Dr. Sears, Monarchs, Bt corn

Linda Rogers llrogers at airmail.net
Tue Oct 10 14:33:16 EDT 2000


At 11:06 PM 10/9/00 +0000, Paul Cherubini wrote:
>Ron Gatrelle wrote:
>
> > At $5. each that is a total of $50,000 !!!!!! OF COURSE there
> > are not 10,000 tagged specimens there (or are there?). BUT the greedy,
> > unreasonable, and unscrupulous don't know that. Sorry, I think it is a huge
> > mistake to offer money for monarch tags. It is not worth the potential risk
> > to the over-wintering populations.
****************************
Sir,

Below is a description of the Monarch Watch Program's "Adopt a Classroom" 
Project to aid the families and children in villages adjacent to the 
overwintering sites.  For more information, see the Monarch Watch website 
at www.monarchwatch.org.   This special work indirectly helps preserve the 
forests while directly aiding the impoverished citizens.  So, if you'd like 
to support the tagging efforts and migration studies; donate funds and/or 
supplies to extremely needy children; and help protect the forests you can 
do all of these things.  Your concern and contributions will go to into a 
research program that has a built-in protection for the butterflies and 
forests in its sister project that contributes to the lives of the local 
citizens.

Linda Rogers

***************************************************************
Help Us Help Schools in the Monarch Reserve!

Adopt-A-Classroom is a program that Monarch Watch has initiated to provide 
educational materials and classroom supplies to the schools within the 
Monarch Reserve in Mexico. By helping these schools we can provide 
resources that were previously unavailable to these communities and we can 
show our concern and support for the conservation of the Oyamel fir forests 
and the Monarch butterflies that overwinter in this region.

Background and Rationale

We are concerned about the long-term maintenance of the Monarch 
overwintering regions in Mexico. The region is heavily populated and the 
fir and pine trees on which the Monarchs roost during the winter constitute 
a potential source of income. Although the forests are protected, it is 
clear that the economic and social conditions in the area pose a threat to 
the forests. Each year there are reports of illegal and legal logging that 
impinge on the overwintering sites. Conservation of the forests and the 
Monarchs is being discussed by the governments of Mexico, Canada and the 
United States. Additionally, nongovernmental organizations (NGO's) such as 
the Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary Foundation (Karen Oberhauser, 
Karen.S.Oberhauser-1 at tc.umn.edu) and The La Cruz Habitat Protection Project 
(Bob Small, danaus at fdt.net) are raising funds to protect the forests and 
for reforestation.

At Monarch Watch we have promoted conservation through education within the 
United States and Canada. As an organization, we are now mature enough to 
reach out to Mexico. But how can we, as a small organization with limited 
fund-raising capability, maximize our community-wide impact? We now have a 
plan, which we call "Adopt-A-Classroom". If we are successful in 
implementing this plan, we should be able to reach most of the schools in 
the region. Although we are trying to collect funds for this program, you 
will see that there are a number of low cost ways in which you can 
contribute to this effort.

Adopt-A-Classroom

We have pledged to provide resources to the communities (ejidos) in the 
vicinity of the overwintering areas in Mexico. During a visit to the El 
Rosario ejido in November of 1997, we defined how Monarch Watch can help 
the ejidos. Our solution is to obtain instructional materials for the local 
schools.

The schools within the Monarch Reserve are simple cinder block buildings. 
The classrooms are small with high windows, many have poor lighting, some 
have no electricity and most rooms are crowded with crude and uncomfortable 
desks for the children. The teachers write lessons on worn-out blackboards. 
Basic textbooks are available, but workbooks, writing materials and even 
paper are scarce. Library resources and supplemental teaching aids, which 
have proven to be so effective in teaching the concepts of math and 
science, are almost totally lacking in these schools. This is where we can 
help. Working with innovative teachers, we have designed a basic math and 
science kit which contains instructional materials appropriate for the 
classrooms in Mexico. Each of these kits costs $100 and we need your help 
in raising funds to purchase materials for these educational kits.

Your group can help Adopt-A-Classroom with a monetary contribution. We will 
purchase the materials, assemble the kits and deliver them in the name of 
your group, or in the names of multiple contributors, to the schools and 
classrooms in Michoacan. We will also assemble and deliver - and in some 
cases purchase - classroom supplies, Spanish language story books, and 
reference materials for these schools.

If you wish to contribute to these efforts, please use the 
Adopt-A-Classroom Contribution Form. As a premium for each payment of $100 
or more we will send you your choice of any one of our large posters, The 
Butterfly King/Gulliver Story Video, a Monarch Watch Migration T-shirt, a 
Monarch Watch Canvas Bag, or a Monarch Life Cycle poster. Please see our 
"Ordering Information" for complete details and descriptions of our 
promotional and educational items.

In addition to monetary contributions, there are other ways in which you 
can help. The schools in Mexico need supplies. At many schools in the 
United States, excess materials - everything from paper clips to crayons 
and paper, etc. - are discarded at the end of the school year. Why not send 
them to us? We will have these materials sorted and sent to Mexico. We are 
also seeking used slide viewers, overhead projectors, and percussion 
instruments such as drums and tambourines.





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