What Has Happened to All of the Butterflies?
Week of July 17, 2021
What’s Happened to All of the Butterflies?
Ask anyone and you’ll hear that we have fewer butterflies now than years ago. Is that really true? If so, why is that? What is a healthy habitat for butterflies? What does it mean to have a “butterfly garden”? Is that the same as a “caterpillar garden”? Why do some butterflies live more in urban areas and while others live more in the country? Is there anything we home gardeners can do to recreate suitable habitat for butterflies and caterpillars so our grandchildren will still have a chance to marvel at the mystery of their existence?
Suzanne Clarke, a Sonoma County Master Gardener, will explore the threats endangering these precious iconic insects in. She will give the essential requirements butterflies need to survive and will offer some suggestions on what the home gardener can do to help.
Can the Monarch Butterfly be Saved from Extinction?
PHENOLOGY — or Nature’s ability to evolve and adapt in the new era. Some scientists say we have moved into: ANTHROPOCENE – or the Time of Man.
The results from the past years from the Xerces Society’s Western Monarch Thanksgiving Count for the entire California coasts leaves us shocked:
- 2017-2018 — approximately 192,668 monarchs
- 2018-2019 — 28,429 monarchs — an 86% drop
- 2019-2020 — 21,000 monarchs
- 2020-2021 — fewer than 2,000 along the entire California coast
Suzanne Clarke will explain the Winter 2019’s Record Low Number of Overwintering Monarch Butterflies in California. These valuable pollinators need help from home gardeners. Suzanne will offer some ways you can help these precious insects before it is too late!
Finding Monarchs!
Suzanne Clarke will present a PowerPoint program about her trip — “a dream of a life time” — in search of the Monarch Butterflies in the mountains of Michoacán. Come and travel vicariously as Suzanne tells us what she learned along the way about the places, people, horses, and of course the elusive Monarchs she met along the way.
Suzanne Clarke, founder of Sonoma County Butterfly Alliance on Facebook @SonomaCountButterflyAlliance, is a member of the Petaluma and Santa Rosa Garden Clubs, a Master Gardener of Sonoma County, and a resident of Petaluma.
Suzanne Clarke lived in the Washington, DC area for over 20 years where she was an elementary school teacher, beginning the school year with her pupils raising Monarch caterpillars on milkweed — observing them, measuring their growth, and marveling as the caterpillars metamorphosed into chrysalis and into butterflies. Suzanne became a Master Gardener in DC in 2008, specializing in wildlife habitat; Integrated Pest Management; and storm-water management. After moving to Petaluma in 2012, she took the training again to become a Master Gardener. Suzanne’s main interest is to share her passion for saving habitats for butterflies and other pollinators. Suzanne’s garden was a Monarch Way Station for Monarch Watch for over twenty years.