unsuitable releases (fwd)

[Neil Jones]

Forwarded message follows:

> From: tlpyle at WILLAPABAY.ORG (Thea L. Pyle)
> To: dplex-l at raven.cc.ukans.edu
> Subject: unsuitable releases
> 
> from: R.M. Pyle
> 
>         I have just returned from a successful monarch tagging trip (in
> relative, northwestern terms: 30 tagged) along the Columbia River at various
> sites in southeast Washington and northeast Oregon.  We found _Asclepias
> fascicularis_ farther west in the Columbia Gorge than ever previously,
> nearly to the line of the Cascade Crest, and found fifth instar monarch
> larvae feeding on _A. fascicularis_ AND _A. speciosa_ within ten feet of one
> another.  Numbers of monarchs are higher than at this time last year.
> Disappearing bearings ranged from ESE to SW.  As my work last year
> suggested, it is possible that both Mexico and California contribute
> immigrants to the Snake River/Columbia River systems.
>         Since this work is downstream from Hans Schnauber's second release
> of putative northern California monarchs, I was disturbed to learn of that
> action.  I recovered none of his tagged individuals, but the sight records I
> had, too far to detect tags, cannot be trusted due to that transfer.  When
> will H. Schnauber and P. Cherubini get it that California monarchs released
> in Washington are functionally incapable of ">determining the migration of
> the Monarchs from Eastern Washington to California" ??
>         This release took place at Lake Chelan.  Only one breeding site for
> Monarchs has ever been found in Chelan County, in spite of ninety years of
> resident and visiting lepidopterists' searching.  This site was discovered
> by my wife Thea near Lake Chelan along the Columbia some ten years ago, and
> has been confirmed by us in several years since.  The population in the
> upper Columbia/Okanogan river system, which we have studied in some detail,
> is very modest at best.  I consider the release of 495 alien monarchs into
> this system to be an unfriendly, ill-considered act of sheer mischief, not
> to mention stupid.  I will petition relevant agencies to prevent recurrence.  
>         I do not consider ad hominem comments to be the purpose of
> listserves or dplex in particular, but Mr. Schnauber's action -- taken
> unilaterally, with no consultation of Northwest lepidopterists whatever --
> is deeply distressing.  In Papua New Guinea, the butterfly farmers have a
> term for the misdeeds of outlaws who make life unpleasant along the
> Highlands highway -- they call it "rascalism."  I think that applies nicely
> here. With so many serious questions of natural history and conservation
> challenges to occupy our time, energy, and enthusiasm, I hope other monarch
> lovers will join me in repudiating such activity.
> 
> Robert M. Pyle
> 
> (If anyone would like to repost this or my response to Ed Rooney on Leps-L,
> feel free.)
> 
> (The above is in response to:
> 
> >495 tagged Monarchs (Balance of 1000) were successfully released east of
> >the Cascade Mountain range in Washington State (Lake Chelan). etc. 
> ex Hans Schnauber)
>   
> 
> 

-- 
Neil Jones- Neil at nwjones.demon.co.uk "The beauty and genius of a work of art
may be reconceived, though its first material expression be destroyed; a
vanished harmony may yet again inspire the composer; but when the last
individual of a race of living things breathes no more another heaven and
another earth must pass before such a one can be again." William Beebe