Monarch butterflies

Bolinas, in Marin County where I lived for one happy decade, is a location where monarch butterflies stop by on their winter migration.  Volunteers count the butterflies every year at approximately 200 locations, including Bolinas.  Last year the Bolinas volunteers counted 12,360 butterflies; this year 1,256.  

In the 80s there were millions–around 4.5 million is the best estimate.  In the latest count, 28,429.  That may be a number too small to sustain the population.  Monarchs are still not listed under the Endangered Species Act, but that probably won’t happen with an administration that would like to gut that whole act.

When populations decline over time, people don’t notice.  In Silent Spring Rachael Carson wrote about a year with no birds.  That’s not the way it happens.  We will always have crows, house sparrows, and robins.  We will lose warblers, fly catchers, and whippoorwills and nine out of ten people won’t even be aware.

In the meantime, quit using Roundup.  Let milkweeds grow.  Cherish what is left.

Information on the monarchs on Bolinas is from Mary Ellen Hannibal, “Is the Monarch’s End in Sight?” New York Times, (Jan. 26, 2019), p. A19.