Western Monarchs are doing better this summer

[Erik Runquist]

  Monarchs are certainly very common here in SW Oregon right now, much more 
so than last year!  Indeed, I transfered 50 wild 5th instars off our 
milkweed patch just yesterday.  They were stripping it bare, and there at 
least another 30 down there.  Despite the thick smoke from our fires, two 
males were actively patrolling the patch of wild A. speciosa I transfered 
them to.  I'm seeing at least a few monarchs everyday I am out doing my 
butterfly surveys in our local Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument (not great 
Monarch habitat), and adults are a readily predictable sight at milkweed 
patches.
  Erik Runquist


>From: Paul Cherubini <monarch at saber.net>
>Reply-To: monarch at saber.net
>To: leps-l at lists.yale.edu
>Subject: Western Monarchs are doing better this summer
>Date: Mon, 05 Aug 2002 15:54:10 +0000
>
>Last winter monarch overwintering populations along the California
>coast were way below normal.  By mid June, however,
>monarchs were a common sight at milkweed patches
>around the western USA.  How the monarchs recover so
>rapidly is not well understood.
>
>Most of the western monarch summer breeding habitat
>is man made.  For example, in the Mount Shasta area
>of extreme northern California milkweed plants have
>invaded patches of forest that were that were clear cut
>several decades ago.  In this way, human activity inadvertently
>creates new breeding opportunities for monarchs.  Here
>are two photos I took on July 11, 2002 of
>milkweed in the Mount Shasta area growing on clear cut
>forest land:
>
>http://www.saber.net/~monarch/shastaper.jpg
>http://www.saber.net/~monarch/stewspg3.jpg
>
>A couple years ago monarch biologist Dr. Karen
>Oberhauser asked kind of jokingly: "Is logging
>ever good for monarchs ?   Well its no joke that logging
>has been good in some circumstances for western monarchs.
>
>Paul Cherubini
>Placerville, Calif.
>
>
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