How about plantations of the oyamel fir in the USA as Monarch sanctuaries?
RWPJr
(Abies religiosa) in Florida and Texas modeled after the 12
sanctuaries in Mexico? There is a hill at the Archbold Biological
Station near Lake Placid, Fla. that used to have planted mahoganies
and mangoes but they were eventually killed by a heavy frost or
allowed to expire. We know that Monarchs occasionally get through the
winter in Florida and seem to do quite well overwintering in coastal
California. Does anybody have a gut feeling for how much it would
cost to buy the land, cultivate oyamels there (or an appropriate
substitute tree), and manage the plantation? Monarchs could be bred
and overwintered locally in captivity in a temperature and humidity
controlled environment (as they are or could be in commercial
butterfly houses) and then released for a northward flight at the
appropriate time in the spring. Gradually natural selection should
get some returns in the fall. Would say a thousand acres in Florida
and another thousand in Texas be large enough to be interesting?
Roger, Springfield, MA
Paul Cherubini
> Why not save the Monarch by planting preserves of oyamel fir
> (Abies religiosa) in Florida and Texas modeled after the 12
> sanctuaries in Mexico?
The oyamel fir forests in the 12 butterfly sanctuary areas of Mexico
are not dissappearing so there is no need for planting preserves
elsewhere in order to save the Monarch. Here are a couple
aerial photos taken by Dr. Lincoln Brower in 2006 that show how large
the oyamel forests are in relation to the tiny size of most of the
monarch colonies:
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k75/4af/hera.jpg
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k75/4af/herb.jpg
So if a forest fire or illegal forest thinning incident occurs,
the butterflies have a huge amount of nearby good quality
forest to reform their clusters.
The oyamel forest grows back rapidly on its own after forest
fires or illegal forest thinning incidents (the region gets 60-70
inches of rain per year). So that is why organized oyamel
reforestation projects havn't been needed.
Paul Cherubini
El Dorado, Calif.