beach: This park has had monarchs since the 1970s. The park's plan encourages monarch colonies to grow.
- Pismo State Beach: This park regularly hosts tens of thousands of monarchs, and their populations are considered healthy. The park's main plan is to improve the dunes and beaches.
- Point Mugu State Park: This park has supported hundreds of thousands of monarchs since monitoring began.
- San Onofre State Beach: This state park in Orange County had only 15 wintering monarchs in the latest count. There are no plans to restore the site.
- San Simeon State Park: This park once had winter sites, but they were lost due to a natural fire. The park's plan does not include restoring monarch winter sites.
- Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve: The plan for this area is to plant native species that were there before 1924, when human activity started to change the land.
Federal Lands
The homes of western monarch butterflies are protected from visitors and business activities on federal land. Collecting plants or animals, and harming their homes, are not allowed. Federal lands do not have specific rules about caring for the trees where monarchs spend winter.
Monarch winter resting spots have been seen at the Los Padres National Forest, Sycamore Canyon, Pruitt Creek, the Marin Headlands, Stinson Beach, Tennessee Valley, Muir Beach, Fort Barry, Fort Baker, and the Point Reyes National Seashore.
Lands managed by the Department of Defense, like Vandenberg Air Force Base and Camp Pendleton, also have monarch winter sites. However, protecting monarch homes does not stop the military from using the land for their needs.
Other Public Places
The California Department of Fish and Game cannot control the collection of monarchs or changes to their homes. Local rules sometimes guide monarch protection and building activities. Local rules often encourage removing non-native plants. This can conflict with protecting monarch winter sites because monarchs often spend winter in non-native eucalyptus trees. Some local rules do control tree removal and cutting.
San Francisco Bay Area
Thousands of wintering monarchs have historically rested at Ardenwood Historic Farm in Fremont. These resting spots are protected by County rules.
The East Bay Regional Park District teaches people about wintering butterflies. Their main plan promises to "find, check, protect, improve, and restore rare, threatened, endangered, or important local plants and animals and their homes."
Los Angeles County
Los Angeles County has at least 44 monarch winter resting spots. Most of these are in public parks. The City of Santa Monica, City of Long Beach, and Redondo Beach have small winter resting sites.
Mendocino County
Mendocino County has the northernmost winter resting sites for monarchs in the southern part of the county. However, butterflies are only there for a few weeks in winter. It is considered a temporary site.
Monterey County
Monterey County has resting spots with thousands of butterflies.
Pacific Grove has two large winter sites, including Monarch Grove Sanctuary. These sites are regularly filled with butterflies. The city has passed rules specifically to protect monarchs and the trees they use. Tree removal and care are strictly controlled.
Orange County
Huntington Beach has four monarch winter resting spots in city parks. The spots are small, but city rules require their protection.
San Diego County
There is only one resting site in Chula Vista with about 50 butterflies. This site is protected by city rules.
Monarch winter resting spots have been seen in the city of San Diego since the 1920s. No rules are in place to protect monarchs from further habitat destruction.
Santa Barbara County
Santa Barbara County has 132 winter resting spots. These can be found on state or federal land, and on public and private property.
Resting spots in the city of Carpinteria are near Carpinteria Creek, Recon Creek, the Carpinteria business Park, and the Carpinteria oil and gas plant buffer zone (also known as Chevron Park). These spots regularly have tens of thousands to thousands of monarchs. Carpinteria limits tree removal and requires that building be restricted near the trees.
The city of Goleta has counted tens of thousands of monarchs resting there in recent years. A past fire destroyed one of the sites. The winter sites in Goleta are protected by strong rules.
Monarch Population Status
California's monarch population has dropped a lot. In the 1980s, there were 4.5 million monarchs. The population first fell to about 200,000 and then dropped even more in 2018 to about 30,000. By November 2020, the population was fewer than 2,000. This means a 99% drop in three decades.
The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation has created a guide that shows important areas in California for helping western monarchs recover. The guide suggests ways to bring back monarch populations in five different zones within the state.
See also
- Animal migration
- Monarch butterfly migration
- Lepidoptera migration
- Lepidoptera
- Butterflies
- Viceroy butterfly
- Butterfly house (conservatory)
- Conservation biology
- Index of conservation articles
References
Bibliography
- Books
- Oberhauser, Karen S.; Batalden, Rebecca; Howard, Elizabeth (2009). Monarch Butterfly Monitoring in North America: Overviews and Protocols. Montreal, Quebec: The Commission for Environmental Cooperation. ISBN 978-2923358567. http://www.cec.org.
- Oberhauser, Karen S.; Solensky, Michelle J (2004). The Monarch Butterfly: Biology and Conservation (First ed.). Ithaca NY: Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-0801441882. https://archive.org/details/monarchbutterfly00mich.
- Journals
- Reports
