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Monarch butterly now listed as endangered

Northwoods Notebook

A monarch butterfly collects minerals Friday in a gravel area along Six Mile Lake Road in northern Dickinson County. (Betsty Bloom/Daily News photo)

It can’t exactly be considered a surprise but still was a gut punch to read: an international science group Thursday reclassified North America’s monarch butterfly as an endangered species.

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature added the familiar orange and black butterfly to its “red list” of threatened species and categorized it as “endangered” — two steps from extinct, according to the Associated Press — after the species had declined by 22% to 72%, depending on the measurement method, in a decade’s time.

“What we’re worried about is the rate of decline,” Nick Haddad, a conservation biologist at Michigan State University, said in the AP story. “It’s very easy to imagine how very quickly this butterfly could become even more imperiled.”

Haddad, who AP stated was not directly involved in the listing, estimates the population of monarch butterflies he studies in the eastern United States has shrunk by 85% to 95% since the 1990s.

According to the Xerces Society, the annual survey by World Wildlife Fund Mexico showed wintering monarch numbers actually appeared to be up this year — they covered an estimated 2.835 hectares of forest in Mexico, 35% more space than in 2020-21 — yet still reflect a steep population plunge, down more than 70% from levels seen in the 1990s. Surveys in 1996 and 1997 indicated the butterflies once occupied more than 18 hectares of the oyamel fir forests north of Mexico City. Scientists estimate that at least 6 hectares are necessary to sustain the main population east of the Rocky Mountains, meaning the current 2.8 hectares is still well below what is needed for recovery, the article states on the Xerces Society website, xerces.org/monarchs/conservation-efforts.

(Tina Anderson photo) Tina Anderson spotted this already well-developed monarch caterpillar feeding on milkweed in early July.

The western population in California showed even more improvement in its annual tally, with the Xerces Society counting 247,237 monarch butterflies across the West, the highest total since 2016. But again, it’s a matter of perspective: While the numbers represent a more than 100-fold increase, that was when compared with the dismal total of less than 2,000 western monarchs seen the year before.

What’s triggered such a steep decline in the beloved butterflies, once so numerous its fall migration would see trees covered and drooping with clinging monarchs? A combination of the factors, according to the Xerces Society — loss of habitat due to logging in the Mexican fir forests where the eastern monarch population flocks to spend the winter after migrating south; the rise of genetically modified corn and soybeans that allow more widespread use of herbicides, killing off the milkweed their caterpillars need as host plant; insecticides that can drift from application on nearby crops or gardens to the milkweed; and climate change that has altered the microclimate in the Mexico wintering site and delayed when milkweed emerges and flowers in the north.

While no formal survey has been done here, monarch butterfly numbers in Dickinson County do seem to be down this summer, though not entirely absent. They were more numerous in mid- to late June at Six Mile Lake than now. More ominous, however, is regular daily scans of the ditch milkweed where I’ve easily found caterpillars in the past have so far yielded nothing this year. The monarchs that appear in June in the Upper Peninsula are descendants of the ones that spent the winter in Mexico, perhaps one to two generations removed, that migrated north. They, in turn, hopefully will give rise to the butterflies that make the journey south in the fall.

Local monarch numbers do seem to fluctuate from year to year. In 2021, reproduction in the region appeared fairly decent, though not at the level seen across the northern Midwest in the most recent banner year of 2018. Perhaps a rebound could be to come.

What can the public do to better accommodate and revive such a signature species?

“All people can help monarchs by planting native milkweed and other native flowers and eliminating insecticide use,” said Scott Hoffman Black, executive director of the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation. “If you can plant a home garden, if you can advocate for pollinator-friendly practices in your public parks, if you can restore monarch habitat on your farmland — then you can be part of the solution to save monarch butterflies from extinction.”

Betsy Bloom can be reached at 906-774-2772, ext. 240, or bbloom@ironmountaindailynews.com.

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