A Puzzling Decline in Butterflies - San Francisco Chronicle 12/22/99

[Pierre A Plauzoles]

Danfosha at aol.com wrote:

> A Puzzling Decline in Butterflies
> Even common species like Monarchs are scarce in Sacramento Valley
>
> Glen Martin, Chronicle Staff Writer    Wednesday, December 22, 1999
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Butterfly populations are at an almost 30-year low in the Sacramento Valley,
> adjacent foothills and the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, researchers
> say.
>
> Entomologists find the data particularly worrisome because the decline is so
> widespread and there is no clear reason for it.

If the reporter truly believes that "there is no clear reason" for such a decline,
he/she need only look at how much insecticide is sold every year and applied to
our farmlands and cities.  The idea that insecticides are as "targeted" as the
manufacturers claim may be true, but "non-target" species are affected whether
they wish to believe it or not.