Today, February 26, 2016, WWF-Mexico released the aggregate area for all monarch overwintering colonies this winter, and we are happy to hear there is an increase. The total for this winter is 4.01 hectares, the highest total over the past 5 years. Monarch abundance can fluctuate a lot from one year to the next because of differences in the weather, etc., so it is too soon to see if this trend will continue. The total numbers remain in a long-term decline, however, and monarch habitat is being lost through logging at the sites of the overwintering colonies and declining habitat with milkweed in the central U.S. Conservation efforts must continue.
BBC World Interview
A member of the Board of Directors, Dr. Pablo Jaramillo Lopez, was just interviewed by BBC World about the current state of monarchs. You can listen to the interview here.
Monarchs in Querétaro, Mexico
Photos from Board Member Pablo Jaramillo López: “These are a few pictures I took of migrating monarchs I found in Jurica, Querétaro. This was such an amazing experience since I have never seen migrating monarchs outside of Michoacan before. These butterflies were able to find the only patch of trees in the Hacienda Jurica Hotel. Because it was cloudy, they sought shelter on the trees before resuming their migration. This was such a coincidence because I happened to be at this particular hotel at that particular time. Observations made on November the 8th, 2015 at 10 am in the morning. Location: Jurica, Querétaro.”
This site is about 150 km northeast of Morelia, north of the states of Michoacan and Mexico.
Monarchs have reached Mexico
We have reports that as of November 3 – right on schedule – the first monarchs have reached their winter home in the mountains west of Mexico City. Their remarkable life cycle continues!
Conservation of Mexican Forests
Our summer reforestation is complete! Our local partner in Mexico, Alternare, was joined by 700 hundred members from 7 local communities and planted 27,835 trees in 20 hectares of the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve’s buffer zone.
Communities were excited and enthusiastic taking care the seedlings were planted properly and in the locations they selected themselves. Plans to monitor and protect the recently forested areas are underway with local surveillance committees instituted to make sure the trees are safe from loggers. Local engagement has proved to be the most successful strategy prompting communities to take ownership of conservation and stewardship of their forests.
But that is not all! We also held a workshop to construct a cistern for a community with the participation of 2 women and 12 men and another7 workshops to build fuel-efficient stoves with 59 women and 3 men. We built 56 stoves! Proudly standing by a completed stove for her family, a participant expressed her satisfaction: “Building this stove will enable me to spend time with my family and keep them healthy because we don’t have as much smoke and we are saving wood.”
Thank you very much for your generous support which is making all this possible. We are looking forward to an overwintering season with a higher population of monarchs!
Citizen scientists in conservation
Karen Oberhauser of the University of Minnesota and a Director of the Monarch Butterfly Fund has recently published an article that shows: (1) citizen science has the potential to play a key role in conservation outreach, (2) volunteers obtain conservation information and support from citizen science projects, (3) volunteers become more involved in conservation after joining citizen science, and (4) conservation information and encouragement are linked to conservation action. You may read the abstract of the article here.