City of Goleta and Santa Barbara Bucket Brigade plant trees to help alarming low numbers of Western Monarch Butterflies
GOLETA, Calif. – This time last year thousands of western monarch butterflies swarmed Ellwood Mesa in Goleta. This year an alarming four butterflies have been counted. Over in Pismo Beach, last year 16,000 monarchs were counted while this year a record low of 197 monarchs was recorded.
"All of the sites, hundreds of sites where monarchs come out to spend the winter, they're not showing up," said George Thomson, City of Goleta Parks and Open Space Manager.
Each year fluctuating numbers are common, but a shocking 95% decrease has been recorded since the 1980s.
Weather is said to be a key factor with multiple rain storms last year and the recorded heat waves seen this year for the Central Coast.
"The monarchs that were here last year, like at Goleta, we had ten to fifteen thousand. A lot of those monarchs started to leave early, and then we got some big storms," said Thomson. "And those big storms tend to unfortunately kill quite a few of those adult migrating monarchs. We had a couple heat waves, and in the summer grounds, which is up in the great basin region, those heat waves tend to kill monarch eggs."
While monarchs favor Ellwood Mesa in Goleta for the amount of trees to block out wind, it has the perfect amount of sunlight and shade as well.
Thompson says over 2,000 trees have died in the last 15 to 20 years and with the City of Goleta and the Santa Barbara Bucket Brigade coming together to plant more trees, a simple solution can make a big impact for the future of western monarch butterflies.
"It's so exciting I mean, I feel really grateful that we get to come out and do this," said Volunteer Marie Webb. "And, you know, at least, you know, like the host said today, not complain or worry about the monarchs, but do something about it."
