Monarch butterfly population booms in Pismo Beach

That grove, once a small artichoke farm, is one of the prolific population centers in North America of the endangered western monarch butterfly.

The Pismo Beach Monarch Butterfly Grove is one among five within the state that routinely records 10,000 or more of the butterflies in residence. But what makes this Central Coast destination special, even amongst other monarch sanctuaries within the region, is that it’s each geographically and climate-wise the “perfect spot to view the top of a multi-generational monarch life cycle,” said Mallory Claassen, a California State Parks interpreter who has monitored the butterflies on the Pismo sanctuary for the past 11 years.

“Essentially it starts and ends here,” she told SFGATE on a recent morning visit to view the monarchs. “This generation you see here’s what we call a super-generation. They live for about eight or nine months they usually’re those who will travel within the early spring, sometimes hundreds of miles looking for milkweed. 

“The males will mate and die and the females will lay their eggs.”

Starting now through March, the super generation of monarch will leave the Pismo grove to spawn. They may travel so far as 3,000 miles away into the center of Mexico. Once at their destination, their bodies will release a hormone when it’s time to mate and eventually die. Then it’s a four- or five-generation cycle of butterfly life — hatch, live two to 6 weeks, lay eggs and die (repeat) — as they make their journey north. 
The generation of butterfly that finally arrives back on the grove is the following super generation, and the method repeats itself over again.

“We come every 12 months, and I wouldn’t miss it for anything,” Newport Beach resident Paul Malkemus told SFGATE. Like many in attendance, Malkemus was busy toting his cameras across the sanctuary in the course of the early and mid-morning, positioning himself excellent in an effort to get a glimpse of the butterflies, which open up their wings when the sun hits them. 

“There’s nothing just like the monarchs,” he said, “and if you see them open up, in a cluster, it’s probably the most spectacular view on this Earth.” 

Once on the sanctuary, it takes some time to identify the monarchs within the eucalyptus. On first blush, the massive committees of a whole bunch of butterflies, which hang from the branches in groups generally known as clusters, look like dead leaves. 

Wings closed and bodies still, the butterflies are brown and dreary, camouflaged. But once they unfurl the signature orange and black markings, the flash of color is “a once in a lifetime experience,” Malkemus said. “I’m sure some folks won’t understand waiting around all morning simply to see two seconds of butterflies flying. But imagine me — it’s price it.”

Although he was thrilled to be on the grove, Malkemus said that he is anxious that recent inconsistent monarch counts on this grove — and elsewhere — portend an uncertain future for the butterflies. 

He’s not alone. The International Union for Conservation of Nature classified the butterfly as a threatened species in July. Western monarch populations are showing signs of catastrophic collapse because the trees and plants they should survive have continued to be decimated by logging, deforestation, agriculture (pesticides and herbicides), development and climate change, in response to the studies of greater than 100 scientists and experts. 

“It’s been so sad to observe their numbers decline a lot, so anything which may help them makes me joyful, and I believe that this designation might help them,” Karen Oberhauser, a conservation biologist on the University of Wisconsin, told the Recent York Times. “Even though it’s sad that they need that help, that they’ve reached the purpose where this designation is warranted.”

The population decrease is staggering. From the Nineteen Eighties to 2021, the variety of Western monarchs has declined by 99.9%.

“The western population is at best risk of extinction, having declined … from as many as 10 million to 1,914 butterflies between the Nineteen Eighties and 2021,” the IUCN said in an announcement. “The larger eastern population also shrunk by 84% from 1996 to 2014.”
 
“Concern stays as as to if enough butterflies survive to keep up the populations and stop extinction,” the IUCN concluded.

The count of western monarchs hit an all-time low in 2020, with a population of lower than 2,000.

“We made just a little little bit of a comeback last 12 months and this 12 months, nevertheless it has looked grim within the recent past,” Amber Clark, an environmental scientist who has tracked the butterfly population since 2006, told SFGATE. “This 12 months our biggest [count] is 24,000 and that’s type of a miracle. 

“It’s something we will’t explain.”

Word has traveled fast among the many butterfly-observing community that the monarchs are back in Pismo Beach. On early mornings, when the weather is excellent — sunny and between 60 and 65 degrees is when the monarchs are most certainly to spread their wings — crowds gather hoping to glimpse a miracle of nature that will or might not be around ceaselessly. 

“I’m here with my mom,” Brianna Heng told SFGATE. “We make a day trip this time of 12 months and the count is high, so we’re grateful.” 

Heng glances over her shoulder at her mother, Kristina, who as if on cue removed a 2-foot telephoto lens out of its protective case. 

“Oh wow, she’s putting on the massive one,” Heng said, politely excusing herself. “I believe something’s about to go down.”