A native flower garden and educational panels about the Western monarch butterfly recently flew into San Luis Obispo’s Mission Plaza.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently proposed listing the butterfly as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, as this year’s Western monarch numbers are signaling one of the lowest population counts since the count’s inception in 1997, according to a press release from the Central Coast State Parks Association.
The association collaborated with the Xerces Society and the city of San Luis Obispo on the panels—sponsored by the Thomas E. and Mary Kathryn Eltzroth Fund. They aim to help locals and tourists learn about the butterfly’s ecological and cultural significance, including identifying overwintering and nectaring locations for Western monarchs and providing information about population restoration efforts. The native plant nectar garden around the panels highlights the flowering plant species that benefit the monarch and other pollinators, the press release states.
As part of efforts started in 2021 on establishing a Western Monarch Trail, the association placed more than 10 educational panels in overwintering habitats along the Central Coast to protect the migration route of the butterflies. The project was handed over the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation in March 2024.
Every year between October and February, western monarchs migrate to the Central Coast to spend their winter. SLO County has as many as 55 overwintering sites, according to the association. To learn more about the Western Monarch Trail, visit westernmonarchtrail.org. Δ
This article appears in Jan 2-12, 2025.