monarch numbers

[Robert J. Parcelles,Jr.]

Paul and all,

You seem to be quick to substantiate
anti-environmentalist attitudes with data.  I would
like to point out that when it really comes down to
it, not a single species is really important in the
overall scheme of things.  The Endangered Species Act,
which is the most important legislation in the history
of mankind, is really not for the population in
question but it serves to indicate when a decline or
extinction of an entire ecosystem is likey. 
Therefore, to indicate that Monarch preservation and
the preservation of their habitat is not necessary due
to the utilization of landscape plantings surely
points to an agenda not shared by most of us.  The
Monarch Butterfly is more than just a population
needing protection it represents a BIOLOGICAL
PHENOMENA.

Good day,

Bob Parcelles
--- Paul Cherubini <cherubini at mindspring.com> wrote:
> Richard L.Brown wrote:
> 
> > The Bon Secour Peninsula in Alabama (west of Gulf
> Shores)
> > is about20 miles long and has undergone rapid real
> estate 
> > development in the last 25 years (since Hurricane
> Camille).  
> > The same has occurred on the Florida coast. I
> > suspect that the impacts of this recent and
> continuing habitat
> > loss on monarch roosting and feeding areas on the
> Gulf Coast
> > have not been fully realized.
> 
> Real estate developement changes the landscape, but
> virtually
> always involves landscape plantings of flowering
> plants, shrubs
> and trees that monarchs end up using as nectar
> sources
> and as clustering sites. In other words, although
> real estate
> development destroys existing habitat, it also
> creates 
> (inadvertently) new monarch habitat. 
> 
> For example, a hot spot to see clustering monarchs
> in the fall
> is at the town of Wamego, Kansas. Thousands of
> monarchs
> gather in the tall shade trees that line Chestnut
> Street (within
> a residential subdivision) and at the lawn covered
> city park.
> Monarchs cluster right above the moving street
> traffic and in
> people's home yards. 
> 
> Dr. Chip Taylor has also acknowledged this
> phenomenon. 
> For example, last month he wrote the following on
> the 
> dplex-list:  (capitals my emphasis)
> 
> "Wamego [Kansas] consistently gets large numbers of
> monarchs.
>  My interpretation has always been that as the
> butterflies
> move to the SW in this region it is the gallery
> forests along 
> the river, THE NECTAR PLANTS IN THE CITY and along 
> the river,  and the protection from the wind that
> concentrates 
> the monarchs in Wamego."
> 
> Here in California, monarch overwintering sites are
> commonplace within heavily urbanized areas of
> the San Francisco Bay Area and the Los Angeles
> Basin.
> Are these healthy monarchs? Well apparently the two
> longest lived
> female and male tagged monarchs ever recorded
> (Sept-mid May 
> and Sept-early June) involved butterflies tagged at
> the San Leandro
> Marina Golf Course overwintering site, just south of
> Oakland,
> California.
> 
> Paul Cherubini, Placerville, Calif.
> 


=====
Bob Parcelles, Jr.
Pinellas Park, FL
rjparcelles at yahoo.com
http://rainforest.care2.com/welcome?w=976131876
rjpassociates at yahoo.com

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