[Pollinator] Fwd: USGS Release -- The People’s Choice: Americans Would Pay to Help Monarch Butterflies

Mon Oct 28 11:47:43 PDT 2013

Hi there -- I thought you all might be interested in this USGS-led study.
 I have another story coming to you in a minute; although it focuses on
insect-eating bats, I thought it might be of interest to this group.

Best,  Catherine
-------------------------------------------------------
Catherine Puckett
USGS Office of Communications
352-377-2469 (O)  352-278-0165 (cell)
cpuckett at usgs.gov

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Alpern, Ethan <ealpern at usgs.gov>
Date: Mon, Oct 28, 2013 at 2:44 PM
Subject: USGS Release -- The People’s Choice: Americans Would Pay to Help
Monarch Butterflies
To:

Please Read: http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=3712&from=rss_home

The People’s Choice: Americans Would Pay to Help Monarch Butterflies
Released: 10/28/2013 9:00:00 AM
Contact Information:
U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey
Office of Communications and Publishing
12201 Sunrise Valley Dr, MS 119
Reston, VA 20192Ethan Alpern <ealpern at usgs.gov> [image: 1-click
interview]<http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/interview.asp?e=ealpern%40usgs%2Egov&n=Ethan%2BAlpern>

Phone: 703-648-4406

In partnership with: Colorado State University, National
Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center, University of Minnesota

   <http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=3712&from=rss_home#>0<http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=3712&from=rss_home#>

Americans place high value on butterfly
royalty<http://gallery.usgs.gov/photos/10_23_2013_afv2YlkXWR_10_23_2013_0>.
A recent study<http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/conl.12065/abstract>
suggests
they are willing to support monarch butterfly conservation at high levels,
up to about 6 ½ billion dollars if extrapolated to all U.S. households.

If even a small percentage of the population acted upon this reported
willingness, the cumulative effort would likely translate into a large,
untapped potential for conservation of theiconic
butterfly<http://gallery.usgs.gov/photos/10_23_2013_afv2YlkXWR_10_23_2013_1>
.

Monarch butterfly populations have been declining across Mexico, California
and other areas of the United States since 1999. A 2012 survey at the
wintering grounds of monarchs in Mexico showed the lowest colony size ever
recorded.

"The multigenerational migration of the monarch butterfly is considered one
of the world’s most spectacular natural events," said Jay Diffendorfer, a
USGS scientist and the study’s lead author. "However, managing migratory
species is difficult because they can cross international borders and
depend on many geographic areas for survival."

Much of the decline in monarch numbers has been blamed on the loss of
milkweed, the native plants on which monarch caterpillars feed.

"While many factors may be affecting monarch numbers, breeding, migrating,
and overwintering habitat loss are probably the main culprits," said Karen
Oberhauser, a monarch biologist at the University of Minnesota and a
co-author of the study. "In the U.S., the growing use of
genetically-modified, herbicide-tolerant crops, such as corn and soybeans,
has resulted in severe milkweed declines and thus loss of breeding habitat."

The authors suggest that the universal popularity of monarchs could
encourage a market for monarch-friendly plants.

"This is the first nation-wide, published, economic valuation survey of the
general public for an insect.  The study indicates that economic values of
monarch butterflies are potentially large enough to mobilize people for
conservation planting and funding habitat conservation," said John Loomis,
the lead economist on the study from Colorado State University.

"The life cycle of monarchs creates opportunities for untapped market-based
conservation approaches," Diffendorfer continued. "Ordinary households,
conservation organizations, and natural resource agencies can all plant
milkweed and flowering plants to offset ongoing losses in the species’
breeding habitat."

According to the annual survey of the National Gardening
Association<http://www.garden.org/>,
households that identify as "do-it-yourself lawn and gardeners" spent $29.1
billion in related retail sales in 2012.

"By reallocating some of those purchases to monarch-friendly plants, people
would be able to contribute to the conservation of the species as well as
maintain a flower garden," said Oberhauser. "Helping restore the monarch’s
natural habitat, and potentially the species’ abundance, is something that
people can do at home by planting milkweed and other nectar plants."

Unfortunately, many plants purchased by gardeners have been treated with
systemic insecticides that can kill both pollinators that consume the
nectar, and caterpillars, like monarchs, that eat the leaves.

"This study shows that not only might consumers pay more for
monarch-friendly milkweeds grown without systemic insecticides in the
potting soil, but also that consumers might be more interested overall in
buying nectar-producing plants or milkweeds if they knew a small percentage
of sales will be donated to habitat conservation," said Diffendorfer.

The study, released today in Conservation
Letters<http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/conl.12065/abstract>,
was authored by researchers with the USGS <http://www.usgs.gov/>, Colorado
State University <http://www.colostate.edu/>, the University of
Minnesota<http://www1.umn.edu/twincities/index.html>,
and others, who participated in a USGS John Wesley Powell Center for
Analysis and Synthesis <http://powellcenter.usgs.gov/> working group.

*About Monarch Butterflies*

Monarchs <http://gallery.usgs.gov/photos/10_23_2013_afv2YlkXWR_10_23_2013_2>
are
very popular in both society and throughout education. The monarch
butterfly is currently the official insect or butterfly of seven different
U.S. states, and is celebrated in festivals held across North America.
Monarchs have been the focus of many school’s science curricula as well as
the subjects of multiple citizen-science projects.

*Learn more*

   - National Valuation of Monarch Butterflies Indicates an Untapped
   Potential for Incentive-based
Conservation<http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/conl.12065/abstract>
   - John Wesley Powell Center for Analysis and
Synthesis<http://powellcenter.usgs.gov/>
   - Ecosystem Services <http://www.usgs.gov/sdc/eco_services.html>
   - Geosciences and Environmental Change Science
Center<http://esp.cr.usgs.gov/>
   - Colorado State University, Agricultural Resource Economics
<http://dare.agsci.colostate.edu/>
   - University of Maryland, Department of Biology <http://biology.umd.edu/>

   - University of Arizona, School of Natural Resources and the
Environment<http://www.snr.arizona.edu/>
   - University of Arizona, Udall Center for Studies in Public
Policy<http://udallcenter.arizona.edu/>
   - Scripps Institution of Oceanography <https://scripps.ucsd.edu/>
   - National Gardening Association <http://www.garden.org/>
   - European Forest Institute <http://www.efi.int/portal/home/>
   - Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center<http://www.umesc.usgs.gov/>
   - Wiley Online Library: Conversation
Letters<http://www.conservationletters.com/>
   - Monarch Butterfly Fund <http://www.monarchbutterflyfund.org/>
   - Monarch Joint Venture <http://www.monarchjointventure.org/>

------------------------------

USGS provides science for a changing world. Visit USGS.gov<http://usgs.gov/>,
and follow us on Twitter @USGS <http://twitter.com/usgs> and our other social
media channels <http://usgs.gov/socialmedia>.
Subscribe to our news releases via
e-mail<http://usgs.gov/newsroom/list_server.asp>
, RSS <http://feeds.feedburner.com/UsgsNewsroom> or
Twitter<http://twitter.com/USGS>
.

Links and contacts within this release are valid at the time of publication.

Please Read:http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=3712&from=rss_home

Ethan Alpern
Public Affairs Specialist
Office of Communications and Publishing (OCAP)
U. S. Geological Survey
12201 Sunrise Valley Drive
Reston, VA 20192
Mail Stop 119
703-648-4406
ealpern at usgs.gov
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.sonic.net/pipermail/pollinator/attachments/20131028/c948653e/attachment.html>