MonarchButterfly_AvocadosandCartels_Maeckle_Monika_SanAntonioTX_21July2023_Reel4162.mp3

Monika Maeckle [00:00:00] In terms of the eastern population in Mexico, the decimation of the forest is a big issue. Where that one little Goldilocks forest where the monarchs roost, it's not a huge amount of land. It's a very particular climate with a very particular situation that you can't just replicate anywhere.

Monika Maeckle [00:00:18] That's also a place on the planet where people rely heavily on woodburning stoves to heat their homes, and wood and lumber are very much prized. And there's not a huge diversity of economic possibilities for people who live there to make a living and support their families.

Monika Maeckle [00:00:35] And so they cut down trees.

Monika Maeckle [00:00:37] And one of the big theories that Dr. Fred Urquhart put forward was how the forest where the monarch roost, because it's so thick with these oyamel sacred firs, creates a blanket effect. So the canopy of the forest keeps the temperature just right for monarch butterflies.

Monika Maeckle [00:00:54] So once you start to tear holes in that canopy forest, and the cold air can come in, that's when you start to get into trouble.

Monika Maeckle [00:01:01] And we've had a couple of really historic and devastating freezes when the monarchs were roosting down there. We're talking about hundreds of millions of butterflies in this small area. And then a freeze comes along and just kills millions and millions of them. The forest floor is like a carpet of dead butterflies. And there's photos of this that are really disturbing and sad.

Monika Maeckle [00:01:20] So you got that.

Monika Maeckle [00:01:20] You got illegal logging in Mexico.

Monika Maeckle [00:01:22] And more recently, we've got avocado farming. Avocados are like considered "oro verde", like green gold, because avocados are so in demand in the United States. And the perfect climate for growing avocados also happens to be the perfect climate for monarch butterflies to roost.

Monika Maeckle [00:01:39] And until recently, Michoacan, which is where many of the roosting sites are in Mexico, was the only state in Mexico that was authorized to export avocados to the United States, and that was a result of NAFTA. Recently, they authorized Jalisco to export avocados.

Monika Maeckle [00:01:57] But again, avocados are not that different in a way, I guess, from monarchs, in that they require this very particular climate where it's not going to freeze, but it's not going to get too hot. It's going to be just right.

Monika Maeckle [00:02:07] And so what's happened apparently, in recent years, is the cartels have taken over some of these farms in Michoacan, where the roosting sites are, and made people turn them into avocado farms because it's so lucrative.

Monika Maeckle [00:02:20] So you've got all these competing forces: you've got less forest where they roost, got less milkweed where they reproduce, and you got climate change on top of that. And then you've got the usual stuff - urban development, pollution, pesticides, all of those things - so that it really is like a perfect storm of variables that are contributing to the demise of the monarch butterfly migration.