Monarch Butterflies

Plant milkweed this year!!!!!!


http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/788062--monarch-butterflies-may-face-one-of-worst-years-ever

Monarch butterflies may face one of worst years ever

Published On Wed Mar 31 2010 Debra Black Staff Reporter

Monarch butterflies seem to be facing yet another year of declining numbers as they battle against climate change and the loss of habitat. And this one could be one of the worst ever, a leading entomologist said.

The odds may be against monarch butterflies resurging to normal population levels this year, worries entomologist Chip Taylor and director of Monarch Watch at the University of Kansas-Lawrence.

The monarch butterfly population that went to Mexico this past winter was the smallest overwintering population ever, said Taylor. And then the butterflies were hit this past winter with three massive storms, including a hail storm followed by 15 inches of rain.

Taylor estimates that the population could have been reduced by at least 50 per cent and perhaps considerably more.

“I’m really concerned,” said Taylor. “This means the numbers going to Texas (the first reproductive stop on their long migration back to Ontario) are going to be down.”

And down in a big way. That translates into a smaller group of butterflies trying to lay eggs and rebuild the population base. “The problem is the numbers are so small the chance of a really strong recovery is not great.”

Last year monarch butterflies found themselves facing bad conditions in Texas because of hot temperatures. The egg-laying population died off really fast, and for those that survived the number of eggs laid was substantially down. This year, however, conditions in Texas are good: Vegetation is lush and the temperature is cool. Reproduction should be quite good, Taylor said.

But will it be good enough to return to healthy numbers? Highly debatable, said Taylor.

“We’ve been below the long-term average for six years,” he said.

It takes three or four generations of monarchs to reach Canada. Then in the fall, that final generation returns to Mexico where they overwinter before starting the whole reproduction process over again.

One of the biggest problems for the butterflies is the issue of climate change in Mexico as the loss of their habitat due to illegal logging and development.

“We’re talking about significant degradation at overwintering sites; the loss of habitat in the United States and Canada and climate change in Mexico. We’ve had three major killing winter storms in the last decade that have never been seen previously. We’re dealing with something new here, and that’s consistent with climate change.”

In the U.S., Taylor said, 890,000 hectares of habitat a year have been lost due to various forms of development. Over the 18 years he has been running Monarch Watch, he estimates 59 million hectares of monarch-butterfly habitat have been lost. That’s more than three times the size of the state of Illinois.

It will be mid-May or even later before groups like Monarch Watch can be definitive about the butterfly population that will be coming to Canada.

Nobody knows how it will play out, said Leslie Foster, manager of educational programming at the Niagara Parks’ Botanical Gardens and School of Agriculture and the former butterfly curator at the Niagara Parks Butterfly Conservatory. “It was definitely a tough year for the monarchs down in Mexico.”

They overwinter in a World Heritage designated forest, but it’s a difficult area to protect because of illegal logging activities and development, Foster said. Both have ruined the mountainous habitat just northwest of Mexico City. “It’s a complicated situation to understand fully.”

Also conspiring against the monarch butterflies are things like the use of herbicides specifically designed to allow crops like soybeans to live even though fields have been sprayed. Those herbicides kill off a necessary food for the monarchs: milkweed.