Journey North Monarch Butterfly Spring 2003

Monarch Butterfly Migration Update: March 14, 2003

Today's Report Includes:

First Migrants Expected in Texas Any Day!
Recolonizing North America: Discussion of Challenge Question #9
Field Notes from Mexico by Dr. Bill Calvert
Reforestation Solutions: Michoacan Reforestation Project
How Fast the Forest Grows!
Your Donations to be Planted!
Children’s Monarch Butterfly Reforestation Project
Calculate the International Effort: Challenge Question #10
Breeding Grounds Habitat: Milkweed Emerging Along the Migration Trail

First Migrants Expected in Texas Any Day!

"We are awaiting the first northbound monarchs returning from Mexico this week," reported Harlen Aschen on the Texas Gulf coast. "Last year, we saw the first monarch on March 12, then three more on the 15th. There is a good crop of native, wild milkweeds awaiting the returning monarchs now.

We hope you’re ready to track the migration from Mexico! If you live in Texas, please keep your eyes on the skies--and be ready to report migrating monarchs! Also watch for the first leaves of local milkweed to emerge.

Recolonizing North America
Discussion of Challenge Question #9
Last week we asked what Dr. Calvert meant when he said the monarchs had begun to mate and were about to "begin the re-colonization of North America. An ambitious project, to be certain."

Mrs. Swentzel's third grade class knew: “The monarchs are going to leave their winter homes and begin flying back tocover North America. They will begin laying their eggs for the next generation to go on andrepopulate North America. They have a long way to go to bring them back to areas like ours. We look forward to seeing them, but we know it will be awhile, since we are covered in snow,” they reported from faraway Stanhope, New Jersey.

The map on the left shows the size of the task. The monarch breeding grounds in eastern North America are 11,000 times bigger than the space they occupy during the winter!

	Watch the pattern of recolonization shown in this animation. (Click to enlarge.)

Field Notes from Mexico by Dr. Bill Calvert

After last week’s magnificent flights in the forests, butterfly activity was comparatively quiet this week due to cooler temperatures. But the presence of monarchs in the streets and skies of Angangueo mean the migration north has definitely begun for some. "Once they’ve come down the mountains this far, they don’t go back," said Bill.

Link to Dr. Calvert's Field Notes

Reforestation Solutions: Michoacan Reforestation Project
During the past two weeks, we looked at two causes of deforestation: Domestic wood use and clearing for agriculture. Before exploring other causes, here’s a story about a hopeful solution:

A Michoacan man named Jose Luis Alvarez wondered,

“How can efforts to stop clearing and thinning the forests surrounding the monarch’s overwintering sites be successful if there are not alternative places to harvest wood?”

This question led him to create the Michoacan Reforestation Project (MRP). MRP takes a common-sense approach based in economic realities. The Project works with local landowners to help them shift away from growing marginal crops to growing trees. The landowners plant small commercial plantations. They harvest the trees for their own uses and for income. MRP provides free, high quality pine seedlings to the landowners, delivered directly to the planting sites.

As the forest grows, the trees are to be thinned and harvested according to this schedule:

4-5 years: Harvest of Christmas trees (for sale in Mexico City)
5 years: 1st thinning takes place, yielding posts, stakes, fence, and firewood.
10 years: 2nd thinning yields some lumber for boxes and pallets
15 years: Remaining trees now have heartwood diameters of 30 cm or greater and can be harvested for saw timber, beams and pallets. Waste material can also be used for pulp production. Upon harvesting, a landowner can expect income of over $20,000 U.S. dollars from 1 hectare.

MRP began the program in 1997. At the end of this year’s planting season, 1.3 million trees will have been planted in the monarch region.

(English)
(Spanish)

"This is a commercial plantation. The owner of this parcel of land will extract wood on the 5th year, on the 10th year and then on the 15th year."

(English)
(Spanish)

(Viewing Tips)

"Here is the tree that has been pruned, and these are the branches. These will be used for firewood. And for the tree, you can see here where it has been pruned. This is going to be high quality lumber because it is going to be straight and there will be no knots in it."

How Fast the Forest Grows!
Trees grow quickly in this part of the world. The trees shown below were planted in 1998. Notice how much they grew in a single year.


This species of pine grows between 1 and 2 meters in a single year.	Nov 2001 Planted 3 1/2 years earlier	Dec 2002 Planted 4 1/2 years earlier

Your Donations to be Planted!
Last fall as part of Journey North’s Symbolic Migration, participants contributed almost $10,000 for monarch conservation in Mexico. Deforestation pressures are great in Mexico, and MRP results are impressive. Thus, we asked MBSF to direct $7,500 of the students' donated funds toward this reforestation effort. Here are the details:

The $7,500 will purchase 15,000 seedlings.
The seedlings are already growing in the MRP nursery. They will be ready for planting this July, during Michoacan's rainy season. (Survival rates are highest when seedlings are planted during the rainy season.)
It takes 2,500 trees to reforest one hectare.

Children’s Monarch Butterfly Reforestation Project

This year's first planting, funded and planted by students, will initiate what will be called the "Children’s Monarch Butterfly Reforestation Project." Every year, the funds donated by children in the U.S. and Canada, will provide trees to be planted by Mexican children of the monarch region. We will photograph the students each year and watch the children and the forest grow together!

Over the years, we'll keep track of the number of hectares that have been reforested as part of this international effort by children of North America. We hope you'll be inspired by this project, and maybe visit a reforestation site in Mexico one day that you have supported yourself. Thanks to everyone who has already contributed to this effort!

Calculate the International Effort
Challenge Question #10
Let's see how many hectares will be put aside for reforestation this first planting season:

Challenge Question #10:
"When the first 15,000 seedlings are planted during Michoacan's rainy season this July, how many hectares will have been planted as part of the Children’s Monarch Butterfly Reforestation Project?"

(To respond to this question, please follow the instructions below.)

Milkweed Emerging Along the Migration Trail

Please help monitor the spring emergence of the monarch's food plant across North America. You'll be amazed at the close connections the migration and this all-important plant.

How to Respond to Today's Challenge Question:

1. Address an e-mail message to: jn-challenge-monarch@learner.org
2. In the Subject Line of your message write: Challenge Question #10
3. In the body of your message, answer the question above.

The Next Monarch Butterfly Migration Update Will Be Posted on March 21, 2003