To celebrate California Biodiversity Day, one statewide nonprofit is asking for your help to track sightings of the monarch butterfly.
Across the Central Coast, you can find monarch iconography everywhere. From restaurants and business names to murals, the Central Coast is proud of the Western monarch butterfly.
“It's in our brochures and on billboards and whatnot," said Karen Correll, a Grover Beach resident. "That's what brings all the tourists.”
But last year’s annual butterfly count by the Xerces Society showed the third-lowest count since 1997 after low numbers in the winter and a weak summer breeding season. At the Pismo Beach Monarch Butterfly Grove, Correll said that after growing up on the Central Coast, the decline is impossible to ignore.
“I've lived here my whole life and there used to be thousands and thousands when we'd walk through the monarch butterflies," Correll said. "So even though we're only ten blocks away, we might see two in our backyard. They're just, they're not anywhere at all.”
Joe Olivo has also spent years living in Grover Beach.
“When I first came here, there was a lot of butterflies," Olivo said. "Now it looks like it's kind of going away. You only see them every once in a while.”
From now through Sunday, Sept. 13, the California State Parks Foundation asks that if you see a western monarch butterfly, report it so scientists can get a jump start on the 30th annual western monarch count. The data from these reports will also help scientists understand where these butterflies are at different times of the year.
Brad Roberts and his family visited the butterfly grove on Monday morning.
“Biodiversity helps everything. You need more seeds, more trees, more plants, more animals, more flora and fauna because it spreads the load across a bunch of different things," Roberts said. "If you have biodiversity, then you end up with a little bit more resilience.”
Counts like these are helpful because, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, there’s a 95% chance that monarch butterflies could go extinct by 2080.
“We want a beautiful place for our kids to live for a long, long, long time," Katy Roberts said. "We want them to enjoy all of the conveniences of life, but also the beauty of the earth that we have."
Chad Hinze, who visited from Wisconsin, said it’s great to have a set of days dedicated to acknowledging biodiversity in the state.
“It's not just California, it's the whole world," Hinze said. "It's everyone working together and seeing how we're all connected and now butterflies are important to that too.”
To participate in the count, you can create an account on the iNaturalist app, take a photo of the butterfly or caterpillar you see, and upload it to the app.
