Nearly 90 percent of the monarch butterflies in the Western U.S. spend their winters along the California coastline and the majority of them come here to the Central Coast. Conservationists hope including monarchs on the threatened species list will make it easier to protect their habitat and help regrow their dwindling numbers.
Connor Jandreau, Conservation Coordinator with California Central Coast Joint Venture, has been helping to rebuild monarch butterfly habitat in several Central Coast sites, including one spot in northern San Luis Obispo County.
He's working with the California Conservation Corps to replant thousands of milkweed plants, giving the butterflies something to feed on as they begin their migration back to their summertime homes.
"Because the Central Coast has basically the bulk of the overwintering sites for the western monarch butterfly, it's really a species that we kind of have a stewardship role for in the counties of San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Monterey, into Ventura," Jandreau said.
That stewardship could soon have a leg up. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed listing the monarch butterfly as a threatened species.
"I think what you'll see change is that we'll have more resources to focus on overwintering sites there, management, protection, and ensuring that butterflies continue to visit Pismo Beach, visit the other large overwintering sites," said Scott Hoffman Black, Executive Director of the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation. "It's an all hands on deck affair to make sure that Californians, not just Californians though — Texans, Floridians, you know, everyone across the United States — can continue to see these magnificent butterflies."
Jandreau was already leveraging grant money and volunteers to help protect this iconic insect. While he says it's not official yet and he knows there may be some worry about additional regulations that would come with the designation, he hopes the listing will eventually be a win for everyone.
"The design or the goal of this listing, I think, is to incentivize and support the existing networks that are happening sort of naturally in response to the decline of the species without the kind of inhibitors that can challenge that approach," Jandreau said.
In the meantime, groups like the Central Coast Joint Venture, the Xerces Society and the Monarch Joint Venture will continue to do what they've always done and hope an official designation will give an extra boost to the Monarch population.
"The goal of this is to elevate the consciousness of the plight of the monarch across the United States and bring people together to make changes that are necessary to reverse the decline that has been so, so significant over the last 30 years," Jandreau concluded.
The potential listing as a threatened species was announced last week and is now in a 90-day public comment period.
WATCH: Pismo Beach State Park sees a decline in Western Monarch Butterflies
