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<body class='hmmessage'><div dir='ltr'>Paul that's not the point that some milkweed grows in some ditch in Washtenaw County. I know that and I would never claim the total absence of milkweeds in my county. The point is that a whole lot less milkweed grows in Washtenaw County grows in farmer fields now that most farmers have switched to GMO crops than the relatively recent past. Furthermore I see no reason why this trend would not be replicated elsewhere in the summer range of the Monarch in the central United States. I think you know this but that fact does not fit your political and personal agenda<br> <BR>Roger Kuhlman<BR>Ann Arbor, Michigan<BR><div><br>> <br>> Roger Kuhlman wrote:<br>> <br>> > It is my experience in Washtnenaw county (southeast Michigan) that<br>> > Milkweeds have become far far scarcer since the farmers in the region<br>> > have gone to GMO crops in their fields. The fields today are so much<br>> > more neet, tidy and free of other plants than corn or soybeans. That<br>> > was not true a few decades ago.<br>> <br>> Milkweed still routinely grows in the hundreds of thousands of<br>> miles worth of farm road ditches in the upper Midwest that border<br>> the GMO crops. On Google Earth I quickly found some milkweed<br>> growing in a ditch in Washtnenaw county, Michigan where you live:<br>> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.imagegainer.com_images_PaulCherubini_moorevillejpg.jpg&d=AwIF-g&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=tVAKMFPe3UCcsMWUFXo0FeX0xe1JUAj77B74DAI3DKI&m=MBn10SGtIwIKff3F6rTFWHDvHbDYuWQTYccRgiBXVMk&s=kweaXrcRm7QF7OYFNvJHlXbIAuTnJOGksHQemicxMMw&e= <br>> <br>> So milkweed and monarchs remain common in the upper Midwest<br>> despite the fact that the milkweed that used to grow within the<br>> crop fields was killed off during the years of 2000-2007 when farmers<br>> gradually adopted GMO crops.<br>> <br>> Since roughly 3-6 billion milkweed plants still grow in the northern<br>> and central portions of the USA and adjacent provinces of Canada<br>> and support a population of roughly 100 million monarchs, the<br>> eastern monarch migration is not hardly “critically imperiled”.<br>> <br>> Paul Cherubini<br>> El Dorado, Calif.<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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