Documentary filmmakers meet a golden subject in the central highlands of Mexico.
© Carol Starr

Global Citizens Fly High, Too

Any day now, the eastern monarchs will leave their winter home in the Sierra Madre mountains of central Mexico and begin their epic journey across the US to Canada. Theirs is a know-no-boundaries flight pattern.

These pollinators are crucial to a continued food supply. Yet, like the honeybees, their numbers are dwindling: the 2014–15 estimate is about 56.5 million, a fraction of the 1 billion monarch butterflies that wintered in Mexico in 1996–97.

Who can help these fragile long-distance travelers? Global citizens, who work for monarch conservation with a know-no-boundaries fight pattern.

The fragile wings of an adult monarch propel it on a
migration of up to 2,800-miles (4,500 km).
© Carol Starr

The Mysterious Monarch

Scientists still don’t know how monarch butterflies know where to go, though the mystery of their winter home was solved in 1975 when the decades-long work of Fred Urquhart, a Canadian zoologist, came to fruition.

Urquhart began a tagging and tracking program that pointed to a diagonal flight pattern northeast to southwest across the US, but he lost track of the butterflies once they crossed the border into Mexico. Help came in the form of Ken Brugger (and his dog Kola), who traversed the Mexican countryside in a motor home.

Brugger looked for monarchs in areas where a tagged butterfly had been found, and he researched reports of sightings. Following the lead of Mexican woodcutters, who had spotted swarming butterflies, Brugger stepped into a forested highland valley and saw an awe-inspiring sight:

Millions of monarch butterflies hanging in clusters from the oyamel trees! 

The semi-dormant monarchs hang together to conserve heat during cold nights.
With thousands of butterflies in a cluster, some become so heavy that branches break.
© Carol Starr

Because they reached across borders, Brugger and Urquhart solved the mystery of the monarch’s winter home. For the full and fascinating story, see Found at Last, published in August 1976 by National Geographic.

The Monarch in Mexican Culture

Though the winter home had remained a mystery until 1975, people in the central highlands of Mexico had long experienced the fall arrival of the monarchs. Among the Purépecha, the indigenous word for the monarch means “harvest butterfly” because the butterflies reliably arrived at harvest time.

Coinciding with harvest time are celebrations on November 1 and 2, marking the Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), when Mexicans decorate the graves of their ancestors and honor them with feasts and offerings. The butterflies came to symbolize the souls of ancestors returning for a visit on these special days.

Fall colors brighten the graves in a Mexican cemetery for the
traditional celebration of Día de los muertos.
© Arturo Peña Romano Medina / iStock

Traditions are meant to continue, but in fall 2013, the butterflies did not show up on time, and that year the overwintering population dropped to a new low—about 33 million monarchs.

Challenges to the Fragile Flyers

Though weather and temperatures are factors, habitat loss is the most significant. In Mexico’s forest habitat:

• The human population also depends on the oyamel forests for survival, and this leads to unsustainable and illegal logging.
• Increased tourism to view the amazing colonies of overwintering butterflies has raised awareness of the monarchs’ plight, but it has also degraded the habitat.

The fluttering, flitting flecks of gold and orange and black attract
about 150,000 tourists per year.
© Carol Starr

In the flyway habitat through the US, the monarchs lay their eggs on the milkweed plant, vital food for the caterpillars, but milkweed is disappearing at a rapid pace:

• Since federal subsidies for biofuels have driven up the price of corn, farmers have converted open acreage, where native plants like milkweed grow, to fields and fields of corn.
• Use of herbicides, like Roundup, have wiped out much of the milkweed.
• When roads, parking lots, grass lawns, and ornamental landscapes go in, native plants go out. Food—milkweed for caterpillars and nectar plants for adult monarchs—is lost.

Solutions from Global Citizens

In 1986, Mexico established the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, now over 200 square miles, and in 2007 it outlawed logging. The area is now also a Unesco World Heritage site.

The entrance to El Rosario sanctuary leads to a steep climb, but the
kaleidoscope of butterflies you see at the top is worth it!
© Carol Starr

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the Monarch Butterfly Fund (MBF) work with Mexico to seek solutions to habitat loss. Recognizing the economic dependence of the human population on the same land, these groups help villagers establish income-producing alternatives to logging, with jobs in mushroom cultivation and at nurseries that grow trees for reforestation.

The Monarch Sister Schools Program connects schools in the US and Mexico that work together to restore the monarchs’ habitats and engage in cultural exchange.

Monarch festivals at sister schools in the US and Mexico
invite kids to walk in a monarch’s shoes, er—wings!
© Carol Starr

The work of such organizations proceeds from a global mindset, but citizens who buy into “Think Global, Act Local” can make a difference, too.  Here are six ways:

#1.  Spread the word like the students from American University and Technológico de Monterrey (see first photo) whose documentary will give others an “Oh, I see” moment or two about the butterflies’ plight. It premiers at the Mexican Cultural Institute of Washington, D.C., on April 28.

#2.  Reestablish milkweed habitats like the senior living community  and the Soil Mates Garden Club in Lexington, KY, who planted milkweed and other natives in their courtyard to create Monarch Butterfly Waystation #8781. Visit Monarch Watch for seeds and all you need to create and certify a waystation.

#3.  Grow native nectar plants to feed adult monarchs on their migratory journey. Plantbutterflies.org offers plant charts and planting instructions.

Invite a monarch to lunch!
© Rafael Cespedes / iStock

#4.  Report sightings with the Journey North app to help scientists unravel more monarch mysteries and track numbers.

#5.  Advocate for “fueling stations” on public lands with help from Pollinator Partnership’s manuals on planting a utility right of way.

#6.  Reward the good actors by eating organic or by buying lumber that is Forest Stewardship Certified (FSC) and not taken through illegal logging.

Global citizens appreciate how what happens in one part of the world affects another. Like the monarch butterflies, they go beyond borders. May the populations of both increase!

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Experience the movement of the monarch butterfly and learn more about the mysteries surrounding them in this new video from WWF. Hear about the challenges ahead from Professor Chip Taylor, who also directs MonarchWatch.

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