Mexican Monarchs

[Paul Cherubini]

Neil Jones wrote:

> I have taken the HIGH RESOLUTION photographs and placed them on the
> web at http://www.wildlifewebsite.com/monarch/
> I have presented them in a different and slightly easier format.
> They clearly show the loss of forest over time.

At Campanario, virtually no change can be seen in the forest cover
between 1973 and 2000 from the photos you posted. This continues 
to be the largest monarch site/colony in Mexico.

At Huacal there definately is some forest fire damage visible which 
occurred mainly back in the early 90's. Tree regeneration is rapidly
taking place without human assistance and the fire scars are already
fading in the 2000 photo compared to what they looked like 4-5 years 
ago from a space shot. Despite the fire damage, monarchs have 
continued using this site/mountain for clustering in fairly small 
numbers like they did before the fires. Here is a photo of how
natural oyamel fir tree generation takes place in the region following
clear cutting (in this case to provide clearance for power lines):
http://www.saber.net/~monarch/oyamelclearcut.jpeg

At Pelon there was also some minor fire damage during the big
drought of 1998, but it was limited to north slopes which the butterflies don't 
use for clustering. The butterfly population at Pelon continues to
be large and stable.

None of these photos documents anything even remotely close to the
44% loss in forest cover claimed in the sensational news story. Also,
the news story fails to tell the public ALL the trees on these
mountains are only 60-80 years old or less because these forests
have been selectively logged for centuries. Nothing is pristine
and virgin.

Paul Cherubini

 
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