Monarch butterflies make dramatic comeback; state-federal partnership seeks to boost pollinators
Due to the near-disappearance of monarch butterflies in 2020, state and federal agencies in California are joining forces to address the decline of monarchs and other pollinator species in the state.
The Multi-Agency Monarch and Pollinator Collaborative aims to facilitate long-term conservation of the western population of the migratory monarch butterfly and its habitats, as well as other pollinator species in the state.
Monarchs seemed to be on the edge of extinction when state biologists counted fewer than 2,000 butterflies in 2020. However, the 2023 count of overwintering monarchs along the California coast showed a robust population of more than 330,000.
Despite the recent increase, scientists estimate that western monarchs have declined by approximately 80% since the 1980s due to loss of breeding habitat and coastal overwintering habitat, climate change and the effects of pesticides.
Western monarchs still have a long way to go to
recover and the Collaborative hopes to make a difference. The group will identify, adopt, promote and implement ecosystembased management approaches that can be applied within each partner’s jurisdiction to support the western migratory population of the monarch butterfly and other pollinators in California.
Butterflies aren’t the only pollinators feeling stress from human-caused changes. Bees — also critically important in the pollination process — have also absorbed big population hits.
Oroville beekeeper Buzz Landon, owner of Buzz’s
Bees, said a big reason for the decline in bees is the lack of foraging space.
“There’s a big deficit in the state,” Landon said. “We’re losing areas due to urban sprawl and land-use changes — in lots of areas where we used to keep bees.”
He also pointed to varroa mites — parasites that attack bees — as a big detriment to bee populations, along with viruses, diseases and a loss of nutrition.
Landon, who served as the president of the California State Beekeepers Association in 2022, said his industry is working with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife as well as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service to address the decline in bees.
Landon said PAm — Project Apis m., short for Apis mellifera, the scientific name for the western honeybee — is an organization that seeks to address the needs of both growers and honeybee populations. PAm features a program called “Seeds for Bees” which provides growers and others the means to plant ground cover that will ultimately benefit bee populations.
Member agencies in the state-federal partnership include the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, California Coastal Commission, California Department of Food and Agriculture, California Department of Parks and Recreation, California Department of Pesticide Regulation, California Department of Transportation, Wildlife Conservation Board, U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Geological Survey, National Park Service, and California Natural Resources Agency.