Monarch butterfly population at critically low levels in California

The population of monarch butterflies overwintering in California remains at critically low levels for a second straight year, an environmental group announced Thursday.

In its annual survey, the Xerces Society's count of the orange-and-black insects was at about 29,000 butterflies. That’s not much different than last year’s tally, when an all-time low of about 27,000 monarchs were counted. (Although this is 2,000 more than last year, it comes as a result of greater survey effort, with volunteers visiting more sites.)

By comparison, about 4.5 million monarch butterflies wintered in forested groves along the California coast in the 1980s.

“We had hoped that the western monarch population would have rebounded at least modestly, but unfortunately it has not,” said Emma Pelton, the Xerces Society’s western monarch lead.

The Xerces Society is a nonprofit environmental organization that focuses on the conservation of invertebrate animals.

For decades, monarchs in the West have been in decline because of loss of habitat, including destruction of their California overwintering sites and loss of both milkweed for caterpillars and flowering resources to fuel migration, the Xerces Society said. The insects are also impacted by climate change and pesticide use.

Pelton said people can help by planting early-blooming flowers and milkweed to fuel migrating monarchs on their paths to other states.

The Xerces Society is also working with the state of California to protect the butterflies’ wintering sites and develop new sites in state parks.

A separate population of monarchs overwinters in Mexico and flies back up to the central and eastern U.S. and Canada each year. Mexican officials said last year the butterfly population wintering there was rebounding but they have not yet released this year’s count.

The monarch is now also under government consideration for listing under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. The decision on whether the butterfly will be listed as threatened is expected by December.

“Without immediate action I fear we will lose these animals from the western landscape,” said Scott Black, executive director of the Xerces Society. “With them, California will also lose out on tourism in places like Pacific Grove and, across the West, we will lose the ability for our children to experience the majesty of the monarch migration."

Contributing: The Associated Press

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Monarch butterfly population at critically low levels in California