Government views Monarch Butterfly Releases as a threat to Western

Bill Cornelius billcor at mail.mcn.org
Fri Dec 7 15:52:47 EST 2001


How about including milkweed seeds in a roadside plant cover mix. Cripes! I wish these
people would ask my opinnion, I'm never wrong.
Bill

Paul Cherubini wrote:

> Thursday December 6 3:02 AM ET
>
> New Rules May Hurt Butterfly Releases
>
> By PAUL RECER, AP Science Writer
>
> WASHINGTON (AP) - It's been a moment of awe for thousands of
> schoolchildren: A cage is opened and a brand new Monarch butterfly flashes its
> bright orange and black wings and flutters into the wild.
>
> But it is also a scene that could become illegal, the victim of a federal
> bureaucracy eager to protect threatened Western milkweeds.
>
> Farmers who raise Monarchs for profit and ship them to other states say
> proposed Agriculture Department regulations would forbid release of the
> butterflies into the wild.
>
> "Schoolchildren could still raise the butterflies. But then they would have to kill
> them,'' Pennsylvania butterfly raiser Rick Mikula said Wednesday.
>
> The regulations also threaten a growing fad, marking festive occasions by
> releasing hundreds of adult Monarchs into the breeze.
>
> USDA officials said the regulations are required to protect members of the
> milkweed family of plants, the favored food of Monarch larvae.
>
> Wayne Wehling, a USDA specialist in plant-feeding insects, said at least some
> milkweed species in Oklahoma and in Arizona are endangered. Allowing
> unregulated interstate shipment and release of the butterfly, Wehling said,
> could tip the balance against the plants, on which the migrating Monarch
> habitually lays its eggs.
>
> In effect, the USDA is squeezed between a federal law protecting endangered
> plants and the growing popularity of commercial butterfly farming.
>
> "It's a real Catch-22,'' said Wehling.
> 
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
>
>  For subscription and related information about LEPS-L visit:
>
>  http://www.peabody.yale.edu/other/lepsl
> 


 
 ------------------------------------------------------------ 

   For subscription and related information about LEPS-L visit:

   http://www.peabody.yale.edu/other/lepsl 
 


More information about the Leps-l mailing list