Mariposa Monarca

They begin to arrive a few at a time, bright, familiar butterflies alighting in the upper branches of the gray-green fir trees. But as the month of November wears on, the sky becomes filled withtiny, floating flecks of color. Tens of millions of butterflies descend from the skies, draping entire trees in an astonishing tapestry of black, white and orange.
In one of nature´s most impressivepageants, monarch butterflies fly from as far away as Canada to spend the winter in tiny patches of fir forest nestled in the mountains of central mexico. Though the butterfly migration has been going onsince at least the end of the Pleistocene epoch, 10000 years ago, the isolated roosts were discovered by zoologists only in 1975. Alarmed by the sites, the Mexican government and private conservationgroups have joined forces to protect them. Say university of florida zoologist Lincoln brower: “we´re dealing with one of the most fragile as well as limited habitats in north america”.
Thepreservation effort is being spearheaded by monarca, A. C., a nonprofit Mexican organization, established in 1980.”when I first saw the monarchs, I became ecstatic and vowed to learn more about them”, saysRodolfo ogarrio, a Harvard trained lawyer who helped start the group. What ogarrio discovered was that the butterfly´s retreats were threatened by the local farmers, who were gradually clearing thetrees for timber and farmland. Says carlos Gottfried, a cofounder of monarca:” the forests in the mid-´70s were pristine. A few years later they were receding up the mountain”.
The group sought the helpof the Mexican government, which in 1980 issued a decree protecting the monarch. But the action did little good, since the land remained unprotected. Last august, however. Mexico city took a criticalstep: it officially declared the butterfly´s winter domains “ecological preserves” . The proclamation prohibits logging and agricultural development within an area of 11000 acres around the...