By Michael Wines, March 13, 2013. Source: The New York Times
The monarch population has declined with extreme weather and changes in farming that have diminished its source of food. Photo: Travis Morisse/ The Hutchinson News via Associated Press
The number of monarch butterflies that completed an annual migration to their winter home in a Mexican forest sank this year to its lowest level in at least two decades, due mostly to extreme weather and changed farming practices in North America, the Mexican government and a conservation alliance reported on Wednesday.
The monarch population has declined with extreme weather and changes in farming that have diminished its source of food.
The area of forest occupied by the butterflies, once as high at 50 acres, dwindled to 2.94 acres in the annual census conducted in December,Mexico’s National Commission of Natural Protected Areas disclosed at a news conference in Zitácuaro, Mexico.
That was a 59 percent decline from the 7.14 acres of butterflies measured in December 2011. Continue reading
Christy Rodgers
Global Justice Ecology Project
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Jeff Conant
