Monarchs Unlimited

[Fishslime]

Ducks Unlimited found a way to send money to Canada to improve/control/purchase the breeding grounds of ducks and geese with Canada's help- let's do the same with Mexico for Monarchs Unlimited-allow research and tourism - improve/control/purchase the mountain ranges used by the wintering Monarchs - I'm sure a mountain in Mexico goes for around $10,000 American or 100,000 pesos -OK, go for $10,000,000-not so much when you think about it-we spend that much already and still don't control the winter ranges- I'm doing milkweed, next stop Mountains-

[Mona Miller]

Unfortunately, the illegal loggers would still be in there destroying the forest. I think the World Wildlife Fund pays the farmers a stipend for not farming that land. I think the Mexican government also has an agreement with them. Too bad, some people don't realize how important something is until it is totally gone.

[Fishslime]

maybe a wall like George Bush put between Mexico and the USA will keep the loggers out-and the money we saved by not going to Mars could make a bigger and longer fence - sorry George Bush just makes me laugh and cry at the same time- 8 years -ouch

[texas butterfly]

Maybe Bill Gates foundation could help.

Does his foundation help with conservation?

What about education and what impact that would have to classroom teaching if the Monarch butterfly was lost?

Seems this could be one cause that would help lots of people see the problem around us where people abuse and don't manage properly the natural resources.

[Mona Miller]

The Geraldine Rockefeller Dodge Foundation supports the Monarch Teacher Network:
http://www.grdodge.org/aboutus/historymission.htm

[Paul Cherubini]

Logging in Mexico is not a major problem because:

1) Most of people who own the land where the Monarch colonies are located are being paid not to farm or log the land. Only one colony site (Lomas de Aparcio) was logged and it was one of the few sites where the landowners did not want to be involved with the payment not to log program.

2) As the monarch breeding population in the eastern USA dwindles in coming years due to milkweed destruction, fewer and fewer overwintering sites in Mexico will be occupied by large numbers of the butterflies. So it won't matter much if there is some logging.

A major unpublicized monarch conservation problem exists in the western USA where the monarch
population has declined 70-80% from the levels that were present in the 1970's and 1980's. Back in the 1980's and 1990's millions of dollars of taxpayer funds was used to purchase alot of California overwintering sites, but much of this money was wasted because the monarch population has been down so much since 1999 that many of these protected sites are no longer occupied by the butterflies. Western conservationists failed to protect western milkweeds in the 80's and 90's and still are not doing much of anything to protect them so the western population should continue to decline.