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 ForestNorth America’s Forests: Page 7 Some highly threatened birds persist in unlogged portions of northern Mexico. The beautiful, iridescent Eared Quetzal (Euptilotis neoxenus), for example, was formerly common but is now confined to corridors of unlogged trees along rivers. These bits of forest are, at the present at least, inaccessible to loggers (Lammertink 1996). These quetzals require large trees for nesting and lay their eggs in cavities created when large tree snags fall off. Such trees, however, are rare and may disappear altogether in the future, since loggers cut them down as a general rule. It is considered Near-threatened, and close to qualifying as Vulnerable by BirdLife International (BI 2000). The Tufted Jay (Cyanocorax dickeyi) is another striking bird with a stiff, bristly, black fan crest on his head and forehead, unlike any other jay. This species is endemic to a limited area in the southern Sierra Madre Occidental, in mixed forested hillsides of oak, dense evergreen and deciduous forest near watercourses. Although a Near-threatened species (BI 2000), it has, nevertheless, no protected reserve.
Pine forests extend south to central Mexico, and up to 30 million Monarch Butterflies (Danaus plexippus) from the eastern United States and Canada migrate up to 2,000 miles to several groves of fir trees where they spend the winter clinging to branches in a semi-torpor. These butterflies constitute 90 percent of the species' population, and scientists believe that they have wintered here for more than 10,000 years (Aridjis and Brower 1996). Their migration is a biological mystery and unique among butterflies. Until the fir groves, where they festoon the tall trees like dazzling orange and black ornaments, were discovered, no one knew where they spent the winter. Even now, their method of locating this particular forest remains unknown. The butterflies that fly south are third generation ancestors of the ones who wintered in Mexico the previous year. On warm days, they wake from their torpor and venture out to take nectar, and in the spring, they head north, breeding along the way (Pyle 1981).
Entirely dependent on these groves of firs, which shelter them from the freezing rains that fall in this high-altitude forest, the Monarchs are threatened by logging. In spite of a 1986 order by Mexican President Miguel de la Madrid to protect the five wintering populations, all located in close proximity, the surrounding trees were not given protection. Local people cut trees for fuel and building materials, and cattle trample fir seedlings (Aridjis and Brower 1996). They have logged up to the very limits of the groves, and without the protection of bordering trees, the butterflies are more vulnerable to cold spells, dying in unprecedented numbers. Snowstorms and cold weather killed millions of these fragile butterflies in 1991 and 1995.
Ann Swengel and Dr. Paul Opler, who coordinate nationwide butterfly counts for the Xerces Society, a butterfly conservation organization, began noticing declines in Monarch populations in the United States, and scientists have seen many declines in areas where they were previously abundant.
Conservation of the precious fir trees upon which the species winters is a key to saving this species. Dr. Lincoln P. Brower, professor of zoology at the University of Florida and a leading authority on the species, and Homero Aridjis, President of the Group of 100, a Mexican environmental organization, made a public appeal for the protection of the Monarchs' winter habitat in an Op-ed article for The New York Times in January 1996 (Aridjis and Brower 1996). They maintained that all three countries--the United States, Canada and Mexico--should cooperate to purchase the forests in keeping with the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) (Aridjis and Brower 1996). A comparison of forest cover in the Monarch groves based on aerial photographs taken in 2000 and in the 1950s, shows great losses in these protected trees from illegal logging over the past 40 years. The situation has reached crisis proportions, according to scientists. In response, the Mexican government has promised to protect the remaining groves and enlarge the reserve. Local people have expressed opposition, however, as they have traditionally logged the forests and have not profited from the tourists who come to see the butterflies. If this situation is not resolved in favor of the butterflies, these beautiful jewels that brighten fields and gardens may disappear from their breeding grounds in the United States.
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