Monarch butterflies

[rwsaunders]

I thought that the group might appreciate this article about the collection of milkweed (think Monarch butterflies) pods during WWII and recent efforts by some locals to keep these beauties around.

https://www.post-gazette.com/life/go...s/202209020099

[Diablo de Acero]

Wow! That is really interesting! I wonder why we don't still use it for some low tech clothing insulation.

[Too Tall]

The National Park Service has about a 1/2 acre of milkweed planted at a field near my house. Love love love that field. So much fun to see the butterflies and smack dry pods.

[Marvinlungwitz]

The wifey has planted milkweed for the monarchs.

She’ll enjoy the article.

[j44ke]

Hay farmers don't like milkweed because cows and horses don't like milkweed. Cows will nibble around it or spit it out, but horses will munch all of it and get sick. So getting rid of milkweed can be a thing in areas where a lot of hay is produced - and we have a fair amount of that as part of the tax-reduction program with the state. If you have land and get $X.XX from some form of agricultural product your property taxes can be reduced by up to half. Hay is an easy way to get that ag-exemption.

And it isn't actually as easy as I anticipated to get it to grow. I've been trying and I've seen no increase in the amount of milkweed. And when we get it, the ants assault it and we don't get many flowers and thus seeds. So this is something we're going to try to solve next year, possibly by planting some of the other less common Asclepias species. Or by ordering plugs or bare root plants. We should have a ton, given how many seeds we've put down. Somewhere there is a missing piece. Could be herbicides in the environment, but the agricultural use of our land precedes those herbicides by many years, we're mostly the highest point in the area, and we're filtered by wind blown effect by a lot of trees. Which might be the reason - trees. Milkweed likes a ton of sun plus surrounding vegetation for shared stability.

https://www.prairiemoon.com/search.html?Search=milkweed

[bigbill]

I saw monarchs last weekend in the Grand Canyon area, but where I live is too dry for milkweed. When I was a kid, we lived southeast of Dallas, and I remember a specific day when the skies were full of monarch butterflies. If you stood still, monarchs would land on you. It was very cool.

My mom has 72 acres of bottomland behind her house. She participated in a state program to restore native grasslands and, in return, would keep the ag exemption. The negative is that a landowner participating in the program couldn't have livestock on the land. That's a tough sell if a landowner needs income from their land.

[steve garro]

Hard part about saving these guys is they depend on the pine forests in Michoacán where they winter are being cut down for largely cartel-run avocado orchards & most of them for export to the USA.
I got people on the ground in Urupan and it's basically a war zone so little or no consequence but Mexico does love it's wildlife so hopefully they'll hang on

- Garro.

[beeatnik]

The Starbucks of Panaderias

https://lamonarcabakery.com

HELPING SAVE THE MONARCHS
WE DONATE 1% FROM THE SALE OF OUR PRODUCTS TO OUR PARTNER, ECOLIFE CONSERAVATION, TO SUPPORT THEIR PROGRAMS IN MICHOACAN, MEXICO TO SAVE THE MONARCH BUTTERFLY. FOLLOW THE STORY ON OUR BLOG & SOCIAL MEDIA!

[steve garro]

312084473_2422559404558981_8165400557391809885_n.jpg

The Starbucks of Panaderias

https://lamonarcabakery.com

HELPING SAVE THE MONARCHS
WE DONATE 1% FROM THE SALE OF OUR PRODUCTS TO OUR PARTNER, ECOLIFE CONSERAVATION, TO SUPPORT THEIR PROGRAMS IN MICHOACAN, MEXICO TO SAVE THE MONARCH BUTTERFLY. FOLLOW THE STORY ON OUR BLOG & SOCIAL MEDIA!

That's very well meaning, but you'll never win against the Mafia (nobody says 'cartel' in Mexico, it's always 'mafia' which is more concise) which is why that family left, I'm sure.
You get a double profit, fist you log it, sell the lumber, then you plant aguacates - end result is only the steepest slops keep forested and that's not enough.

My friends left the family business in Urupan after guys with machine guns ransacked the family's tortillarillas and stole everyone's personal belongings but luckily didn't kill them but stole all the tortillas too and the delivery vehicles.
What villages can defend themselves do, they are building home-made tanks out of dump trucks and cement mixers with large caliber weapons attached and small scale local militias are the norm.
There & the state of Guerrero are basically lawless


But yeah, I let the milkweed grow, around here it's called antelope's horns........ have you seen the new bills in MEX?


- Garro.

[beeatnik]

I was down there two weeks ago. My family is from Gto which is the center of the “Bermuda Triangle” of violence and, um, distribution. Although San Miguel is untouched (so far). And CDMX where I spent the week felt/was safer than any major city in the US. Mexico is so weird

Viva Mexico

[steve garro]

I was down there two weeks ago. My family is from Gto which is the center of the “Bermuda Triangle” of violence and, um, distribution. Although San Miguel is untouched (so far). And CDMX where I spent the week felt/was safer than any major city in the US. Mexico is so weird

Viva Mexico

Yes, it is, heading down next week for almost a month.

“Poor Mexico, So Far From God, So Close to the United States.”

- Porfirio Diaz

[Dave Thompson]

Yes, it is, heading down next week for almost a month.

“Poor Mexico, So Far From God, So Close to the United States.”

- Porfirio Diaz

Sort of an ironic quote from Diaz. My grandfather was friends and business partner with him in the early 20th century.

[steve garro]

Sort of an ironic quote from Diaz. My grandfather was friends and business partner with him in the early 20th century.

Very Cool - stateside or in Mexico?

It's really not that ironic when you consider they had lost 1/3 of their land mass to"'Manifest Destiny".

- Garro.

[Dave Thompson]

Very Cool - stateside or in Mexico?

It's really not that ironic when you consider they had lost 1/3 of their land mass to"'Manifest Destiny".

- Garro.

I referred ‘ironic’ because as much as Diaz lamented his northern neighbor, he worked hand-in-glove to enrich himself from them.

My grandfather was railroad man and Ambassador to Mexico 1906-1909. He had the Pan American Railway there which was attempting to build a line from the US border to Panama. That sort of fell apart when Diaz was overthrown in 1911. The railroad carried on for years but never was completed. I think a few of its bones still exist in some current routes.

[steve garro]

I referred ‘ironic’ because as much as Diaz lamented his northern neighbor, he worked hand-in-glove to enrich himself from them.

My grandfather was railroad man and Ambassador to Mexico 1906-1909. He had the Pan American Railway there which was attempting to build a line from the US border to Panama. That sort of fell apart when Diaz was overthrown in 1911. The railroad carried on for years but never was completed. I think a few of its bones still exist in some current routes.

Well, politicians and all that for sure!

But that's very cool family history, we were in Utah by 1847 ourselves.


Yeah, you used to be able to walk across the border at Nogales and board the train, I think maybe you still can to Copper Canyon but not sure anymore, I was just reading about the RR plans you mention not two days ago, no kidding - RR plans are being bantered around MEX again, with very mixed reactions.........

Did your GF ever deal with Pershing?
He presented my great uncle with the Medal of Honor

[bigbill]

Yeah, you used to be able to walk across the border at Nogales and board the train, I think maybe you still can to Copper Canyon but not sure anymore, I was just reading about the RR plans you mention not two days ago, no kidding - RR plans are being bantered around MEX again, with very mixed reactions.........

When I was young, maybe 6-7 years old, we toured Mexico via the Chihuahua El Pacifico Railroad. I can't remember the Texas border town where we boarded the train, but it broke down about halfway to Chihuahua City, and we were stranded in a small village for about five hours. I spent hours playing in a river with the local kids. We got to Chihuahua City around midnight. We did the "Railroad in the Sky" through Copper Canyon, including staying at a hotel for a few days. I see that the trip is still offered but not from the Texas border.