Monarchs and Monoculture in southern Michigan

[Paul Cherubini]

Neil Jones wrote:

> You spray herbicide on the weeds. The weeds die. What do you
> expect to happen to the lepidoptera that feed on these weeds?
> What one cannot do is use the dodgy data that Paul
> Cherubini puts forward to say there is no effect

Neil, I didn't say there was "no effect."  I said: "even in spite of
modern agricultural practices, Monarchs remain spectacularly
abundant in precisely the areas with the most intensive
plantings of Bt corn and Roundup Ready soybeans;  areas such
as southern Minnesota and northern Iowa.  Here are more
pictures I took just 4 days ago of the spectacular monarch adult
abundance this year:

http://www.saber.net/~monarch/gayaa.jpg
http://www.saber.net/~monarch/gayc.jpg
http://www.saber.net/~monarch/gayd.jpg
http://www.saber.net/~monarch/gaye.jpg
http://www.saber.net/~monarch/gayf.jpg

Same situation with regard to Painted Ladies.  Painted Ladies
remain spectacularly abundant in precisely the areas with the
most intensive plantings of Bt corn and Roundup Ready
soybeans;  areas such as southern Minnesota and northern
Iowa:

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y189/mastertech/gilc.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y189/mastertech/gila.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y189/mastertech/gilb.jpg

I further pointed out: "the monarch overwintering population
in Mexico hasn't shown any pattern of decline the past 28 years
despite the changes in agricultural practices:

http://www.saber.net/~monarch/mexpops.jpg

Lastly, I said: "Unfortunately, the news media isn't being told
that Monarchs and Painted Ladies are still spectacularly 
abundant in the areas with the most intensive plantings of 
genetically modified crops. Instead, here's what reporters are 
reading on the internet:"

http://www.monarchwatch.org/ws/index.html

"Widespread adoption of herbicide-resistant corn and soybeans
in the last 5 years has resulted in the loss of at least 80 million
acres of monarch habitat...without a major effort to restore
milkweeds to as many locations as possible, the monarch
population is certain to decline to extremely low levels."

Paul Cherubini
El Dorado, Calif.

 
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