Pismo Beach Monarch Butterfly Grove is one of many locations that saw a drop of the monarch population this year. In 1998, the Pismo Beach overwintering roost had an all-time high of 115,100 monarchs. In 2017, volunteer teams counted only 12,284 overwintering monarchs. In 2018, the count was even worse—volunteer teams counted only 3,082 overwintering monarchs.