"dire straits faced by most of our butterfly fauna"

patfoley patfoley at csus.edu
Fri May 4 10:10:32 EDT 2007


Paul,

Did you just shift your position from 1) There is no problem, so why are 
these scientists getting hysterical? to 2) The problem is so bad that 
these scientists can't do anything about it anyway, so why whine about it?

Patrick


Paul Cherubini wrote:
> patfoley wrote:
>  
>   
>> Paul,
>>
>> Sometimes conservationsists use the analogy of endangered species as
>> canaries in a coal mine. Canaries are chosen because their high
>> metabolism makes them succumb _before_ the miner does.
>>
>> Monarchs, Cabbage Whites and other weedy species are not good canaries.
>> We are talking weevils in the coal mine, garden slugs in the coal mine.
>> If Art Shapiro is right, that even weedy butterfly species are not
>> looking good in the Central Valley, then we are past the canary stage.
>> Time to see what is going on. 
>>     
>
> Pat,  if Art Shapiro and other investigators were awarded millions 
> of dollars of grant money to determine why "even weedy 
> butterfly species are not looking good" in the Central Valley, 
> of California, then what?
>
> Consider this recent aerial photo of the landscape 
> immediately south of Art Shapiro's West Sacramento, Calif. study site:
> http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k75/4af/sac.jpg 
> With urbanization replacing farmland on a scale as massive as
> shown in this photo, is it even remotely conceivable that 
> Shapiro or anyone else could come up with effective and 
> affordable mitigation measures?  
>
> Paul Cherubini
> El Dorado, Calif.
>
>  
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