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☆ US wildlife officials move to add iconic monarch butterfly to threatened species list
▼ + stars: | 2024-12-10 | by ( Rachel Ramirez | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —Every winter, millions of monarch butterflies journey thousands of miles across North America to spend winters in the forests and mountains of central Mexico. The US Fish and Wildlife Service proposed listing the monarch butterfly as threatened with extinction under the Endangered Species Act. The butterfly’s eastern migratory population is estimated to have declined by roughly 80%, while the western migratory population plunged by more than 95% since the 1980s, according to US wildlife officials. Eduardo Rendón-Salinas, the lead of the monarch butterfly program for WWF-Mexico, previously told CNN that the climate crisis is a major contributing factor to the decline. Rendón-Salinas said what’s happening to monarch butterflies is representative of what pollinator species such as bees, birds and other butterflies face globally.

Persons: Eduardo Rendón, milkweed, Salinas, ”, Donald Trump —, Clay Bolt, ” Martha Williams, ” Williams Organizations: CNN, and Wildlife Service, International Union for Conservation, Nature, World Wildlife Fund, WWF, Wildlife, “ Locations: North America, Mexico, Salinas, California

☆ Monarch Butterfly Numbers Are Down Sharply at Wintering Areas in Mexico
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-07 | by ( Catrin Einhorn | More About Catrin Einhorn | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The number of monarch butterflies at their overwintering areas in Mexico dropped precipitously this year to the second-lowest level on record, according to an annual survey. The census, considered a benchmark of the species’s health, found that the butterflies occupied only about 2.2 acres of forest in central Mexico, down 59 percent from the prior year. Only the winter of 2013-14 had fewer butterflies. Scientists said the decline appeared to be driven by hot, dry conditions in the United States and Canada that reduced the quality of available milkweed, the only plants monarch caterpillars can eat, as well as the availability of nectar from many kinds of flowers, which they feed on as butterflies. “It’s telling us that we need to intensify conservation and restoration measures,” said Jorge Rickards, the general director of World Wildlife Fund in Mexico, which conducted the survey with the National Commission of Protected Natural Areas and other partners.

Persons: “, ”, Jorge Rickards Organizations: World Wildlife Fund, National Commission Locations: Mexico, United States, Canada

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The number of monarch butterflies at their wintering areas in Mexico dropped by 59% this year to the second lowest level since record keeping began, experts said Wednesday, blaming heat, drought and loss of habitat. The butterflies’ migration from Canada and the United States to Mexico and back again is considered a marvel of nature. But the number of a smaller population, the western monarch butterflies that overwinter in California, has dropped, too. The butterflies themselves aren't at risk of disappearing, but the monarchs’ migration is. After wintering in Mexico, the butterflies fly north, breeding multiple generations along the way for thousands of miles.

Persons: ”, Gloria Tavera, ” Tavera, Ryan Drum, Gregory Mitchell, Mitchell, ” Humberto Peña Organizations: MEXICO CITY, Monarchs, U.S Fish and Wildlife Service Locations: MEXICO, Mexico, Canada, United States, Mexico City, Rocky, California

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The number of western monarch butterflies overwintering in California dropped by 30% last year, likely due to how wet it was, researchers said Tuesday. Volunteers who visited sites in California and Arizona around Thanksgiving tallied more than 230,000 butterflies, compared to 330,000 in 2022, according to the Xerces Society, an environmental nonprofit that focuses on the conservation of invertebrates. Scientists say the butterflies are at critically low levels in western states because of destruction to their milkweed habitat along their migratory route due to housing construction and the increased use of pesticides and herbicides. On the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains, another monarch population travels from southern Canada and the northeastern United States to central Mexico. Scientists estimate that the monarch population in the eastern U.S. has fallen by about 80% since the mid-1990s, but the drop-off in the western U.S. has been even steeper.

Persons: Emma Pelton Organizations: FRANCISCO, Volunteers, Xerces Society Locations: California, Arizona, Pacific Northwest, Rocky, Canada, United States, Mexico, U.S

☆ If You Plant Milkweed, They Will Come. (And Not Just the Butterflies.)
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-25 | by ( Margaret Roach | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

To see a field of common milkweed in midsummer — a sea of a thousand nodding pink flower heads — you would not imagine that anything could ever stand in the way of the genus Asclepias. Yes, common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca), the most widespread milkweed east of the Rocky Mountains, can colonize disturbed sites and form impressive stands. But it is an exception among the more than 90 recognized North American species of milkweed, many of which often find it not so easy to continue making themselves at home. “The milkweed is a displaced citizen in its own land,” writes Eric Lee-Mäder in the opening of his new book, “The Milkweed Lands: An Epic Story of One Plant, Its Nature and Ecology.” “Where once it owned the continent, it’s now a kind of vagrant, occupying the botanical equivalent of homeless encampments.”As one example, he cites 2012 research, by John M. Pleasants of Iowa State University and Karen S. Oberhauser of the University of Minnesota, that estimates a nearly 60 percent decrease in the milkweed populations of the Midwest since 1999.

Persons: ”, Eric Lee, John M, Karen S Organizations: North, Iowa State University, University of Minnesota Locations: Rocky

☆ How a lonely mountain lion led to the creation of the world’s largest wildlife overpass
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-08 | by ( Martha Shade | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

A photo of P-22 mountain lion National Park Service“A mountain lion lived in L.A. and people didn’t fear him,” said Pratt, who has memorialized P-22 on her arm with a tattoo. The idea of a wildlife overpass was garnering interest, but funding it was another issue. A rendering of the completed Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Overpass Courtesy National Wildlife FederationEngineers are also taking into account animals’ fear of bright lights. And that’s exactly what needs to happen at the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Overpass, where the freeway bisects the local cougar habitat. He has inspired the building of the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing.

Persons: he’s, ”, Beth Pratt, Pratt, Alan Ruck —, Ferris, Leonardo DiCaprio, Rainn Wilson, Barbra Streisand, David Crosby, ” Pratt, “, Watts, Wallis Annenberg, don’t, ” It’s, Martha Shade, koalas, We’ve, ’ Organizations: CNN, National Wildlife Federation, Hollywood, Service, Wallis Annenberg, Wildlife Federation Engineers, National Park Service, Banff National, grizzlies, Federal, Administration Locations: California, Los Angeles, L.A, HBO’s, Watts, South Los Angeles, Beverly, France, Europe, Netherlands, Brignoles, Queensland, Australia, Canada, Banff, Pratt

☆ Julianne Moore’s Montauk Sanctuary
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-21 | by ( Nick Haramis | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +34 min

— HANYA YANAGIHARASpeak Softly In a wild meadow by the sea, Julianne Moore and Bart Freundlich’s Montauk house uses just a few materials to say many things. In Moore’s office, a Pierre Jeanneret desk and chair, an Alvar Aalto stool and a Willy Van Der Meeren cabinet. In the oak-paneled living room of Justinian Kfoury’s apartment in a townhouse on Washington Square Park, an Audubon-style print and a Hans Wegner Papa Bear chair. A view of the double-height living room from the curved balcony on the third floor. A sculpture by Huma Bhabha and a configuration of five Isamu Noguchi L7 pendants in the landing that separates the primary suite from the living room.

Persons: it’s, Mishan, there’s, —, Julianne Moore, Bart Freundlich’s Montauk, Bart Freundlich’s, Moore, Tom Volk, Oliver Freundlich, Anne’s, Pierre Jeanneret, Alvar Aalto, Willy Van Der, Ori Gersht, she’s, ” It’s, ”, “, Bart Freundlich, Tomas Maier, Bottega, Andrew Geller, Norman Jaffe, Freundlich, ” Moore, Moore’s, Liv, Caleb, Robert Gurr, Isamu Noguchi, Pierre, Noguchi, Alma Allen, Joseph Dirand, Oliver, “ I’m, ” Oliver, grins, MOORE, Anne Love Smith, Massimiliano Locatelli, Daniel Romualdez, Vincent Van Duysen, Charlotte Perriand, Pierre Chapo, Willy Van Der Meeren, Friedrich Kunath, Mark Wilson, Donald Judd, Wilson, Mario Bellini, Karl Springer, Rogan Gregory, Nancy Pearce, Oscar, Alice ”, Alexander Calder, Andrea Zittel, JB Blunk, AFTRA, Hope, It’s, ‘ You’re, ’ ”, Justinian, Hans Wegner Papa Bear, Paavo, Marc Hundley, that’s, Adriana Lara, Nicholas Krushenick, Justinian Kfoury, downtowners, He’d, Trish Goff, Kfoury, Leonid Berman, Jelto ”, Tomma Abts, Paul Cadmus, Edith Wharton, Henry James, Paul van der, ” Kfoury, Joe Roberts, Mary Cameron Goodyear, Kfoury’s, He’s, Wolfgang Tillmans, they’d, Lorna Simpson, Misha Kahn, Michael Anastassiades, Glenn Ligon’s, Frank Bowling, Piet Hein Eek, Miriam Cahn, Paul Pfeiffer’s, Leah Panlilio, Tal Schori, Rustam Mehta, Adam Pogue, Constantino Buccolieri, Michael Kirkland, Cy Twombly’s, Ho, Huma Bhabha, Nairy Baghramian, Coco Fusco, Robert Vinas Jr, Duro Olowu, Mark Ellison, Adam Marelli, Bob Chan, Isamu Noguchi Akari, Danh Vo, Nairy, ‘, Laura Mac Donald, Theaster Gates, Frank Lloyd, Kirkland, Ettore, Parsons, Jasper Johns, Merce Cunningham Organizations: Manhattan’s, Yorkers, that’s, Hamptons, WHO, Writers Guild of America, SAG, “, Audubon, Washington, East Village, brac, AS, Fifth, Fort Standard, GRT Architects, Architects, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Soane Britain Locations: New York, Paris, London, Rome , New York, It’s, Washington, Manhattan, Harlem, Montauk, American, Chinatown, York, N.Y, Summerhill, Long, Fort Pond, New York City, Pond, North Carolina, Morentz, Scottish, Japanese American, Belgian, East Hampton, Japan, “, California, Swiss, New York’s Washington, Kennebunkport, England, East, Boston, Lebanon, Maine, Vermont, Venice, Moroccan, North, Kfoury’s, New York’s Harlem, Westchester County, Brooklyn, Italian, Finnish, Rome, Los Angeles, Korean, Berlin, Iranian, Chicago

☆ Inside the Elaborate, Enviable Design of Three New York Homes
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-21 | by ( ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +34 min

If You Can Make It Here Great design for a great city (New York, of course — where else?) In the oak-paneled living room of Justinian Kfoury’s apartment in a townhouse on Washington Square Park, an Audubon-style print and a Hans Wegner Papa Bear chair. “She was eccentric, grand, but not afraid of making weird decisions about design.” In the living room, a 1975 Leonid Berman painting of the Venice Lagoon hangs between the French doors. A view of the double-height living room from the curved balcony on the third floor. A sculpture by Huma Bhabha and a configuration of five Isamu Noguchi L7 pendants in the landing that separates the primary suite from the living room.

Persons: it’s, Mishan, there’s, —, Justinian, Hans Wegner Papa Bear, Paavo, Marc Hundley, that’s, Adriana Lara, Nicholas Krushenick, ”, Justinian Kfoury, downtowners, He’d, Trish Goff, Kfoury, “, Leonid Berman, Jelto ”, Tomma Abts, Paul Cadmus, Edith Wharton, Henry James, Paul van der, ” Kfoury, Joe Roberts, Mary Cameron Goodyear, Kfoury’s, He’s, Wolfgang Tillmans, they’d, It’s, Lorna Simpson, Mario Bellini, Misha Kahn, Michael Anastassiades, Glenn Ligon’s, Frank Bowling, Piet Hein Eek, Miriam Cahn, Paul Pfeiffer’s, Leah Panlilio, Tal Schori, Rustam Mehta, Adam Pogue, Constantino Buccolieri, Michael Kirkland, Alvar Aalto, Cy Twombly’s, Ho, Huma Bhabha, Isamu Noguchi, Nairy Baghramian, Coco Fusco, Robert Vinas Jr, Duro Olowu, Mark Ellison, Adam Marelli, Bob Chan, Isamu Noguchi Akari, Danh Vo, Nairy, ‘, Laura Mac Donald, Theaster Gates, Frank Lloyd, Kirkland, Ettore, Parsons, Jasper Johns, Merce Cunningham, Julianne Moore, Bart Freundlich’s Montauk, Bart Freundlich’s, Moore, Tom Volk, Oliver Freundlich, Anne’s, Pierre Jeanneret, Willy Van Der, Ori Gersht, she’s, ” It’s, Bart Freundlich, Tomas Maier, Bottega, Andrew Geller, Norman Jaffe, Freundlich, ” Moore, Moore’s, Liv, Caleb, Robert Gurr, Pierre, Noguchi, Alma Allen, Joseph Dirand, Oliver, “ I’m, ” Oliver, grins, MOORE, Anne Love Smith, Massimiliano Locatelli, Daniel Romualdez, Vincent Van Duysen, Charlotte Perriand, Pierre Chapo, Willy Van Der Meeren, Friedrich Kunath, Mark Wilson, Donald Judd, Wilson, Karl Springer, Rogan Gregory, Nancy Pearce, Oscar, Alice ”, Alexander Calder, Andrea Zittel, JB Blunk, AFTRA, Hope, ‘ You’re, ’ ” Organizations: Manhattan’s, Yorkers, that’s, Audubon, Washington, East Village, brac, AS, Fifth, Fort Standard, GRT Architects, Architects, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Soane Britain, Hamptons, WHO, Writers Guild of America, SAG, “ Locations: New York, Paris, London, Rome , New York, It’s, Washington, Manhattan, Harlem, Montauk, American, Chinatown, York, New York’s Washington, Kennebunkport, England, East, Boston, Lebanon, Maine, Vermont, Venice, Moroccan, North, Kfoury’s, New York’s Harlem, Westchester County, N.Y, Brooklyn, Italian, Finnish, Rome, Los Angeles, Korean, Berlin, Iranian, Chicago, North Carolina, California, Summerhill, Long, Fort Pond, New York City, Pond, Morentz, Scottish, Japanese American, Belgian, East Hampton, Japan, “, Swiss

☆ In ‘Swing State,’ Rebecca Gilman Sees a Troubled World
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-07 | by ( Laura Collins-Hughes | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The playwright Rebecca Gilman moved away from small-town Alabama long ago, but a soft Southern lilt still shapes her words. In all the years she lived and worked here in her adopted city of Chicago, she remained immune to its Bill Murray accent. After more than a decade of traveling back and forth from Chicago, Gilman relocated full-time to Green County, Wis., about four years ago. Some of the plants have to be pollinated by particular butterflies. Particular butterflies have to have lupine to lay their eggs.

Persons: Rebecca Gilman, Bill Murray, Gilman, ”, “, ” Gilman Organizations: Goodman Theater, Prairie Enthusiasts Locations: Alabama, Chicago, Wisconsin, Rural Wisconsin, Green County, Wis, Swing, New York

☆ Opinion | Praise Song for the Ruined Flower
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-28 | by ( Margaret Renkl | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

The orange pumpkins themselves have seen better days, but still I offer my heart to what’s left of the pumpkins carved out by squirrels. I offer my whole heart to the thick, pulpy flesh that fattens the chipmunks before their time of hunger. I stand at my window and watch a fly blunder into their artwork, and I watch the spider dart to the fly. Come April, I will stand at this window and watch her gathering spider silk to weave her miniature nest of thistledown and lichen and moss. My heart lifts at the pinprick holes in the passionflower vines and the pinprick holes in the parsley, but I wait and wait for the pinprick holes in the milkweed leaves.

Persons: what’s, honeyvine Organizations: Central Locations: Central America, Tennessee

☆ The Joys of Summer in My Backyard - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-29 | by ( Margaret Renkl | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

A lovely native grape has sprung up beside the pokeweed plants at the end of the privacy fence between our driveway and the driveway next door. Our late neighbor installed the fence decades ago, and it isn’t much of a fence anymore. Only a few yards long, falling to ruin, it nevertheless sets a banquet every summer for wildlife. Perhaps my favorite volunteers this year are the pumpkin vines planted last fall by the thumbless hands of squirrels. All because we did nothing but let the wild world run wild in this half-acre patch of suburbia.

☆ You Don’t Have to Be Complicit in Our Culture of Destruction
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-30 | by ( David Marchese | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +12 min

Photo illustration by Bráulio Amado Talk You Don’t Have to Be Complicit in Our Culture of Destruction“People feel a kind of longing for a belonging to the natural world,” says the author and scientist Robin Wall Kimmerer. I am deeply aware of the fact that my view of the natural world is colored by my home place. But I don’t think that’s the same as romanticizing nature. Of course the natural world is full of forces that are so-called destructive. The story that we have to illuminate is that we don’t have to be complicit with destruction.

☆ How to Eat Very, Very Well in the Woods
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Matthew Kronsberg | Photographs Kevin J. Miyazaki For The Wall Street Journal | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

GETTING TO the Milkweed Inn, run by chef Iliana Regan and her sommelier wife, Anna Hamlin, is not easy. The drive from Chicago to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula takes six hours, ultimately on rutted dirt roads deep inside the Hiawatha National Forest. And that’s if you’re able to get a room in the first place. The 2023 season and much of 2024’s are already sold out. There is some consolation, however, for fans who have followed Ms. Regan’s career from her Michelin-starred Chicago restaurant, Elizabeth, now closed, through her 2019 memoir, “Burn the Place,” an unflinching account of her farmhouse upbringing, her grappling with addiction and gender identity, and her emergence as a chef: Her new book, “Fieldwork” (Agate Midway), comes out Jan. 24.

☆ For a healthier environment, plant a native garden — no matter how big, says the famed entomologist Doug Tallamy
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-27 | by ( Mara Leighton | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

The entomologist Doug Tallamy is on a crusade to reduce grass lawns in favor of native plants. Native plants feed insects and wildlife that contribute to healthier food webs, which keep us alive. AdvertisementLisa Sabatini, an editor who's planted more than 50 native trees and shrubs since 2021, told Insider she joined a "Native Plants of the Northeast" Facebook group that welcomes beginners. If you have a garden already, you can begin by simply introducing native plants into it. AdvertisementNative landscaping is inherently regional, but those interested can type their ZIP code into the National Wildlife Federation Native Plant Finder for suggestions.

Persons: Doug Tallamy, —, Doug Tallamy doesn't, who's, Tallamy, E.O, Wilson, there's, Douglas, Bre Bauerly, Tim Stout, Stout, Lisa Sabatini, Tom Estill, Bauerly, We're Organizations: Service, Facebook, University of Delaware, National Wildlife Federation Locations: Asia, Denver, Minneapolis, Vermont, Minnesota, Rutland , Vermont

☆ Scientists decry death by 1,000 cuts for world’s insects
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-20 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

The world’s vital insect kingdom is undergoing “death by a thousand cuts,” the world’s top bug experts said. Wagner said scientists need to figure out if the rate of the insect loss is bigger than with other species. “There is some reason to worry more,” he added, “because they are the target of attack” with insecticides, herbicides and light pollution. Honeybees have been in dramatic decline because of disease, parasites, insecticides, herbicides and lack of food. Scientists have identified 1 million insect species, while probably 4 million more are still to be discovered, Berenbaum said.

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