January 29, 2013, To: Monarch Teacher Network Although the recent news about the Monarch overwintering population in Mexico is unsettling, it is not (as Chip Taylor of Monarch Watch points out) altogether hopeless. If we liken this news to a football game: we are in the fourth quarter and the scoreboard is badly against us… but there is still time to pull a rabbit from the hat. I… and 41 other people… recently returned from our annual Monarch Teacher Network tour of Central California and the winter Monarch colonies there. I want to talk about two species we saw there: the sea otter and elephant seal. • We saw sea otters… but only because other people cared. The sea otter was hunted nearly to extinction for its fur. By 1911, an estimated world population of 150,000 to 300,000 (extending across the North Pacific from Japan to Baja CA with perhaps 16,000 along CA alone)… had been reduced to 1-2,000 individuals. In 1938, a group of 50 was discovered near Bixby Bridge in Big Sur: all of today’s CA sea otters are descended from that group. We can thank Margaret Wentworth Owings and other people who cared… and fought… to save the sea otter from extinction. Today there are almost 3,000 sea otters along the CA coast; there are still concerns, but sea otters are back from the brink. • We saw elephant seals… but only because other people cared. Hundreds of thousands of elephant seals once lived in the north Pacific. They were slaughtered in the 1800s for their blubber. They were thought extinct. Then in 1892, 50 to 100 individuals were discovered on Guadalupe Island off the coast of Baja California (Mexico) The Mexican government protected the island. Since then, the seals have multiplied. The first elephant seals reached Ano Nuevo in 1955. We see them there each year during our trip, along with another 15,000 that we see at Piedras Blancas, near San Simeon. Today, the total northern elephant seal population in existence is believed to be about 124,000… all descended from those 50-100 individuals saved by Mexico. You need spend only a few moments face-to-face with sea otters or elephant seals to know: this world needs sea otters and elephant seals. Just as this world needs the North American Monarch migration. Humans are plundering the world as never before. We are in the midst of a biodiversity crisis, a planetary environmental crisis. It should not be a surprise that many species are being pushed to extinction, including the Monarch migration. According to the Red List maintained by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, 20,000 species are now at high risk for extinction. IUCN predicts we are on track to lose ¾ or more of all species within the next several hundred years… that perhaps 30-50% of species will face extinction by 2050! In this vein, I recommend a recent book by Jon Mooallen called Wild Ones: A Sometimes Dismaying, Weirdly Reassuring Story About Looking at People Looking at Animals in America. The author uses three case histories… a bear (Polar), a bird (Whooping Crane) and a butterfly (Lange’s Metalmark from CA)… to explore our cultural attitudes towards animals and nature. He weaves a story of people who care about animals, who interact with animals, who have love and compassion for animals… who are trying to save animals… and the difficult task ahead. As Public Television so aptly says at fund-raising time: “If not you, who?” The news is not good… but the battle is not lost… as it was not lost in 1938 at Bixby Bridge for the sea otters, as it was not lost in 1882 in Mexico for the elephant seals. For those of us who know and care, the task is clear: bring the Monarch story into people’s lives any way we can… plant milkweed anywhere we can… share our passion and love for nature while we can… live in a world of hope. Plant the seeds of milkweed. Plant the seeds of love. Help the garden grow. Sing it into existence as Pete Seeger did: “Inch by inch, row by row…” Margaret Wentworth Owing did not give up. The Mexicans did not give up. Rachel Carson (Silent Spring) did not give up. Neither can we. This poem, found during our recent trip to CA, says it all: It’s 3:23 in the morning and I’m awake because my great great grandchildren won’t let me sleep – my great great grandchildren ask me in dreams what did you do when the planet was plundered? what did you do when the earth was unraveling? surely you did something when the seasons started failing? as the mammals, reptiles, birds and butterflies were all dying? did you fill the streets with protest when democracy was stolen? what did you do once you knew? --- author, Drew Dellinger Erik Mollenhauer, Director, Monarch Teacher Network
Posted on: Thu, 30 Jan 2014 17:13:54 +0000
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