long live the king!

monarch butterflies are in trouble.

the biggest problem is roundup-ready crops in the midwest, followed by logging in the butterflies' winter grounds in mexico, but they have encountered rough weather this spring and summer and there are few of them to be seen.

last week on vermont public radio i heard a show where the vt center for ecostudies is asking people to report even single monarch sightings, so i am.

i have seen five of them this year.

do you remember when they were everywhere?

do you remember monsanto telling us that roundup ready crops were going to be good for everybody? and that they couldn't possible escape?

oh, wait. this wasn't supposed to be a post about a huge corporation trying to control the world's food supply for enormous profit; it was supposed to be about the dwindling monarch population but oddly the two concepts are linked.

anyway, the bad news is that monarchs are in more distress this year than biologists had anticipated. the good news, however, is that because they are insects, they have the capability of bouncing back very quickly if they get some lucky breaks.

they will need some good weather and good nutrition.

help 'em out if you can, and report 'em if you see 'em.