In an impressive example of what I hope will become commonplace in conservation efforts, the United States, Canada, and Mexico are working together to protect an important North American symbol–the monarch butterfly.

     In recent years this beautiful orange and black butterfly has been threatened.  Deforestation in Mexico where hundreds of millions of monarchs typically overwinter on just 12 mountaintops has reduced their winter habitat.  Their migratory habitat in the U.S. and southern Canada has also been degraded and diminished by pesticide use and land clearing for human purposes.

     But, thankfully, the three countries essential to monarchs’ survival are working together to ensure the butterfly’s future.  The North American Monarch Conservation Plan, developed by the three countries, with the help of scientists and many others, is a long-term, cooperative agenda committing the three countries to specific actions to meet the following goals:

• to eliminate deforestation in the monarch’s overwintering habitat in south-central Mexico and coastal California;
• to address threats of habitat loss and degradation along the monarch’s migratory routes;
• to address threats of loss, fragmentation, and modification of breeding habitats;
• to develop innovative ways to promote sustainable livelihoods for people in and around key monarch habitats;  and
• to monitor monarch populations across North America.

        The monarch is a fragile but tenacious and impressive little animal.  Consider the following:

• Monarch butterflies live wherever in the U.S. and Canada that milkweed grows. They are most prevalent in the midwest, the region with the most milkweed.
• Milkweed is the only food of monarch larvae, while adult monarchs sip the nectar of many different flowering plants.
• While most butterfly species can tolerate low temperatures for some portion of the year, monarchs cannot, and so they migrate each year.  Monarchs east of the Rocky Mountains migrate to a mountainous area of south-central Mexico, while monarchs west of the Rockies migrate to coastal California for the winter months.
• The monarchs that fly south in the fall are the great grandchildren of the monarchs who began the northern migration just a few months before.  When the first generation of the spring flies north after overwintering in Mexico’s high altitude forests, they breed and die after a few weeks.  The next generation, then, continues the northern journey begun by its parents.  The third generation does the same, advancing still farther north.  Only the fourth and final generation of the year, mature by autumn, makes the southward trip to Mexico, to a place it has never been!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 17th, 2008 at 9:46 am and is filed under Good news for Mother Earth!. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.