P.G. monarch population has plummeted since season peak.

Those flighty monarchs that made Pacific Grove famous were back in larger numbers during the peak of this season, but over the past few weeks their numbers are down in the city’s sanctuary. One volunteer thinks it’s not just all the rainy weather that is discouraging the butterflies to cluster there.

The monarch season lasts from late October through early February, peaking from Thanksgiving through mid-December. This year during the high period, 17,100 monarchs were counted by volunteers, up from just over 11,000 the year before.

The year before that there were approximately 24,000 monarchs counted, according to Patrick Whitehurst, spokesperson for the Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History.

Since the December peak, weekly counts have been low – only 3,185 were recorded Jan. 14. Whitehurst believes rainy weather is the most likely culprit.

But Frances Grate, a former monarch subcommittee chairperson for the city’s Beautification and Natural Resources Commission, thinks the monarchs are discouraged from staying due to years of tree trimming both inside the city-owned sanctuary and on adjacent properties. She also thinks the city treats the sanctuary more like a park “in which safety and cleanliness are paramount,” Grate wrote in a Jan. 17 letter to the commission.

Public Works Director Daniel Gho disagrees with Grate’s analysis, saying the city relies on recommendations from a professional consultant on how to care for the sanctuary, and that an annual report is sent to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.