Winter Sightings! >>
Today's Report Includes:
- Monarch
Conservation in Mexico: It's All About the Forest >>
- What story do these pictures tell?
- Ways
Families Use Wood from the Forest >>
- Two loads of firewood per week.
- How many uses of wood can you find?
- Meeting People Who Share the Forest >>
- News!
>>
- Teachers Visit Butterflies & Take Books to Students
- Challenge Question #3 >>
- Links: Monarch Butterfly Resources to Explore >>
This
week:
Putting a face on monarch conservation. >>
The monarch's story is one of nature's greatest survival stories. Monarchs defy our imagination as they migrate to Mexico, find their winter home by instinct, form colonies by the millions, and survive all winter while eating little or nothing at all. Yet, above all, competition with people over use of the forest is the greatest challenge to the monarch's survival in Mexico. Simply put:
- Monarchs need the forest: Scientists know that monarchs survive the winter in Mexico only because the climate of the forest matches the butterflies' needs exactly.
- People are also using the forest: Over 90,000 people live in the monarch butterfly sanctuary region. People take wood from the forest in legal and illegal ways.
- There are no easy answers! People and butterflies are competing for the same resources. Finding ways to balance these needs presents a challenge to the local, national and world communities.
Today we'll look at some of the conservation problems monarchs face. Next week we'll explore some solutions and see how Journey North kids are helping through donations last fall to the Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary Foundation.
What story do these pictures tell? >>
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Two loads of firewood per week. >> Families need wood for cooking. They do not burn wood to heat their homes even though it's quite cold at night. (Temperatures drop into the 40's and can often fall below freezing!) People use a burrow to carry wood from the forest. A typical family needs two loads of wood per week. Watch Saul and his father load wood onto their burrow. The mountain in the background is the El Rosario sanctuary. |
How many uses of wood can you find? >> Noemi's
family lives the traditional mountain lifestyle of Michoacan.
Wood is important to the family's survival. We asked Noemi's father
to show us ways they use wood in their daily lives. Brainstorm
with your class before you watch the video: In how many
different ways do you suppose the family uses wood? |
By Elizabeth Howard
Over many years, we have collected stories about the lives of people who
share their mountain homes with the monarchs every winter. We hope you'll
enjoy meeting some of the children and families who live there.
- Take a Spanish lesson from Noemi and her dad. >>
- Follow Berenices home and bake some bread. >>
- Learn about the corn, tortillas and the seasons. >>
Looking for friendship and understanding is the best approach when trying to solve problems — monarch conservation problems too!!
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| Noemi's parents, film producer Kim Milam and me in December |
Noemi and her dad in December | Noemi and me in 2002 |
Speaking of friendship! Twenty teachers who are visiting the monarchs in Mexico this week also took hundreds of books to students who live near the Cerro Pelon monarch sanctuary.
"Students were also excited to receive friendship bracelets made by students at Mountain View Elementary School in Johnson City, Tennessee," wrote trip leader Susan Meyers.
This Week's Question:
- In how many different ways did you see families using wood from the forest? Send us a list. Also, tell us what you found the most interesting about life in the monarch region.
To Respond: Write in your journal and send us your answer for possible inclusion in next week's update.
Answer to last week's question
The Next Monarch Migration Update Will Be Posted on February 28, 2008.
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