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Brower Rescues Monarchs from Illegal Mexican Logging
By Joanna K. Wood ’06
STAFF WRITER

Every winter monarch butterflies adorn Christmas trees in Mexico, but deforestation threatens their habitat. The National Science Foundation Grant has recently given Sweet Briar Biology Professor Dr. Lincoln Brower $300,000 to find a solution.

World-renowned butterfly expert Dr. Brower has spent the last 25 years studying the monarch migration to Mexico and has become a conservationist by default.

Brower now endeavors to end illegal logging in Mexico and protect these butterflies.

“The monarch has become a symbol of cross-border co-operation with the US, but some scientists fear it could become a symbol of a common failure to protect the environment,” declared The BBC News in March 2006.

Why save the butterflies? “Monarchs are more than just butterflies,” asserts Senior Biology Major Jenn Wiley '06 who recently returned from Mexico with Brower. “They are an integral part of Mexican culture, economy; they are the one thing that could save forests from illegal logging,”

First, second, and third monarch generations journey north from Texas to Canada and live only a few weeks.
Unique from other generations, the fourth generations survive approximately eight months. They migrate to Mexico in October and back to the United States in April. The monarch has “the most amazing migration of any animal in the world,” proclaims Brower.

When the fourth generation reaches Texas, they lay their eggs on milkweed and die. These newly hatched butterflies, known as the first generation again, fly north and repeat the life cycle until a new fourth generation migrates back to Mexico.

This distinctive “inherited migration pattern” allows new fourth generation monarchs to return to the exact same 60x40 mile region of central Mexico as previous fourth generations.

Monarchs winter in high altitude forests of oyamel firs (Christmas trees) in Mexico. The trees provide an umbrella or blanket that trap heat and protect the butterflies from rain or snow.

The cool, dry air and elevations of the Christmas trees create a fine-grained-microclimate ideal for monarch hibernation.

As the forest thins, holes appear in the umbrella-like microclimate of trees. These openings allow heat to escape and cold rain or snow to reach the butterflies.

Monarchs contain an antifreeze-like substance; however if the monarchs get wet, the antifreeze fails and the butterflies freeze to death.

“The actual temperature may be five degrees below freezing, but butterflies' body temperatures read 10 degrees below freezing,” states Dr. Brower.

On his last trip to Mexico in January 2006 with Wiley, and wife and fellow SBC Biology Professor Linda Fink, Brower measured temperature changes in five meter increments along the length of the tree height.

He wants to understand why the monarchs always return to the same location and temperature plays a key role.

With his grant, Brower uses satellite imagery and a Geographical Information System (GIS) to map and analyze suitable future habitats for the monarchs.

Mexico declared two decrees against illegal logging in 1986 and again in 2000, but deforestation continues at a staggering rate.