[Leps-l] [leps-talk] Monarch Armageddon

[Jim Wiker]

Hi Paul,
Roundup and 7 foot high spraying booms have taken care of most any broadleaf plants around here. I'm a good botanist and can tell you, what they don't plow, as they weaver in and out of the utility poles, has been hit with so much over-sprayed herbicide (as they turn and swing out over the road) that there is nothing in most places. It's an engineered mono-culture of "nothing natural". Come on out, I'll drive you around and show you. Any grass that does grow gets mowed so often, and short that a piss-ant couldn't hide in it let alone any kind of nesting bird or small mammal. This is corporate farming, no ties to the land, community, or any natural features. It's all about the money. They fight over every parcel of land here and pay out so much an acre that the profit margins are slim. They have to have tens of thousands of acres rented out to make anything so any square foot that can be plowed, is being plowed. They blanket spray herbicide for everything. I live in it, there are no longer pheasants, rabbits to speak of and the sound of a Bobwhite is almost a thing of the past. I don't drink the ground water anymore and grew up on wells here. 
 
Don't get me wrong Paul, some people don't like these discussions on here. I think they are vital and at least gets people talking, regardless of which side of the fence they are on. This just finally got me to write something. 
 
Jim Wiker
Well preserved in a sea of Roundup, Bt, corn and beans.
Greenview, IL
 
-----Original Message-----
From: Paul Cherubini <monarch at saber.net>
To: Leps List <Leps-l at mailman.yale.edu>
Sent: Sat, Feb 16, 2013 11:46 am
Subject: Re: [Leps-l] [leps-talk] Monarch Armageddon


On Feb 16, 2013, at 8:09 AM, Jim Wiker (Illinois) wrote:

> I can tell you there is quite a drop in weeds of all kinds,
> nothing but rank grasses grow in our ditches now....
> ..nothing, no color at all. 

Jim, in the neighboring states of Minnesota and Iowa I 
havn't had much trouble finding flowers and pollinators 
in the ditches that border the corn and soybean fields:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7owV6o6xNWM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrvwUT29NN4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9LT_8Bt9RY

What I often find is that a ditch that initially looks like
it's filled only with grass actually has other plants, 
including flowering weeds if I get out of my car
and take a closer look.  

Paul Cherubini
El Dorado, Calif.
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