"Here, butterfly murals abound: one splashes across the side of a hotel, another adorns a school. As for local businesses, there's the Monarch Pub, the Butterfly Grove Inn, even Monarch Knitting (a local yarn shop). And every fall, the small city hosts a butterfly parade, where local elementary school children dress up in butterfly costumes. The city's municipal code even declares it an unlawful act to molest or interfere with monarchs in any way, with a possible fine of $1,000."
"But Butterfly Town, and the rest of California, has a problem. The species behind the fanfare is disappearing at an alarming rate, amid rampant pesticide use, habitat loss, extreme weather and the climate crisis. The stakes are dire; monarch populations in the western US have plummeted by more than 99% since the 1980s. If nothing changes, experts fear the western monarchs have a nearly 100% chance of extinction by 2080."
Pacific Grove, California, brands itself Butterfly Town with murals, businesses named for monarchs, an annual butterfly parade, and municipal law banning molestation of monarchs with fines up to $1,000. Pacific Grove functions as an official overwintering site where monarchs migrate from the Pacific Northwest each late fall and winter to shelter in tree groves. Historically tens of thousands of monarchs congregated there, and volunteers counted nearly 16,000 butterflies in one December week of 2022. Western monarch populations have declined more than 99% since the 1980s due to pesticide use, habitat loss, extreme weather, and the climate crisis. Experts warn of a nearly certain western extinction by 2080 without intervention.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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