Yesterday, my household celebrated Butterfly Day--a made-up household event that has come about through the Pandemic. I wrote about our first Butterfly Day in a June 5, 2020 post where I explained the process of ordering caterpillars from an area monarch butterfly farm and carefully caring for them until they form their cocoons and undergo their transformative process, bursting forth with wings and flashes of color. We were able to hatch 2 'families' of the Monarchs until the late summer fires further devastated the butterfly population that spends fall and winter along the coast of California.
Western monarchs fly long miles from the Pacific Northwest to central and southern California each November and the entire cycle of migration from north to south and returning again, can take up to five generations to complete, since new butterflies are hatched from eggs that are laid on the return trip north. In the 1980's the estimate of these migrating beauties along the coast was 4.5 million. But by 2017, the numbers plummeted to 200,000, then 30,000 in 2018. Last November-December the count totaled only 2,000. While the numbers are staggering, data from other areas of the country show positive shifts in migration eastward, possibly due to changing climate features. There is much for science to learn. The monarch butterfly has become a “flagship” species, representing the need to do more for the conservation of all pollinators nationwide. The Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (WAFWA) that include Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, and Nevada have now put in place a regional monarch butterfly plan that includes goals and actions for those that winter along the California coast and breed throughout the west.
Yesterday, we celebrated our new monarchs as symbols of the beauty and richness of life and our mutual dependence. We released them with great fan fare, music, and delight. They are one of the gifts of the Pandemic. In the restrictions of this Pandemic, we added only another 5 monarchs, but we all, even the youngest toddlers, grew in our capacity to care for life. Yes, there is grave responsibility facing humanity and our changing planet, but there is also great joy in a newfound relationship with the cycles of life in all of it's forms. (Susan Nettleton)