[leps-talk] Re: Validity of Monarch Sanctuary Deforestation Claims

[Paul Cherubini]

Stan Gorodenski wrote:
 
> Your photographs look across the landscape. I have difficulty
> translating them into an arial view and so I cannot see how they 
> support your claims. Because they look across the trees instead
> of down on them (like in an arial photo), the existing trees could 
> easily hide deforested patches. 

I think my photographs are clear enough to make out most individual
trees and if there were any recently deforested patches, they would
likely show up. Another practical reason I am confident there have 
been no recently deforested patches in the cluster area shown in my 
photos is because there is an elaborate hiking trail system though this 
cluster area and tens of thousands of tourists walk these trails every 
year.  There would have been a public uproar if any patches of forest 
had actually been cut in recent years and news reporters, as well as 
the scientists, would have published photos of the fresh tree stumps.

In summary, the issue at hand in a nutshell as I see it is this:
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y189/mastertech/iss.jpg

The 11 scientists acknowledge the butterflies predictably clustered
in this designated cluster area between 1982-2002 and abandoned
it in 2003 and 2004.  The scientists futher claim that until recently
this forest was relatively dense and hypothesize that ongoing thinning
has "opened the forest" creating microclimate conditions the butterflies
do not tolerate. The problem I have with their claims is that no change 
is forest cover or forest density is visible* in my photographs between 
1990 and 2005. Therefore I feel the validity of their claims are 
questionable.

Do any of the 11 scientists have aerial or ground photos of their own to 
substantiate their claims that "ongoing thinning" in the cluster area that 
has "opened the forest"?  

Paul Cherubini
El Dorado, Calif.

*I can post more detailed versions of any area of the forest in the 
1990 or 2005 photos if anyone wishes to see them.

 
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