An explosion of first monarch reports in late May 2006

[Paul Cherubini]

Mike Quinn wrote:

> I know the monarch rhetoric gets turned up a notch (or two or three) on
> Leps-L, but I think we can all agree that this report from Journey North is
> good news!

The public, however, still thinks the eastern monarch migration is in
decline and could soon become extinct because that's what the 
academic & conservation community has been directly or 
subliminally telling them every year for the past 16+ years in 
various articles, websites and press releases. Recently, for example, 
educator Elizabeth C. Howard wrote the following:
http://www.blueridgecountry.com/ci/MountainGarden/index.html

"From a monarch's point of view, our midwestern breadbasket 
is becoming a biological desert."

I profoundly disagree with Elizabeth's statement.  I cannot 
think of any place in the whole world where monarchs are 
more abundant than in the upper midwestern breadbasket.  
Where else in the world can one see thousands of recently 
emerged monarchs in flight like this?:

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y189/mastertech/trua.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y189/mastertech/monoc.jpg

Nectar is also plentiful in the upper midwestern breadbasket
because some of the crops themselves bloom and provide nectar
(e.g. alfalfa and red clover):

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y189/mastertech/necte.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y189/mastertech/evena.jpg

Milkweed and nectar plants are also plentiful along the margins
of crops and roads in the upper Midwest:

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y189/mastertech/monod.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y189/mastertech/vert.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y189/mastertech/lia.jpg

The article also fails to mention that size of the monarch
overwintering populations in Mexico has not declined since
the time (approx. year 2000) when herbicide tolerant crops 
and Bt corn became widely adopted by upper midwestern
farmers: http://www.saber.net/~monarch/mexpopss.jpg
The annual Cape May monarch census also shows no pattern
of decline:
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y189/mastertech/cm.jpg

Lastly, the article fails to mention that urban sprawl isn't much 
of a problem for the monarchs in the upper Midwest because 
the human population in the rural farming areas (e.g.southwestern
Minnesota) isn't hardly growing and is actually declining in some 
cases.

Paul Cherubini
El Dorado, Calif.

 
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