Monarch die-off at the San Andres overwintering colony - up date

[Paul Cherubini]

Dr. Chip Taylor wrote:

> www.cnn.com is running an update on the recent Monarch die-off at the
> San Andres overwintering colony in Mexico. The article presents a
> chronology of events that led to the presumption that the monarchs
> had been sprayed at this location. 

"led to the presumption"? How about outright lie? Below is the
original sensational and erroneous report the environmentalist Homero
Aridjis, leader of the Group of 100 environmental lobby
provided to the media:

"There has been a massive slaughter of the butterflies in two
sanctuaries, We believe that loggers sprayed pesticides, possibly
DDT, on the trunks and branches of oyamel trees, killing all of the
Monarchs (Danaus plexippus) in the colony. Loggers have been 
carrying away bags and bags of dead butterflies....."

The same general three step BAIT, then SWITCH then QUIETLY 
RETRACT chronology of events (involving the same environmentalists 
and scientists) occurred five years ago after a major snowstorm at the
monarch sanctuaries in Mexico:

STEP #1 : Environmentalists initially BAIT the national media with 
an erroneous story of incredible butterfly mortality:

Date: 01/03/96: 
MEXICO CITY (Associated Press) Snowfall and a cold snap have killed 
millions of monarch butterflies at their wintering grounds in mountainous
western Mexico. A preliminary survey of the butterfly sanctuaries by
researchers indicates at least 30 percent of the 50 million to 60 million 
monarchs that migrated there from the United States and Canada perished, 
a leading environmentalist said Tuesday. ``This is just devastating,'' 
said Homero Aridjis, leader of the Group of 100 environmental lobby. `

STEP #2: Monarch scientists enter the scene and SWITCH the discussion 
in the media away from the snow and cold as being the cause of massive
mortality to "a new interpretation" that ascribes the  die-off preventable
man-made causes such as forest degradation and thinning:

New York Times,Friday, Jan. 26, 1996
Mexico - Logging in Mexico Imperils Butterflies
by HOMERO ARIDJIS and LINCOLN P. BROWER:

"As many as 30 million monarch butterflies -- perhaps 30 percent 
of the North American monarch population -- died after a snow storm 
hit their sanctuaries in Mexico last December. But storms are not the 
real threat to the monarchs, which have wintered in the cold
Mexican mountain tops for more than 10,000 years. As is true for 
so much of besieged nature, the real dangers the butterflies face are 
man-made." 

"The Monarch's existence is threatened by the cutting of the 
remaining Oyamel forests. When intact, a forest serves as an umbrella 
and blanket, protecting the butterflies from freezing rains. The logging 
creates gaps that allow rain and snow to fall through the forest canopy
and onto the butterfly clusters. As the weather clears, the life- sustaining
heat radiated from the butterflies' bodies leaks out through these
holes in the blanket of trees and the monarchs freeze to death." 

Step #3 Weeks or months later QUIETLY RETRACT (with no national 
media coverage) the original fantastic claim of incredible butterfly mortality:

To: Journey North (April 1996) From: Dr. Lincoln Brower
"I was in Mexico in the middle of March at the Sierra Chincua 
overwintering site. We now know that the early January, 1996 estimates 
of the severity of the storm damage were mistaken. Eneida Montesinos 
Patino and Eduardo Rendon Salinas, our Mexican student researchers, 
have hard numbers: Only 6 to 7% of the butterflies were killed by the late 
December, 1995 snowstorm."

NET RESULT: The general public and potential granting agencies 
never hear any retraction and are left thinking the monarch butterfly is 
in big trouble in Mexico due to forest degradation and thinning even 
though the hypothesis that forest thinning leads to mass mortality during
storms and freezes has never been substantiated.

REWARDS FOR THE ENVIRONMENTALISTS AND SCIENTISTS: 
Granting agencies in the USA provide millions of dollars to purchase the
land or logging rights from the Mexican people.  Environmentalists and 
monarch scientists get to administer the programs. Programs include 
funding to "study and manage" the sanctuaries. Scientists thus get to study 
migration behavior, genetics, and so on and publish their results, hence 
achieving the rare goal of surviving academically studying 
an insect that has no direct economic importance to society.

Paul Cherubini, Placerville, Calif.

 
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