This year, the number of monarch butterflies wintering in the trees along Little Cayucos Creek has fallen drastically.
Local experts believe nature may be the culprit.
As Monterey pines in the area die from disease, the groves where the butterflies roost become exposed to the wind. Also, as the eucalyptus at the site grow, the lower portion dies off, again exposing the butterflies to the chilling winds.
Some 40,000 to 60,000 butterflies wintered in the tiny Cayucos site just last year, said Dr. Kingston Leong, a Cal Poly entomology professor and local monarch expert. It was one of the largest three or four roosting sites on the Central Coast. This year, fewer than 5,000 monarchs are believed to be roosting in the trees.
The site is one of some 300 butterfly wintering sites in the state, said Dr. Leong. While many are being bulldozed for development, this Cayucos site is slowly being degraded by old age and disease, he explained.
The Butterfly Palace, a South County based group working to preserve winter roosting spots statewide, is trying to raise money to purchase the property and hopes to recreate the ideal conditions the butterflies need to survive.
California is the only state on the west coast that regulates the protection of western monarch butterfly habitat, said Dr. Leong. East Coast monarchs winter in Mexico where a presidential decree protects them. "We need to save what we have now in California," said Sheila Boone, president of The Butterfly Palace Inc., and a fifth great-granddaughter of frontiersman Daniel Boone.
"The first step to extinction is the loss of major habitat," said Boone. "TJp until recently, more than 60,000 western monarchs would settle on the anise plants, roost in the cypress, euclpytus and willow trees during the winter in Cayucos." This year there are between 2,000 and 3,000. The Cayucos wintering site was one of the best kept secret in town, despite being one of the largest wintering sites on the Central Coast. It was known mainly to a handful of residents in the neighborhood.
Leong didn't know of it until a couple of years ago, when a neighbor asked for his advice on how to protect the butterflies around her house. She was going to have the place fumigated, said Leong. That's when he discovered the tiny grove filled with butterflies.
The trees used to form an ideal habitat ' Now it's becoming too inhospitable.
Dr. Leong said they hope to buy the property and replant it with trees that will'recreate the ideal conditions that used to harbor so many butterflies.
Monarchs like coastal areas because of the high moisture, said Dr. Leong. Thev like grove,, that shelter them from freezing temperatures and gusty winds. And they like filtered sunlight, he added.
Leong is the man who designed the Monarch Grove subdivisions butterfly preserve in Los Osos. Though that preserve has some mixed results, Leong said it now looks like it is a success.
Before the chain saws and bulldozers knocked down hun-dreds of eucalyptus trees, the grove harbored untold numbers of butterflies. "We had no butterflies for the first two years" after the preserve was built, said Leong.
He convinced the developers to cut down some of the trees in the center of the preserve to create the U-shape monarchs prefer to roost in. Now, the butterflies are coming back.
"Last year we had 20,000", said Leong, "but this year we had just 5,000." Though he can't explain the fluctuation, Leong said it shows a habitat can be enhanced and managed.
Another major wintering site is Morro Bay State Park and golf course. Leong noted that state park's policy of cutting down eucalyptus, having deemed them an invasive species, could hurt the monarchs. "I'm trying to get them (state parks) to contain the eucalyptus groves rather than cutting them all down," said Leong. They recognize the butterflies are a natural treasure."
Boone is taking a more direct approach, leading an effort to raise the money needed to buy habitats like the one in Cayucos.
"Scientists told us a year ago that we may have less than 10 years to save the western monarch," said Boone, who lives in Pismo Beach. "When a site is damaged or destroyed, the monarchs may seek a less suitable site or they may perish."