FW: [BIRDCHAT] Deadly Eucalyptus

Paul Cherubini monarch at saber.net
Sat Jan 26 15:34:07 EST 2002


Barbara Beck wrote:

> You may have a place where Monarch can spend the
> winter (if that is indeed the critical part of their life 
> cycle for survival) but what about the degradation of
> the habitat for other species including butterflies whose
> host plants cannot grow under these things.  Monarch 
> naturally overwinter quite well and still do in some of 
> the Monterey Pines.  California does not need more of 
> its .

Monarchs needs only tiny 5 acre eucalyptus groves - about
40 of them scattered over a 400 mile long stretch of coastline.
So the amount of "precious wildlife habitat overrun by these 
smelly exotics" would be infitessimally small.  

> The January 2002 issue of Audubon Magazine's "Incite" section deals
> with eucalyptus in the U.S., the environmental damage it causes, and
> how warblers and other birds die when their nares get clogged by
> eucalyptus sap. 

What about the benefits of eucalyptus groves to birds and other wildlife?
One point I think all monarch biologists would agree on is that 
eucalyptus groves with monarch overwintering sites are teaming with 
birds.  One such grove, ironically, is part of an Audubon Bird
Santuary in Los Osos, Calif. (The Sweet Springs Marsh).

Prior to the introduction of eucalyptus from Australia around 1860, 
most of the California coast was a treeless, prairie grassland.  

Paul Cherubini

 
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