California

In the 1980s the western monarch migration count averaged 3.5 to 4.5 million butterflies per year. In 2021 that number fell to less than 3,000 – a 99.99% population collapse. The IUCN immediately put them on the Red List, and since monarchs are an indicator species, many scientists now estimate a staggering 40% of pollinators, including monarchs, are at risk of extinction.

Without pollinators countless species are at risk of extinction – humans included.

Volunteers have galvanized across the West for the rescue of monarchs and pollinators and so have we. In collaboration with Sonoma State University we are conducting milkweed and pollinator restoration trials to determine best practices for landscape-scale restoration projects of monarch and pollinator habitat. Give now to help us bring back these iconic species.

Soil erosion is among the greatest threats facing all life. After a megafire, or as a result of farming with plows, the vegetation and fungal networks holding the soil together is gone. The soil is weakened and vulnerable. Rain washes it away. Wind blows it away. It erodes hundreds of times faster than the soil’s living biome can create new soil.

Fast-growing native grasses are perhaps our best means to give time enough after degradation – mining, farming, deforestation, etc. – for the living soil to re-establish before being blown or washed away.