U.S., Mexico and Canada are asked to protect monarch butterflies

[unhappycamper]

http://www.latimes.com/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-us-mexico-canada-monarch-butterflies-20140214,0,3481239.story



A monarch rests on a tree trunk in the Sierra Chincua butterfly sanctuary in the mountains of Mexico's Michoacan state.

U.S., Mexico and Canada are asked to protect monarch butterflies
By Tracy Wilkinson
February 14, 2014, 3:12 p.m.

MEXICO CITY – The annual migration to Mexico of millions of orange-and-black monarch butterflies is one of the nation’s cherished rituals. But it could come to a virtual halt if the insect’s natural habitat is not urgently salvaged.

That is the conclusion of a long list of scientists, artists and environmentalists who are calling on the leaders of Mexico, the United States and Canada to act swiftly to protect butterfly breeding grounds. President Obama, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper are to meet in Mexico next week to discuss economy, trade and other issues.

Though the number of butterflies that travel thousands of miles across North America to Mexico has been declining fairly steadily for years, the migration has never been in more danger than now, the activists say.

Blame has always been put on rampant illegal logging in Mexico that destroys the oyamel fir forests where the insects alight and spend the winter. Increasingly, however, activists say blame must be placed on eradication of the milkweed plants in the U.S. where the butterflies lay their eggs and where monarch caterpillars eat.

[roody]

1. Plant milkweed!!

[NickB79]

2. So long as we keep embracing factory farm ag, the monarchs are screwed

To sustain the population and it's annual migration, you need more than a few reservoirs of milkweed here and there across the country. What we need are the edge habitats that have been sacrificed to 21st century industrial farming methods that plow fenceline-to-fenceline, spray copious amounts of herbicides, farm land that in years past would have been in conservation programs, and clearcut forested land all in the name of greater profit margins. I see every day the farmers in my neck of the woods chewing further and further into the few remaining natural spaces. It's sickening.

Short of new laws to protect monarch habitat with harsh penalties for violators, the status quo of corporate farming is incompatible with saving the monarch migrations. And considering the impressive clout and money the corporate ag companies have in Washington, good luck getting such laws passed anytime soon. Hell, we couldn't even get a new CRP law passed to pay farmers not to farm their erodible land.

What we will see are laws passed that give people the impression of action while the monarchs pass the point of no return.