Charges fly about monarch’s fall
by Mark Stevenson
Associated Press
Fri, Feb. 18, 2005
With fewer monarch butterflies in Mexico, the government blamed cold weather and farming in their summer home of Canada and the U.S., while activists blamed logging.
MEXICO CITY—The population of monarch butterflies has suffered a drastic decline, but Mexico—where deforestation has long devastated monarch wintering grounds—is now blaming the United States and Canada.
Mexico’s Environment Department said on Wednesday that 75 percent fewer monarch butterflies appeared in 2004 compared to previous years.
It blamed cold weather and intensive farming—including
of genetically modified crops—in areas of the United States and Canada where the butterflies spend the summer and reproduce.
Activists and researchers suggested Mexico may be trying to offload some of the blame, after its own highly publicized efforts to stop illegal logging ran up against often violent resistance from logging gangs.
Incomplete Report
‘’This is an incomplete and tendentious report, that seeks to put all the blame on other countries which do share responsibility,’’ said Homero Aridjis, whose Group of 100 environmental organization has long opposed illegal logging.
‘’It is clear that the migratory phenomenon of the monarch butterfly … is not at risk,’’ the Environment Department said. “This is a species with a great capacity for recovering from die-offs.’’
The announcement, however, focused almost exclusively on events in the United States and Canada, including ‘’industrial agriculture that displaced breeding and feeding grounds,’’ ‘’the use of herbicides and loss of habitat,’’ and the planting of genetically modified crops not used in Mexico.
In Recovery
The government claimed Mexican forests ‘’are healthy or in full recovery,’’ and that logging had been completely eradicated in the butterfly reserves, statements disputed by activists such as Aridjis, who say illegal logging is a huge problem.
‘’The main problem is the illegal loggers,’’ Aridjis said. “If nothing is done, looking at it pessimistically, we’re going to see fewer and fewer butterflies.’’
In some widely publicized laboratory experiments, monarch butterfly caterpillars did die after eating milkweed coated with genetically modified corn pollen. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said there probably is little risk to butterflies.
Researchers measured the area covered by butterflies, a fairly accurate indicator since they tend to literally blanket forest areas in dense orange-and-black clumps.
The annual arrival of butterflies from across North America to winter in Mexico—where they stay from October to late March—is an aesthetic and scientific wonder.
The butterflies have proved remarkably resistant to both natural and man-made threats. In 2001, driving rain and bitter cold killed millions, leading scientists to speculate that migrating populations would be seriously depleted in 2002. To their surprise, anywhere from 200 million to more than 500 million monarchs returned that year—twice as many as some predicted.
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Posted by: noble on February 22, 2005 at 11:49:09