Tag Archives: Butterflies

Mayor Admits Butterfly Tree Cutting Was Wrong

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Story reached the L.A. Times

Monarch fans are pitching in to bring more trees to the the butterfly trees. Send your donation to the Pacific Grove Chamber of Commerce, marked “Monarch Habitat Trees.” PO BOX 167, Pacific Grove 93950, 584 Central Avenue, Pacific Grove, CA 93950

No trees, no butterflies. Guess this will have to do:
Butterfly Trees Stand In

At a City Council meeting last week, Mayor Carmelita Garcia apologized for the city’s mismanagement of the tree cutting, calling it “a horrible mistake.” In the audience, people who had come to hear about emergency sanctuary repair wore toy butterfly antennae that bobbed up and down as the mayor spoke.

With the first monarchs due in about a month, volunteers have been scrambling for potted trees that can serve as makeshift butterfly shelter throughout the 2 1/2-acre sanctuary. “We’re hoping and praying,” said Moe Ammar, president of the Chamber of Commerce that serves the picturesque, sometimes fogbound town of Victorian homes.

“People who follow the monarchs come from all over the world,” Ammar said. “When we get calls asking if the butterflies have arrived, we have to be honest.”

Mayor Admits Butterfly Tree Cutting Was Wrong

Monarchs Don’t Spend Money In P.G., How Do We Attract Them?

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When the butterflies don’t have a trolley or signs guiding them from the beach to 17 Mile drive, someone steps in to help.
Butterfly Tree Stump

To help boost butterfly numbers this year, Pacelli and other P.G. residents and butterfly enthusiasts are buying boxed trees to temporarily fill the gaps and provide wind breaks.

One tree is already placed, but the group aims to add about 20 more by the end of September, in time for the monarchs’ October arrival. They ask supporters to send donations with a note marked “Monarch Habitat Trees” to: P.G. Chamber of Commerce, 584 Central Ave., Pacific Grove, CA 93950.

Monarchs Don’t Spend Money In P.G.,How Do We Attract Them?

Tree Cutting Could Have Caused Monarch Decline

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Butterfly Tree Stump

With our city on the job, the best they can come up with is spending about $80,000 on a shuttle bus to bring butterflies over from Santa Cruz.

A thinning canopy of trees may be a factor in the reduced numbers of monarch butterflies visiting the Pacific Grove sanctuary, two scientists told the City Council last week.

The council voted unanimously to direct City Manager Thomas Frutchey to convene a meeting of interested parties on the butterfly issue, engage Weiss to update and expand the sanctuary management plan, and direct the city’s Natural Resources Commission to oversee the plan update. No meeting date has been set.

Tree Cutting Could Have Caused Monarch Decline

Monarch Population Falls Faster Than Tree Branches

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Butterfly Tree Stump

Volunteers count the monarchs each year at nine sites in the county. The Monarch Program, a research organization based in San Diego that collects the data, says that the numbers were down significantly compared with those recorded last year.

At one site in Big Sur, there was a third fewer butterflies. In Pacific Grove, there were 96 percent fewer butterflies seen this year than in 2008, according to the organization.

Two factors are responsible for sagging numbers of butterflies, Leong said. Fewer are coming to the region, and the local environment is becoming less hospitable to their needs.

Quit attracting tourists and go back to attracting nature. It can fix itself.

Monarch Population Falls Faster Than Tree Branches

City Massacres Butterfly Trees, Butterflies A No Show

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There you go again, messing up Pacific Grove for the sake of the tourists.

Butterfly Tree Stump

“There was a concern that the trimming may have discouraged monarchs from coming to the grove,” said P.G. City Manager Tom Frutchey. “It’s a good hypothesis, but we don’t know the answer to it yet.”

The eucalyptus, which often shed limbs, were trimmed for the safety of visitors to the monarch grove sanctuary, Frutchey said.

City Massacres Butterfly Trees, Butterflies A No Show

Monarch Migration Minimized?

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Monarch Cluster

Biologists are debating the cause of the decline. Theoretical culprits include more frequent summer droughts, invasive parasites and habitat degradation. Griffiths looks to milkweed, the only plant on which monarchs will lay their eggs.

Milkweed thrives in the Central Valley’s hot, dry conditions. But the valley is also prime ag land, and some farmers have planted crops that are genetically modified to tolerate the popular weed-killer Roundup. The resulting blanket herbicide applications have likely killed much of the valley’s native milkweed, she says. Ranchers also target the plant, which is toxic to cattle.

The past two dry years foretell another low monarch turnout this winter, but Griffiths hasn’t lost all hope for P.G.’s airy mascot. “They have the ability to reproduce quickly,” she says, “provided they have the right conditions.”

Monarch Migration Minimized?

If You Are The Butterflies, Show Me Your Badges

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Hey Monarchs, big brother is watching you..

Approximately 3,500 of the gold-black-and-white lepidoptera have been tagged by the Ventana Wildlife Society as part of the Monarch Alert project.

The tagging has been going on since 2001 but only recently in Pacific Grove, Johnson said, because Monarch Alert had to get a waiver from the Pacific Grove City Council to catch butterflies in the sanctuary and George Washington Park. A city ordinance levies a $500 fine for disturbing or molesting monarch butterflies.

If You Are The Butterflies, Show Me Your Badges

Friends Of Monarchs May Flutter Away

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The Pacific Grove group that saved one of the monarch butterfly’s favorite West Coast haunts is undergoing a metamorphosis of its own.

Friends of the Monarchs may soon dissolve, because it has become a challenge to attract board members and keep volunteer levels up, group leaders said.

If you can’t collect enough people to be on the board of the symbolic butterfly, how would we ever amass enough people to collect enough compost to be sustainable?

Friends Of Monarchs May Flutter Away

Visitors Get Tagged To Learn About Their Migration

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The Ventana Wildlife Society is petitioning the city of Pacific Grove to help it learn more about monarch butterflies.

The group is asking the City Council for a letter of support that would help it get grant money to start a monarch habitat restoration project.

Aw, you thought they were studying the migration habits of tourists, huh?

Visitors Get Tagged To Learn About Their Migration

The Butterfly Hunters

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Rounding up butterflies can be as difficult as herding cats. Ventana Wildlife Society biologists gathered in Pacific Grove early Tuesday, intent on catching, tagging and releasing at least 1,000 of the estimated 6,000 monarch butterflies clustered in the Monarch Grove Sanctuary’s eucalyptus trees. The butterflies did not make themselves too available.

Only 500 were resting in the trees on the 2½-acre sanctuary. The rest congregated in pine trees on adjacent private properties, which were off-limits to the research team.

Monarch Cluster

“as difficult as herding cats” Crikey!! LOL

The Butterfly Hunters