Fwd: Monarch saviors

[Paul Cherubini]

Richard Worth wrote:
>
> FYI.  Some good news
> Butterfly Bodyguards
> illegal logging has put the monarch's survival at risk.
> To its rescue has come a Mexican butterfly patrol, including
> 500 police as well as environmental inspectors and helicopters.
> So far, the effort has netted 28 illegal loggers and nearly 5,000
> cubic yards of ill-gotten wood.

This Sierra Magazine article failed to inform the reader that
the harvested trees in this case were growing way below the
altitude where the monarchs cluster.  Therefore the "5,000
cubic yards of ill-gotten wood" did not actually represent any monarch
cluster habitat that was lost.  It follows that even if more of this
"illegal" type harvesting should occur in the future, it will not pose a
threat to the monarch. Thus the butterfly patrol people aren't really
"rescuing" the monarch.

You see a few years ago, American monarch biologists arbitrarily
enlarged the Monarch Reserve boundaries way beyond and below 
the altitude where the monarchs cluster.  Understandably, some of 
the local people are angry about being deprived of access to 
large areas of forest which the butterflies don't actually need or 
use.

Here is another actual case history of some illegal (apparently)
logging within the Chincua Monarch Reserve a few years ago
and my explanation as to why is it does not pose a threat to the 
monarch: http://www.saber.net/~monarch/chincualog.jpg

Paul Cherubini
El Dorado, Calif.

 
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