{"id":3351,"date":"2019-02-12T21:57:33","date_gmt":"2019-02-12T21:57:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ongardening.com\/?p=3351"},"modified":"2019-03-06T20:00:20","modified_gmt":"2019-03-06T20:00:20","slug":"help-to-avoid-monarch-extinction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ongardening.com\/?p=3351","title":{"rendered":"Help to Avoid Monarch Extinction"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Recent news reports have described\na dramatic decrease in California\u2019s population of Western Monarch butterflies. Thirty\nyears ago, over 4.5 million of these beautiful flying insects migrated annually\nfrom Mexico to overwinter on the Pacific Coast, with huge, fascinating clusters\nat famous sites, including Pacific Grove and Natural Bridges State Beach. Their\nnumbers have declined over the years: this year the count was under 30,000\nindividuals, 0.6% of the population\u2019s historic size. Researchers had\nestablished 30,000 as the \u201cquasi extinction\nthreshold,\u201d so coming under this threshold suggests that this species (Danaus plexippus plexippus<\/em>) is approaching extinction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another,\nlarger number of monarchs migrate from Mexico to the northern plains of the\nUnited States, so extinction is not imminent, but that population also has been\nshrinking in recent decades. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\ncauses of the decline in the monarch population begin with the loss of suitable\nhabitat, defined as areas that include both milkweeds (Asclepias sp.) that\nMonarch caterpillars depend upon, and pollen plants that provide nutrition for\nthe adults. Milkweed plants are too often deleted from the environment by\nagricultural pesticides, particularly glysophate (RoundUp), which is used to\nkill unwanted plants among commercial crops. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other\nfactors include pesticide use, climate change, and logging and development\nprojects that degrade overwintering sites. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gardeners can help rescue monarch butterflies back from the threat of extinction by growing milkweed plants in their gardens, with preference for locally native species of this plant. Fifteen species of milkweed are native to California. Nearby sources of seeds for native species include Pacific Coast Seed, in Livermore; Seedhunt, in Freedom; and S&S Seeds, in Carpenteria. For information on growing milkweed, download \u201cNative Milkweed in California: Planting and Establishment.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A related project for gardeners is to include pollen plants for the adult monarch butterflies. Useful advice for such a project is available in \u201cCalifornia Coast: Monarch Nectar Plants,\u201d available here<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both\nof these publications are free downloads from the Xerces Society for\nInvertebrate Conservation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Monarch butterfly on Milkweed pod. Photo by Edward K. Boggess, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Posted on Wikimedia Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The\nXerces Society has also produced a five-step call to action for recovering the\nwestern monarch population. This plan emphasizes protection of overwintering\nand breeding habitats, protection from pesticides, and continuing research on\nwestern monarch recovery. In addition to actions in their own gardens, people concerned\nwith threats to the monarch population could support large-scale initiatives that\nrespond to the Society\u2019s call to action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Protecting\nthe Western Monarch Butterfly from extinction has at least three broad\nobjectives. One is for us all to enjoy the phenomenon of these beautiful creatures\nflitting about in our gardens. A second objective, oriented to the ecosystem,\nis to maintain these butterflies as food sources for birds, which we also\nappreciate and enjoy. Thirdly, Karen Oberhauser, director of The Monarch\nButterfly Lab at the University of Minneapolis, advises that monarch butterflies\nare valuable subjects for ongoing studies of migration, species interaction,\ninsect population dynamics, and insect reproduction. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\ncan strive to keep monarch butterflies in our environment, but we should also acknowledge\nthe larger picture of the extinction of species. Before humans spread across\nthe globe, species extinctions occurred for various reasons at a very slow\nrate. Human activity has increased the average rate of extinction by somewhere\nbetween 100 to 1,000 times the previous historical rate., and is accelerating<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today,\naccording to Edward O. Wilson, distinguished American biologist, the science\ncommunity estimates that Planet Earth has about 10 million living species, one\nof which is human people (Homo sapiens). About 20 percent of these species are\nknown, and 80 percent are undiscovered. If the extinction of species by human\nactivity continues to accelerate, E.O. Wilson says, we could eliminate more\nthan half of all species by the end of this century. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\ncan slow this trend a little by working as individuals. Consider adding\nCalifornia native milkweed and pollen plants to your garden this year, to sustain\nthe monarch butterflies. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recent news reports have described a dramatic decrease in California\u2019s population of Western Monarch butterflies. Thirty years ago, over 4.5 million of these beautiful flying insects migrated annually from Mexico to overwinter on the Pacific Coast, with huge, fascinating clusters … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[203],"tags":[207,206],"class_list":["post-3351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-essays-2019","tag-butterfly","tag-monarch"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2WCVL-S3","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ongardening.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ongardening.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ongardening.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ongardening.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ongardening.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3351"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ongardening.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3351\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3353,"href":"https:\/\/ongardening.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3351\/revisions\/3353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ongardening.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ongardening.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ongardening.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}