For generations, millions of Monarch butterflies have overwintered at Pismo Beach. But over the last decade, numbers have been dwindling badly. Last year only 2000 returned. So it came as a wonderful holiday surprise when biologists have counted over 100,000 so far this year.
This represents a potential turning point. We may be able to bring them back from the brink of extinction. Here’s what you can do if you live in one of their traditional routes:
- Plant milkweed native to your area. If you’re lucky enough to get the plants covered by butterfly eggs, expect them to look ratty once the caterpillars chow down. So choose a spot in the garden where that won’t matter. Even a pot on an apartment balcony could help. Find varieties of milkweed that will grow in your area at the Xerces Society Plant Finder.
- Fill your garden with other things they need: flowers for nectar, a damp spot of mud.
- Get the schools engaged. Save Our Monarchs will send seeds. Kids can also get involved in citizen science, tagging them.
- Stop using pesticides. Just stop! And while you’re at it, don’t use a leaf blower in your yard.
Learn more about what you, your community, and others can do. https://www.fws.gov/savethemonarch/
Darcy Hitchcock 
Reblogged this on Ned Hamson's Second Line View of the News.