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Paul, I just think it is nonsense to say that Modern high-technology agricultural practices in America have not negatively impacted Monarchs and other native butterfly species. I am not interested in seeing miles upon miles of solid rows of GMO Corn being produced<BR>for the idiotic biofuel ethanol program that is both an expensive and wasteful solution for our energy problems.<BR> <BR>Roger Kuhlman<BR>Ann Arbor, Michigan<br> <BR><div><div id="SkyDrivePlaceholder"></div>> From: monarch@saber.net<br>> Date: Thu, 14 Feb 2013 21:46:06 -0800<br>> To: leps-l@mailman.yale.edu<br>> Subject: Re: [Leps-l] [leps-talk] Monarch Armageddon<br>> <br>> On Feb 14, 2013, at 8:08 PM, Roger Kuhlman wrote:<br>> <br>> > Remember the Passenger Pigeon. Once there were<br>> > billions of them.<br>> <br>> And remember in 1991 Dr's Lincoln Brower and Steven <br>> Malcolm wrote this about the monarch in a peer <br>> reviewed scientific journal*: "its eastern North American <br>> migratory phenomenon is now threatened with extinction <br>> and will probably be destroyed within 10-20 years."<br>> http://saber.net/monarch/extinction2.jpg<br>> <br>> Unlike passenger pigeons, monarchs are not stressed<br>> by a shortage of food, disease and are not being mass <br>> hunted and shot.<br>> <br>> And despite the widespread adoption of Roundup Ready <br>> corn and soybean plants by Midwestern farmers and the <br>> resulting reduction in the abundance of milkweed on farmland,<br>> there are still billions of milkweed plants growing along the<br>> edges of those same farm fields and will be for the forseeable <br>> future. So to this day monarchs can still be routinely seen <br>> laying eggs on those crop margin and farm roadside milkweed <br>> plants like this:<br>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MqrvAxTl0I<br>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKmDId55pfc<br>> <br>> And to this day migratory monarchs continue to be <br>> spectacularly abundant in the late summer in midwestern <br>> farm towns that are surrounded by the Roundup Ready <br>> crops. Like this:<br>> <br>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4e3S2sm13g<br>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJCnU7PB9to<br>> <br>> So one wonders: Does professor Chip Taylor have a <br>> legitimate scientific basis for telling the public and<br>> reporters that just because there is less, but still alot,<br>> of milkweed growing on midwestern farmland, the <br>> monarch migration could be on the brink of collapse<br>> as he says or implies in these videos?:<br>> <br>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZXGRZMrsDU<br>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_Y9CKP1DuQ<br>> <br>> Paul Cherubini<br>> El Dorado, Calif.<br>> <br>> *Brower, L. and S. B. Malcolm. 1991. "Animal migrations: <br>> Endangered phenomena." Amer. Zool. 31: 265-267.<br>> _______________________________________________<br>> Leps-l mailing list<br>> Leps-l@mailman.yale.edu<br>> http://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/leps-l<br></div> </div></body>
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