A Monarch Watch Visit to the Monarch Reserves in Mexico

Some months ago Dennis Curtin, a writer of ebook instruction manuals on how to use specific cameras, contacted us concerning an ebook he is creating about monarchs. One communication and idea led to another as we discussed the development and marketing of his book. One of the book’s deficiencies at first draft was an absence of coverage of the overwintering monarch colonies in Mexico, and the obvious solution was to invite Denny, with his great camera skills, to join us on our March trip to Mexico. We learned a lot about Denny on this trip. Not only does he have a camera at hand most of the time, but he is a compulsive blogger. Each morning as I awoke I found him hunched over his computer punching out words with two fingers to capture the events of the previous day. Denny has compiled all of these daily jottings along with a kazillion photos into a journal describing the whole adventure:

If you have ever been to the Monarch Reserves, you will recognize many of the scenes and you can relive part of your experience through Denny’s pictures. For those who haven’t been to the Reserves, this journal is a sample of what you will see once you get there.

Christine Merlin was also along on this trip. Christine has a PhD from France where she worked on the daily rhythm of sensitivity of a moth’s antennae to pheromones. Christine is now a post-doctoral associate in the laboratory of Dr Steven Reppert of the University of Massachusetts Medical School where she and the members of Dr. Reppert’s team are trying to unravel the molecular/genetic basis of the orientation behavior and navigation exhibited by monarchs during their migration. I met Christine during a visit to Dr. Reppert’s laboratory in February of 2008. At that time Christine indicated a passionate desire to visit the monarch overwintering sites so that she could get a real sense of the phenomenon she is studying.

Ann Ryan, whom many of you know if you have communicated with Monarch Watch, also made the trip as did Janis Lentz, a high school teacher from Weslaco, Texas. Janis has worked behind the scenes for Monarch Watch for years and years.

While I enjoyed the entire trip, and this agreeable bunch, I had a side adventure: I spent 4 extraordinary days working with a film crew funded by Disney at El Rosario. It was total monarch immersion, all day every day, from 6AM to 7PM. The film crew was the largest I’ve worked with and there were three cameras going most of the time. The footage will be spectacular and like no other on monarchs to date.

Disney has commissioned a series of nature films, and this film about pollination and pollinators is scheduled for theaters in 2010-2011. The working title for the film is “Naked Beauty” - but the bets are the title will be changed in time to something like “Nature’s Beauty: A love story that feeds the world”. The film’s message is important and timely. Nature’s beauty, as represented by numerous pollinators and the fruits, nuts, berries, and seeds that are the products of their efforts, will be skillfully and dramatically presented through the masterful direction and loving eye of the film’s director, Louie Schwartzberg.

Again, to see the Journal download:

Monarch Watch has a 9 year old fan

It’s always nice to hear about how Monarch Watch touches people’s lives…

Just thought I’d let you know how much Monarch Watch has influenced my 9 year old daughter. We’ve enjoyed visiting your tent at the Powell Garden’s Butterfly Festival for several years now. Last month, my daughter Zoe chose to participate in a local Science Expo and made her display on monarchs.

She even passed out fliers she made that said “Take Some Seeds Plant Some Milkweed” and included a small packet of seeds with each one. She was really proud that her display and fliers were very popular. This year she plans to make our butterfly garden an official Monarch Waystation.

Thanks for doing such a great job educating the public about monarchs. You’ve helped foster a love of science as well as gardening in my child. And I have no doubt that she’ll continue to be a monarch advocate throughout her life.

- Laura Darnell

That’s a great display Zoe - we (and the monarchs) thank you for your continued support!

Monarch Butterfly Conservation Talking Points

There are several organizations concerned with monarch conservation and among these is the North American Pollinator Protection Campaign (NAPPC), a tri-national consortium of more than 90 affiliated organizations (pollinator researchers, conservation and environmental groups, private industry, and state and federal agencies) from Mexico, the United States, and Canada. The major goal of the NAPPC alliance is to develop and implement an action plan to “coordinate local, national, and international action projects in the areas of pollinator research, education and awareness, conservation and restoration, policies and practices, and special partnership initiatives; facilitate communication among stakeholders, build strategic coalitions, and leverage existing resources; and demonstrate a positive measurable impact on the populations and health of pollinating animals within five years.”

I have been a member of the NAPPC Steering Committee since its inception in 2001 and two years ago a Monarch Task Force was created to address issues associated with monarch conservation. The following document was crafted over the last few months by members of this task force with input from other monarch experts - contributors are mentioned at the end of the document.

Monarch butterflies migrate to Mexico each fall from Canada and the United States to overwinter in forested areas in mountains west of Mexico City. This migration is truly spectacular and is one of the most magnificent and intriguing of all natural phenomena. The very existence of this migration is under threat due to illegal logging at the overwintering sites in Mexico and the loss of habitat due to development, land management practices and chemically-aided agriculture in the United States and Canada. These talking points further describe the value of the monarch migration, the benefits of conserving monarchs and the steps needed to conserve the monarch migration.

1. As the world’s most spectacular and conspicuous long distance insect migration, the monarch migration has scientific and cultural value and should be preserved.

Monarchs utilize a broad geographic range during their unique and spectacular annual migration. This trans-boundary species is threatened by habitat loss in all parts of their range in Mexico, the United States and Canada.

2. Conservation of monarchs will benefit pollinators and many other plants and animals.

Monarchs can serve as international and iconic representatives of all pollinators. Monarchs use resources common to a large number of pollinators, and the size of their population therefore reflects, in part, the health of the environment for pollinators in general. The security and stability of our food sources and ecosystems are dependent on healthy pollinator populations, and conserving monarchs will protect the habitats for an abundance of species.

3. Understanding the status of the monarch population will help us evaluate many ecological problems, including climate change.

Decreasing monarch numbers resulting from habitat loss indicates other ecological problems at local, regional and international levels. Thus, better understanding of monarch needs and factors that impact their populations can have broad environmental benefits. Because of our understanding of the climatic requirements for monarchs during their annual cycle of breeding, migrating and overwintering, changes in the timing and location of monarch life stages provide indicators of climate change. Recognizing the realities and manifestations of climate change will provide the basis for adaptive strategies designed to help maintain biodiversity and the integrity of ecosystems.

4. Many existing educational and conservation programs focused on monarchs are available and need additional audiences and support.

Government agencies and many non-governmental conservation and educational organizations in the United States, Mexico, and Canada are committed to supporting monarchs. Additionally, there are many opportunities for the public to engage in monarch research via several citizen science programs. All of these efforts need additional support to further engage the public, schools, nature centers, municipalities and government agencies in efforts to create habitats for monarchs.

5. Preservation of the monarch migration will require cooperative efforts to protect, restore and create monarch habitat.

Sustaining the monarch migration will require extensive efforts to educate the citizens and decision makers of Mexico, the United States and Canada of the value of the monarch migration and the necessity of protecting, restoring and creating monarch habitats. The cooperation of citizens, institutions, municipalities, government agencies and decision makers within these agencies will be enlisted in this effort. The North American Monarch Conservation Plan provides a blueprint for and commitment to action.

6. Financial and scientific support for monarch conservation is crucial.

In order for monarch conservation to succeed, we must increase our knowledge about monarch ecology and develop support for implementing research-based conservation measures. Funding is needed to support basic research on habitat restoration in different regions in each country. Also in need of funding are the educational, conservation and research programs focused on monarchs that are so critical in engaging the public and educating both the public and decision makers about the monarch migration. Of particular importance in the United States is better understanding of the distribution and abundance of milkweeds and nectar plants used by monarchs as well as knowledge of how to restore milkweeds to habitats from which they have been eliminated.

Monarch Task Force
North American Pollinator Protection Campaign
Special thanks for the preparation of this document to Task Force Co-Chair Karen Oberhauser, Ph.D. University of Minnesota; Task Force Co-Chair Donita Cotter, US Fish and Wildlife Service; Chip Taylor, Ph.D. MonarchWatch; Kathie Christie, Pollinator Partnership; Robert Lamb, Pollinator Partnership; Brad Stirn, Pollinator Partnership; Larry Stritch, Ph.D., US Forest Service; Wayne Wehling, Ph.D., USDA APHIS; Harriet Crosby, Farview Foundation; Marietta Eaton, Bureau of Land Management, Lincoln Brower, Ph.D., Sweet Briar College, and Elizabeth Howard, Journey North.

Monarch Watch Trip to Mexico (overview)

We have just returned from our annual trip to Mexico to purchase tags recovered at the overwintering sites. This is just a brief overview of the trip - a more detailed report will be posted soon.

1. We purchased about 1,000 tags - some 400 over budget. We received several on-site contributions and we will acknowledge these in the longer report. It will take a couple of week to process this many tags - please be patient a bit longer.
2. Monarchs are heading north and the colony at El Rosario is breaking up rapidly. As reported via Dplex-L, monarchs were seen in Austin, TX on the 6th. This is right on time - end of first week of March - for the earliest monarchs to be reported inland from the coast in Texas and is consistent with the earliest departures from the colonies sometime in the last week of February.
3. The condition of the monarchs at the overwintering colonies is exceptionally good. The number of tattered and worn monarchs relative to those in excellent to near perfect condition is small.
4. Overwintering mortality appears to have been minimal.
5. Federal police have a presence in Angangueo and we heard no large trucks rolling through town in the middle of the night.
6. We met and interacted with a number of tours and individuals who were in the monarch area. More on that later.
7. I spent 4 days working with a film crew from Disney at El Rosario. Disney has commissioned a series of nature films and this film about pollination and pollinators is scheduled for theaters in 2010-2011. The working title for the film is Naked Beauty - but the bets are the title will be changed in time to something like “Nature’s Beauty: A love story that feeds the world”. The film crew was the largest I’ve worked with and there were three cameras going most of the time. The footage will be spectacular and like no other to date.

Monarchs are going to get a lot of press as a result of the Disney production. While acting as the science advisor for this portion of the Disney film, I spoke with reporters from England, France, Germany, Argentina, Mexico, and the United States. All are expected to file stories on the film and on monarchs in highly visible publications.

While we were in Mexico, at least two other film crews from National Geographic and Discovery Channel were making short documentaries on monarchs. I don’t know whether the latter two productions had scientific advisors or had any scientific content.

Oh, and don’t expect to see any people in the Disney film. It’s all about the pollinators. Once the production goes to DVD, there will be lots of background on the different pollinators and it is possible then that you may see a scientist or two and hear their voices as various shots, mostly those not used in the final cut, are shown.

More to come!

Abies religiosa and Danaus plexippus

Daniel Mosquin, Education and Technology Manager at the UBC Botanical Garden and Centre for Plant Research, recently posted some photos and video taken at the Sierra Chincua Monarch Butterfly Reserve in Mexico. If you’d like to learn a bit more about Oyamel fir trees (Abies religiosa) - a major element of the monarch’s overwintering habitat - head on over to:

Botany Photo of the Day - Abies religiosa and Danaus plexippus

Try as he might to take better photographs of the fir trees (this is a “Botany Photo of the Day” feature after all), tens of thousands of monarch butterflies kept getting in the way!

Our Amazon Earnings - Feb ‘09

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, you can help support Monarch Watch with each purchase at Amazon.com and Endless.com (Amazon’s specialized Shoe and Handbag store). Monarch Watch earns a small referral fee equal to 4-15% of the item total when you use the links available on our site to visit these online stores.

During the last half of February, the following items were ordered in support of Monarch Watch:

Thank you to everyone who contributed to these numbers - remember to stop by our site first whenever you shop online!

Complete details are available at monarchwatch.org/amazon

Please help us by spreading the word to friends, family, coworkers, and any other Amazon.com or Endless.com shoppers you can think of - thank you for your continued support!

World on the Move: Great Animal Migrations

Last year at this time I was working with a BBC Radio crew in Mexico to record observations of the overwintering monarch population - as a part of their “World on the Move” series of programs in which they followed many migratory species around the world.

Overall, the BBC interviewed me four times as they followed the monarchs throughout the year. In addition, Karen Oberhauser provided BBC listeners with a perspective of the arrival of monarchs in the northern breeding area and Homero Aridjis gave an outlook from a Mexican point of view.

If you are so inclined, you can still listen to these radio reports - which the BBC assured me were heard by up to 1.2 billion people around the world, but by few of you I’m sure. In addition to the interviews, there are lots of photos, video, and other commentary.

Here are the links - enjoy!

Running with Monarchs - Part I

Running with Monarchs - Part II

Running with Monarchs - Part III

Running with Monarchs - Part IV

Monarch Caterpillars

Running with Monarchs - Part V

Monarchs Return to Mexico

Monarchs and the Day of the Dead

World on the Move Species: Monarch Butterfly

Monarch Watch’s Amazon.com Portal

Monarch Watch’s Amazon.com Portal page is available at

www.monarchwatch.org/amazon

(there’s a link on the Monarch Watch homepage as well).

Using the links provided on our portal page, each purchase at Amazon.com (for Books, Music, Movies, Electronics, etc. - even the new Kindle 2!) will help support Monarch Watch.

As many of you may recall, we set this page up several years ago but have not been actively promoting it for some time now. Given our financial outlook (see our “The Future of Monarch Watch” blog entry), it makes sense to revisit this and explore other ways of bringing in additional income.

It is perfectly functional now, but we will be updating the portal page in the coming weeks. We’ll also be introducing ways for you to help us promote this program via blogs, forums, social networking sites, etc. Stay tuned!

If you have any questions, please let us know - as always, thank you for your continued support!

Garden Show A Success

Whew - that was a long work weekend! Monarch Watch put in over 100 hours at the recent Metropolitan Lawn & Garden Show in Kansas City.

Our 10′ x 30′ booth contained a cage full of monarchs, milkweeds loaded with caterpillars and pupae, a plant a seedling activity, video & slideshow of the overwintering sites in Mexico, lots of Monarch Waystation info, and a mini “Monarch Watch Shop” where a few promotional and educational items were sold in support of our program.

Attendees got a first look at the new t-shirts that will be available via the Monarch Watch Shop soon:

Chip took the stage to give a couple of talks about creating habitats for butterflies and other pollinators:

I don’t know if every single one of the expected 30,000 visitors stopped by to see us but we definitely talked to a LOT of people about Monarch Watch and about creating habitats for monarchs and other wildlife. The donations collected and the few sales we made helped defray our costs of participating in the three-day event - more importantly though, we hope that we encouraged a large number of people to get involved in habitat conservation through our Monarch Waystation program (and that they get them certified!). Given the show’s proximity to Monarch Watch HQ in Lawrence, we also expect to see lots of first-time visitors to our Spring Open House and Plant Fundraiser coming up in May.

All in all I’d say this event was a success - we need to get the word out about Monarch Watch and habitat conservation; starting close to home makes sense

Metropolitan Lawn & Garden Show This Weekend

Spring’s just around the corner! The Metropolitan Lawn & Garden Show is Kansas City’s premier consumer Show dedicated to the green industry. This year’s theme is Butterfly Gardening and Monarch Watch has been invited to participate (and given complimentary booth space). We’ll have a large exhibit set up with lots of monarchs, videos, and information about our various programs, concentrating on Monarch Waystations. We’ll also be accepting donations, have t-shirts and other goodies for sale to support our program, and be giving away monarch habitat seeds, including milkweed - we’ll even have a pot-making activity where you can make your own little newspaper pots and plant seeds to take home.

Right next to us you’ll find the show’s “Butterfly Encounter” - an exhibit with live butterflies from around the world, one of the largest temporary displays ever built in the Midwest.

If you’re in the area we’d love for you to stop by the American Royal Center and see us sometime Friday through Sunday (Feb 6-8):

Friday 10a to 9p
Saturday 10a to 9p
Sunday 10a to 6p

For directions, ticket information, and other details please visit the Metropolitan Lawn & Garden Show website. See you there!