[Leps-l] New report about status of monarch butterflies in North America

[Paul Cherubini]

Matthew Shepherd @xerces.org> wrote:

> The eastern monarch population was assessed as “critically imperiled”
> ldue to recent rapid decline and widespread threats. 

Far from being “critically imperiled” due to GMO crops, eastern
migratory monarchs can still be filmed by the hundreds in numerous 
GMO farmland habitats across the upper Midwest, including Iowa,
Minnesota, the Dakotas, as so forth.

Example: Lamberton, Minnesota is in the heart of the GMO crop 
farmland of south-central Minnesota and last September 
Univ. of Minn. employees shot this video of hundreds of migratory
monarchs gathered adjacent crop fields: 
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.youtube.com_watch-3Fv-3D32usE8vikxA&d=AwIF-g&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=tVAKMFPe3UCcsMWUFXo0FeX0xe1JUAj77B74DAI3DKI&m=jK9WjHHvMY40bTP5b4l0FG9WAMKcWDydoEw4YPI1960&s=3n5E7eM34Hqrkqav0TzDgvN_8Dvv8TraiSCEBIsZAtc&e=  

Some GMO crop farmers in the upper Midwest are themselves 
posting photos of large gatherings of monarchs on their farm 
property like this South Dakota farmer did on Sept. 4, 2014: 
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.learner.org_cgi-2Dbin_jnorth_jn-2Dquery-2Dbyday-3F1409942868&d=AwIF-g&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=tVAKMFPe3UCcsMWUFXo0FeX0xe1JUAj77B74DAI3DKI&m=jK9WjHHvMY40bTP5b4l0FG9WAMKcWDydoEw4YPI1960&s=kJw8-aNBYtL9OSSbV8LWJzuxAxLoqD3iuUMSowVz0PE&e=  

Also, a billion+ milkweed plants still routinely grow in the 
500,000+ miles worth of the upper Midwest's mostly gravel 
farm road ditches that border the GMO crops like this:
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.imagegainer.com_images_PaulCherubini_plummer.jpg&d=AwIF-g&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=tVAKMFPe3UCcsMWUFXo0FeX0xe1JUAj77B74DAI3DKI&m=jK9WjHHvMY40bTP5b4l0FG9WAMKcWDydoEw4YPI1960&s=n2TXAJr4lEcInnpfA62aSaGdzezvO8n-8YeoKE7rVt0&e= 

Bees, wasps and other pollinators are also abundant in
these gravel farm road ditches that border the Midwest’s
GMO crops - look at how good the seed pod set is of these
milkweed plants growing right on the edge of a crop
fields in south-central Minnesota:
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.imagegainer.com_images_PaulCherubini_podspoll.jpg&d=AwIF-g&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=tVAKMFPe3UCcsMWUFXo0FeX0xe1JUAj77B74DAI3DKI&m=jK9WjHHvMY40bTP5b4l0FG9WAMKcWDydoEw4YPI1960&s=v5G63_TnzxGedzgJ2Kshiz-UY-uVNgYyoWy17NB6Pn4&e= 

Paul Cherubini
El Dorado, Calif.