Natural History Wanderings

The San Francisco Chronicle reports

In 1981 the Xerces Society, a nonprofit environmental organization that focuses on invertebrate conservation, counted more than 1 million western monarchs wintering in California.

The group’s most recent count, over Thanksgiving weekend, recorded less than 30,000 butterflies — an 86-percent decline since 2017 alone.

Researchers with the group called the number “disturbingly low” and potentially “catastrophic,” in a statement.

Read Full story at  Study: Number of monarch butterflies in California declined by 86 percent in one year – SFGate