" But the 2018 Western Monarch Thanksgiving Count found that the number of west-coast monarchs spending the winter in California had plunged to only 20,456 butterflies—a drop of 86 percent since last year. And the number of eastern monarchs overwintering in Mexico this year has dropped 15 percent since last year, for a total decline of more than 80 percent over the past 20 years, according to the National Wildlife Federation. “A lot of environmental threats can pile up on top of each other,” says University of Wisconsin entomologist Karen Oberhauser. " https://www.nationalgeographic.com/...h-butterflies-risk-extinction-climate-change/ The article tries to pen the blame on rising CO2 levels, but I suspect immigration may be what's actually to blame. We're talking about intentional government policies of immigration, that has led to drastic overdevelopment in the area. California now has 40 million people. That's more people than the entire country of Canada. There is a huge amount of overdevelopment in that area. These butterflies preferred area would be near closer to the coast, and that is also the area that has had the most development. There simply isn't much habitat for them anymore. If you go further inland, it gets too dry, and you start going inland north, it gets too cold. This species thrives only along a relatively narrow strip in this region.
