<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><span style="font-size: 14px;" class=""><br class=""></span><div><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class=""><span style="font-size: 14px;" class="">Candace Fallon wrote:</span></div><span style="font-size: 14px;" class=""><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></span><div class=""><div dir="ltr" class=""><div class=""><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif" class=""><span class="" style="font-size: 14px;">Monarchs are in decline across North America. With milkweed</span></font></div></div></div></blockquote><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class=""><div dir="ltr" class=""><div class=""><span style="font-size: 14px;" class=""><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif" class=""><span class="">loss in the east identified </span></font><span class="" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">as a major contributing factor to this</span></span></div></div></div></blockquote><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class=""><div dir="ltr" class=""><div class=""><span style="font-size: 14px;" class=""><span class="" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">decline, </span><span class="" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Yet while restoring the millions of milkweed </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;" class="">plants that </span></span></div></div></div></blockquote><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class=""><div dir="ltr" class=""><div class=""><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" class="">have been lost is certainly an important strategy, monarchs </span></div></div></div></blockquote><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class=""><div dir="ltr" class=""><div class=""><span style="font-size: 14px;" class=""><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class="">need nectar to fuel them </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class="">during spring migration and breeding and to</span></span></div></div></div></blockquote><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class=""><div dir="ltr" class=""><div class=""><span style="font-size: 14px;" class=""><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""> build up stores of fat which </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class="">sustain them during fall migration and winter.</span></span></div></div></div></blockquote><div><span style="font-size: 14px;" class=""><br class=""></span></div><div><span style="font-size: 14px;" class="">Important strategy to accomplish what? Stabilize the milkweed plant &</span></div><div><span style="font-size: 14px;" class="">monarch population decline? Reverse the decline? Xerces doesn’t </span></div><div><span style="font-size: 14px;" class="">specify, </span><span style="font-size: 14px;" class="">but instead talks in vague </span><span style="font-size: 14px;" class="">quantitative generalities like the </span></div><div><span style="font-size: 14px;" class="">effort will “help </span><span style="font-size: 14px;" class="">save the monarch </span><span style="font-size: 14px;" class="">migration”. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: 14px;" class=""><br class=""></span></div><div><span style="font-size: 14px;" class="">An inconvenient truth is it's not ever going to be logistically feasible </span></div><div><span style="font-size: 14px;" class="">for monarch </span><span style="font-size: 14px;" class="">enthusiasts or </span><span style="font-size: 14px;" class="">scientists to conduct “annual milkweed </span></div><div><span style="font-size: 14px;" class="">and nectar </span><span style="font-size: 14px;" class="">plant patch/stem </span><span style="font-size: 14px;" class="">counts" on even a County, let alone </span></div><div><span style="font-size: 14px;" class="">Statewide, </span><span style="font-size: 14px;" class="">scale to obtain baseline </span><span style="font-size: 14px;" class="">plant stem abundance data. </span><span style="font-size: 14px; color: rgb(55, 55, 55); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(246, 246, 246);" class=""> </span></div><div><span style="font-size: 14px; color: rgb(55, 55, 55); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(246, 246, 246);" class="">So because </span><span style="font-size: 14px; color: rgb(55, 55, 55); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(246, 246, 246);" class="">baseline abundance </span><span style="font-size: 14px; color: rgb(55, 55, 55); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(246, 246, 246);" class="">data will never be obtainable </span></div><div><span style="font-size: 14px; color: rgb(55, 55, 55); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(246, 246, 246);" class="">it will likewise </span><span style="font-size: 14px; color: rgb(55, 55, 55); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(246, 246, 246);" class="">never be possible </span><span style="background-color: rgb(246, 246, 246);" class=""><font color="#373737" face="Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" class=""><span style="font-size: 14px;" class="">for Xerces </span></font></span><span style="color: rgb(55, 55, 55); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(246, 246, 246);" class="">to tell us </span><span style="font-size: 14px; color: rgb(55, 55, 55); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(246, 246, 246);" class="">whether</span></div><div><span style="font-size: 14px; color: rgb(55, 55, 55); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(246, 246, 246);" class="">the </span><span style="font-size: 14px; color: rgb(55, 55, 55); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(246, 246, 246);" class="">number of </span><span style="font-size: 14px; color: rgb(55, 55, 55); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(246, 246, 246);" class="">milkweed & </span><span style="font-size: 14px; color: rgb(55, 55, 55); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(246, 246, 246);" class="">nectar </span><span style="font-size: 14px; color: rgb(55, 55, 55); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(246, 246, 246);" class="">plant patches/stems </span><span style="font-size: 14px; color: rgb(55, 55, 55); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(246, 246, 246);" class="">is actually </span></div><div><span style="font-size: 14px; color: rgb(55, 55, 55); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(246, 246, 246);" class="">increasing </span><span style="font-size: 14px; color: rgb(55, 55, 55); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(246, 246, 246);" class="">over </span><span style="font-size: 14px; color: rgb(55, 55, 55); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(246, 246, 246);" class="">time. </span></div><div><br class=""></div><div><font color="#373737" face="Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" class=""><span style="font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(246, 246, 246);" class="">Paul Cherubini</span></font></div><div><font color="#373737" face="Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" class=""><span style="font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(246, 246, 246);" class="">El Dorado, Calif.</span></font></div></div></body></html>