- Author: Denise Godbout-Avant
How Did the Western Monarchs Do This Winter in California?
Monarchs in Trouble
The colorful orange-and-black, magnificent monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) are the world's most recognized and beloved butterflies. Yet, they are increasingly in danger of becoming extinct. An announcement last summer from International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) announced the monarch butterfly had been put on its "Red List of Threatened Species as Endangered” due to habitat destruction, climate change, and pesticides, with the primary reason being reduction in milkweed plants that are so vital to their survival.
This Year's Status
According to a recent article by Tara Duggan (https://www.pressreader.com/usa/san-francisco-chronicle-late-edition/20230201/281595244675872) the 2022 annual Thanksgiving count organized by Xerces Society showed relatively high numbers of western monarchs this year with over 330,000 found in overwintering sites throughout California's central coast. This is a significant increase from the winter of 2020-21 when fewer than 2,000 were counted and they were thought to be on the threshold of extinction. The 2021-2022 count the following year was much better, at 250,000.
At the Pismo Beach monarch sanctuary, a board showed some of the tallies made over the years:
1990 – 230,000
1995 – 150,000
2000 – 40,000
2005 – 32,000
2010 – 24,000
2015 – 28,000
2017 – 12,300
2019 – 6,000
2020 – 188
2021 – 22,700
2022 – 24,128
11/15/22 – 24,100
11/30/22 – 19,177
12/13/22 – 15,707
1/17/23 – 15,817
2/7/23 – 15,015
2/21/23 – 4,628
How You Can Help
- Plant nectar plants for the adults! While caterpillars feed only on milkweed, the adult monarch feeds on nectar from flowers while migrating. Native plants with tubular or funnel shapes are particularly attractive and nutritious for all butterflies.
- Plant milkweed! This plant is crucial to monarchs' survival since it is the only plant females lay their eggs on and the only source of food for the emerging larvae. When possible, plant from seed. If you purchase plants ask the nursery or garden center if the grower treated the plants with pesticides. The best time to plant is in the fall months when it's cooler, at the start of the rainy season. Local native milkweed varieties include:
o Asclepias fascicularis (Narrowleaf milkweed)
o Asclepias speciosa (Showy milkweed)
o Asclepias syriaca (Common milkweed)
o Asclepias cordifolia (Heartleaf milkweed)
- Use UC Integrated Pest Management as a resource: (https://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/menu.homegarden.html). If you use a pesticide, avoid broad spectrum pesticides, selecting a pesticide for the specific pest/disease, or choose one that is less toxic such as horticultural oils and insecticidal soaps. Be sure to follow instructions and apply in early morning or late evening when pollinators are unlikely to be present.
- Get involved in the annual western monarch Thanksgiving and New Year counts (https://www.westernmonarchcount.org/) and/or tagging monarchs to monitor their migration patterns (https://www.monarchwatch.org/tagging/)
What Will the Future Bring for the Western Monarch?
Only time will tell if their numbers will increase, but scientists say these efforts could help the western monarch population recover. By planting milkweed and native flowering plants in our gardens, we can be a part of this ongoing endeavor and hopefully be able to see more of these magnificent butterflies floating about in our gardens in the future.
To learn more about the life cycle and migration of the western monarch, read my article “Marvelous Monarchs” at https://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=55249
Denise Godbout-Avant has been a UCCE Master Gardener with Stanislaus County since 2020
/h3>- Author: kxlf.com CNN Library
Facts: The Census Bureau describes Hispanic or Latino ethnicity as "a person of Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, South or Central American, or other Spanish culture or origin regardless of race."
Hispanic people are the largest minority in the United States. Only Mexico has a larger Hispanic population than the United States.
By 2060, the Census Bureau projects that Hispanic people will comprise over 28% of the total population with 119 million residing in the United States.
In 2016, Hispanics made up 11% of the electorate, up from 10% in 2012.
Census 2016 Estimates:
There are an estimated 55 million Hispanic people in the United States, comprising over 17% of the population.
California is the state with the largest Hispanic population -- an estimated 15 million, followed by Texas and Florida. All three of these states comprise more than half (55%) of the Hispanic population.
These are the states where more than an estimated 30% of the population is Hispanic: Arizona, 30.5%; California, 38.6%; New Mexico, 47.8%; and Texas, 38.6%.
There are more than one million Hispanic residents in nine US states - Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York and Texas.
Of the English-speaking Hispanics in the United States, a majority, an estimated 57.5%, are bilingual.
Second only to English, Spanish is the language most used in the United States, as of 2016. It is spoken by approximately 38 million Hispanic people in the country, plus an additional 2.6 million non-Hispanics.
Of the 55,199,107 Hispanic people in the United States, the following is a breakdown of how they define their race:
White: 36,294,406Some other race: 14,457,853Two or more races: 2,549,453Black: 1,143,499American Indian and Alaska Native: 513,491Asian: 189,308Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander: 51,097
Source: Published originally on www.kxlf.com, Hispanics in the US Fast Facts, by Antonio Flores, CNN Library, Mar 22, 2018.
- Author: www.pewresearch.org by Ana Gonzalez-Barrera
With President Donald Trump's administration taking steps to reduce the number of unauthorized immigrants in the U.S. — including through the construction of a wall at the southern border — here's what we know about illegal immigration from Mexico:
- The number of Mexican immigrants living in the U.S. illegally has declined by more than 1 million since 2007. In 2014, 5.8 million unauthorized immigrants from Mexico lived in the U.S., down from a peak of 6.9 million in 2007. Despite the drop, Mexicans still make up about half of the nation's 11.1 million unauthorized immigrants (52% in 2014).
- More non-Mexicans than Mexicans were apprehended at U.S. borders in fiscal year 2016 for the second time on record (the first was in fiscal 2014.) In fiscal 2016, 192,969 Mexicans were apprehended, a sharp drop from a peak of 1.6 million apprehensions in 2000. The decline in apprehensions reflects the decrease in the number of unauthorized Mexican immigrants coming to the U.S.
- Mexicans were deported from the U.S. 242,456 times in 2015 – up from 169,031 in 2005, but down from a recent high of 309,807 in 2013. The increase over the past decade is due in part to a 2005 shift in policy that increased the chances of being deported following apprehension in the border region. Prior to that change, many unauthorized immigrants were returned without a formal deportation order.
- Mexican unauthorized immigrants are more likely to be long-term residents of the U.S. As of 2014, 78% had lived in the U.S. for 10 years or more, while only 7% had been in the country for less than five years. By comparison, 52% of unauthorized immigrants from countries other than Mexico had lived in the U.S. for at least a decade as of 2014, while 22% had lived in the U.S. for less than five years.
- Unauthorized immigrants from Mexico make up at least 75% of the total unauthorized immigrant population in three states. This is the case in New Mexico (91%), Idaho (87%) and Arizona (81%). In California, Mexicans make up 71% of the state's unauthorized immigrant population, and they numbered more than 1.6 million in 2014 – the highest total of any state.
Source: Published originally on pewresearch.org, What we know about illegal immigration from Mexico by Jens Manuel Krogstad and Ana Gonzalez-Barrera on March 2, 2017.
Among world regions, the number of unauthorized immigrants from Asia, Central America, and sub-Saharan Africa rose between 2009 and 2014. The number from Mexico has steadily declined since 2007, the first year of the Great Recession, but Mexicans remain more than half (52%) of U.S. unauthorized immigrants.
Across the United States, most states saw no statistically significant change in the size of their unauthorized immigrant populations from 2009 to 2014. In the seven states where the unauthorized immigrant population declined, falling numbers of unauthorized Mexican immigrants were the key factor. Meanwhile, among the six states that had increases in their unauthorized immigrant populations, only one – Louisiana – could trace this to a rise in the number of unauthorized immigrants from Mexico.
These are some of the key findings from the latest Pew Research Center estimates based mainly on U.S. Census Bureau data. Details concerning the source data and methods for calculating the estimates are available in the methodology.
The recent relative stability in the estimated size of the U.S. unauthorized immigrant population is a contrast to previous periods. The number of unauthorized immigrants in the U.S. rose through the 1990s and early 2000s, peaking at 12.2 million in 2007. The number of unauthorized immigrants declined in 2008 and 2009.
As the U.S. unauthorized immigrant population has stabilized, it also has become more settled. In 2014, unauthorized immigrant adults had lived in the U.S. for a median of 13.6 years – meaning that half had been in the country at least that long. In 2005, the median had been eight years, before rising to 10 years in 2009, the year the recession ended.
Mexicans remain the majority of the nation's unauthorized immigrant population, but their estimated number – 5.8 million in 2014 – has declined by about half a million people since 2009. Meanwhile, the number of unauthorized immigrants from all other nations – especially those from Asia and Central America – grew by 325,000 since 2009, to 5.3 million in 2014. The decline in unauthorized immigrants from some parts of the world, mainly Mexico, was roughly balanced by an increase in unauthorized immigrants from other parts of the world, so the total U.S. unauthorized immigrant population had no statistically significant change from 2009 to 2014.
In contrast to the stable unauthorized immigrant total, the overall foreign-born population in the U.S. has gone up each year since 2009. The overall immigrant population rose by nearly 3 million from 2009 to 2014, reaching 43.6 million, even as its unauthorized immigrant component did not change.
As overall net immigration from Mexico declined, immigration from Asia did not flag – indeed, it increased somewhat. As a result, among all newly arriving immigrants to the U.S., more now come from Asia than from Latin America, a change since 2008.
After rising for decades, the number of unauthorized immigrants in the U.S. who are from Mexico began to decline from a peak of 6.9 million in 2007. Though the overall U.S. unauthorized immigrant population has stabilized since the recession ended in 2009, the total number from Mexico has continued to shrink and is now more than 1 million below its 2007 peak.
A notable change that has fueled the decline in the population of Mexican unauthorized immigrants is a decrease in the number of new arrivals. Before the Great Recession, the number of new arrivals from Mexico exceeded the number of Mexican unauthorized immigrants who left the U.S. The decrease in the Mexican unauthorized immigrant population since 2009 indicates that departures have exceeded arrivals.
At the national level, the rise in unauthorized immigrants from countries other than Mexico was driven mainly by an increase in those from Central America, Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa. The number of unauthorized immigrants born in India, for example, grew by about 130,000 from 2009 to 2014, to an estimated 500,000. Many unauthorized immigrants from these nations arrived with legal status and overstayed their visas, according to Department of Homeland Security statistics. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said recently that his agency is “doubling down” on preventing immigrants from Africa, the Middle East and other parts of the world from crossing illegally at the southwest border.
Recent arrivals a smaller share of U.S. unauthorized immigrants
Unauthorized immigrants increasingly are likely to have been in the U.S. for 10 years or more – 66% in 2014 compared with 41% in 2005. A declining share has lived in the U.S. for less than five years; only 14% had been in the U.S. for less than five years in 2014, compared with 31% in 2005.
This overall change has been fueled by the decline in new unauthorized immigrants, especially those from Mexico. Among Mexican unauthorized immigrants, fully 78% had lived in the U.S. for 10 years or more as of 2014, and only 7% had been in the U.S. for less than five years. Among unauthorized immigrants from nations other than Mexico, a smaller share, but still a majority – 52% – had lived in the U.S. for at least a decade in 2014. Compared with Mexicans, a higher share of unauthorized immigrants from elsewhere – 22% – had been in the U.S. for less than five years.
Because of historic immigration patterns between the U.S. and Mexico, unauthorized immigrants are more likely to be long-term residents in Western states. In California, home to the largest unauthorized immigrant population in the U.S., the median length of U.S. residence is 15.6 years, meaning that at least half have lived in the U.S. since the late 1990s. Some 71% of unauthorized immigrants in California are of Mexican origin.
Unauthorized immigrant populations changed in 13 states from 2009 to 2014. In five of the six where populations rose, the change was due to an increase in unauthorized immigrants from countries other than Mexico. In all seven states where populations declined, it was due to a decline in the number of Mexican unauthorized immigrants.
The overall estimated population of unauthorized immigrants went up in six states from 2009 to 2014. In five of them, the increase was due to the number of unauthorized immigrants from countries other than Mexico rising as the number of Mexican unauthorized immigrants either stayed the same (Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Washington) or declined (New Jersey). Only one state – Louisiana – saw an increase in its unauthorized immigrant population driven by an increase in Mexicans. In that state, the number of unauthorized immigrants from other countries did not change from 2009 to 2014.
The estimated population of unauthorized immigrants went down in seven states from 2009 to 2014 because of declines in the number from Mexico. In six of those states – California, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Nevada and South Carolina – the estimated number of unauthorized immigrants from countries other than Mexico did not change. In the remaining state – Alabama – the total from other countries rose from 2009 to 2014, but the number from Mexico decreased more.
In 2014, 59% of unauthorized immigrants lived in the same six states that have housed the majority of unauthorized immigrants for decades. California, with 2.3 million, has by far the largest number, followed by Texas, Florida, New York, New Jersey and Illinois. The unauthorized immigrant population had become much more dispersed around the country as numbers increased in nontraditional settlement areas. In 1990, 80% of unauthorized immigrants lived in the top six states; by 2005, the share had fallen to roughly the current level, 61%.
Unauthorized immigrants accounted for 3.5% of the overall population and 26% of the nation's 43.6 million foreign-born residents in 2014. The U.S. foreign-born population also included 19 million naturalized citizens, 11.7 million lawful permanent residents and 1.7 million lawful residents with temporary status (such as students, diplomats and so-called “guest workers” in the technology sector). In total, immigrants represented 13.6% of the U.S. population in 2014.
The issue of unauthorized immigration has played a prominent role in the 2016 presidential campaign. For more on the nation's view of immigrants and immigration policy, see Pew Research Center surveys on this topic.
The unauthorized immigrant estimates in this report are produced using a multistage method that first subtracts the estimated U.S. lawful foreign-born population from the total adjusted foreign-born population to derive a residual estimate of the unauthorized immigrant population. Then, the residual estimates serve as control totals in assigning legal status to individual respondents in the survey. The main source of data for 1995-2004 is the March supplement of the Current Population Survey, and for 2005-2014 it is the American Community Survey; both are conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau; see Methodology for more details.
Source: Published originally on PewResearchCenter Overall Number of U.S. Unauthorized Immigrants Holds Steady Since 2009 , by Jeffrey S. Passel and D'Vera Cohn, September 20, 2016.
During the five-year period ending in 2014, an average of 19.6 percent of Latinos in Sonoma County lived at or below the poverty line, compared to 9.3 percent of white residents. In 2014, the federal poverty level was $14,580 for an individual and $29,820 for a family of four.
The figures show that poverty increased in Sonoma County for both Latinos and whites. During the previous five-year period, between 2005 and 2009, an average of 15.1 percent of Latinos and 7.4 percent of whites lived at or below the government's official poverty threshold.
The statistics alone do not adequately shed light on the issue of poverty in Sonoma County, said Tim Reese, executive director of Community Action Partnership of Sonoma County, a local nonprofit group that provides services to low-income residents.
“Many of the poor in our community are hidden from our view,” Reese said, adding that some may be agricultural workers who live in “out-of-sight” rural housing, while others may be undocumented immigrants who are living “off the grid” because of their status.
Meanwhile, poverty and living- wage advocates argue that the official poverty threshold doesn't adequately describe the size of the local population, Latino and otherwise, who are struggling economically.
One southwest Santa Rosa mother said the $28,000 a year her husband makes working as a landscaper often leaves the family of four unable to cover their $1,450 monthly rent.
“The rest goes to pay bills like water, electricity, garbage, cellphone,” said Veronica, who spoke on condition that her last name be withheld because she is an undocumented immigrant. “What little is left goes to pay for food. There's no money for extras such as eating out.”
The couple, who are originally from Mexico, have a 19-month-old girl and a 2-year-old boy. Both have asthma, and the boy suffers from a severe skin condition. Veronica participates in Community Action Partnership's AVANCE program, which teaches her crucial parenting skills, while her boy is in a program called Pasitos, aimed at providing toddlers with the necessary tools to succeed in preschool and beyond.
Oscar Chavez, assistant director of the county Human Services Department, predicted that economic disparities between white and Latino residents will have increasingly adverse effects on the local community as Latinos continue to become a larger share of the overall population. Education is the single most important battlefront in efforts to reduce poverty in Sonoma County, he said.
“Latinos earn $15,000 less than whites and are further behind in educational attainment,” Chavez said, citing a 2014 county report, titled “A Portrait of Sonoma County.”
In 2013, 23 percent of Latinos in Sonoma County between the ages of 19 and 24 did not have a high school diploma compared to 3 percent of white residents in the same age group.
“Closing the achievement gap is not only key to help our youth realize their full potential but also crucial to the well-being of our community and economic competitiveness,” Chavez said.
Chavez said that a continued decline in middle-wage jobs has created a “bifurcated job market, where we are seeing wage growth at the top and stagnation at the bottom, leaving little opportunity for the working poor to climb the wage ladder.”
He said that investing in early childhood education, raising high school graduation rates and providing the necessary training for Latinos to access higher-skilled jobs will greatly improve economic opportunities for Latinos in the county.
Veronica said that as hard as life is in the United States, she remains here because she believes her U.S.-born children can have a better life, free of the type of violence currently plaguing Mexico. To that end, she said, she and her children are learning the skills necessary to get ahead.
Source: Published originally on The Press Democrat as Poverty increasing for Latinos in Sonoma byMartin Espinoza, December 28, 2015.