Dear editor:
I had the pleasure of reading Mark Davis’s article on monarch butterflies being proposed for listing as a threatened species. I’d like to add some additional …
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Dear editor:
I had the pleasure of reading Mark Davis’s article on monarch butterflies being proposed for listing as a threatened species. I’d like to add some additional comments. First of all, conservation should not be a partisan political football. Monarchs and other butterflies have been in alarming decline for years. This has nothing to do with the Biden administration, or wording in the Endangered Species Act. It’s a simple fact, and the only question is what to do about it. Primary among culprits are pesticides and habitat destruction. Changing climate is surely a factor, but harder to understand or remedy.
I have lived on the same Cody property for more than 30 years. Back then, butterflies of all sorts were common. Monarchs floated through in late summer, and laid eggs on ditchbank milkweeds. I’d locate caterpillars and watch them grow till they pupated, metamorphosed, and joined the slow drift south. One thing Mr. Davis did not mention is the amazing multi-generational aspect of monarch migration. It is not a single insect that travels all those miles, it’s progressive generations following ancient pathways north with spring, then south to overwinter.
Over the years I have seen fewer and fewer butterflies on my property. According to the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, a primary cause of loss of pollinators is the excessive application of neonicotinoid insecticides, especially as seed coatings in industrial agriculture. GMO crops, engineered to be resistant to herbicides such as Roundup, either poison insects outright or decimate their food sources. Nurseries sell lethal insecticide-treated plants to the public for pollinator gardens. Homeowners and communities heedlessly apply pesticides on residential and park landscapes. The result is the collapse of invertebrate populations, which results in fewer songbirds and other insect dependent species.
ESA listing is a broad brush approach to preventing the extinction of monarchs. Federal funding for programs, research, collaborations and incentives becomes available to property owners and communities. It’s an embarrassment to the State of Wyoming that our elected representatives would oppose saving this beloved and beautiful species for their own political gain. This last-resort need to list monarchs is clear indication that the Endangered Species Act needs to be strengthened, not weakened. We owe it to future generations to bequeath them the pleasure monarchs and other butterflies have provided throughout human history.
Linda Raynolds
Cody