Monarch Season Opens at Pismo Beach Grove: Western Monarchs Cluster in the Eucalyptus Trees, Free to Visit Through February
The Pismo State Beach Monarch Butterfly Grove, in the city of Pismo Beach in San Luis Obispo County, California, enters its overwintering season in November, running through February. According to California State Parks, the grove is a publicly owned, protected overwintering site for western monarch butterflies and generally hosts one of the largest overwintering western monarch populations in California.
Western monarchs spend summers as far north as Canada and fly to the California coast for the winter, traveling as much as about 200 miles a day, with some journeys reaching 2,000 miles; the butterflies arriving at the grove are four generations removed from last year's overwintering monarchs. They cluster on the branches of tall eucalyptus and Monterey cypress trees, whose canopy buffers wind and cold and keeps temperatures stable, while a native flowering garden next to the grove provides nectar.
California State Parks notes that the monarch population is threatened: recent counts show a 90 percent drop from counts done 25 years ago, driven by the loss of coastal overwintering sites, the loss of milkweed along migration corridors, extreme weather, drought and climate change. Visitors are asked to watch for butterflies on the ground, stay on designated paths, not disturb the clusters, and not touch or handle monarchs.
According to the City of Pismo Beach visitor bureau, the grove is located at 445 South Dolliver Street off Highway 1, between Pismo Beach and Grover Beach, and is free to visit. Docent talks are offered at noon on weekends during peak season, depending on docent availability and weather, and peak viewing usually comes in December and January. This fall the city also opened the 1.1-mile Monarch Butterfly Medallion Trail, a signed coastal route linking the Pismo Beach Pier to the grove.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 栖息在Pismo Beach帝王蝶林桉树枝上的帝王蝶群。美国鱼类与野生动物管理局西南太平洋区摄，公共领域，经Wikimedia Commons。 / A cluster of monarch butterflies roosting on a eucalyptus branch at the Pismo Beach Monarch Butterfly Grove. Photo by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Pacific Southwest Region, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
