Flight of the Monarch

Alongside the endangered redwood, the monarch butterfly is a symbol of our land.

We have taken the monarch as our emblem—one sees it in many places—on our T-shirts and jewelry, our journals, our sky-flying kites; it is on our place-making murals of fluttering monarchs and happy people. The monarch floats up from our subconscious and haunts our dreams…

Little wonder, the annual migration of the western monarchs—flying up the coast from Mexico—is one of the great natural wonders of the West Coast.

Or, I should say, it was.

As I write, at the height of fall harvest, we are at the height of the monarch migration. Let me ask our readers—trash consumerism aside, has anyone seen a single solitary one?

Although it goes little reported, in the last 10 years, the monarch population has collapse