Monarch Butterfly feasts on nectar from flower. Photo by Leisa's Images

By Stephen Kiehl
EL ROSARIO, Mexico--The dead butterflies came up to his ankles, an ocean of orange and black that spread as far as he could see.

On a mountaintop in central Mexico, Bill Toone stepped lightly. He had helped save the California Condor. He had protected species around the world. But he was not prepared for this. The piles of Monarch Butterflies--estimates would put the figure at 250 million dead--were so thick that they were composting at the bottom.

The butterflies in the El Rosario sanctuary froze to death that winter of 2002, victims of a cold brought on not only by the vagaries of weather but also, Toone says, by illegal logging that is systematically destroying their habitat.

The forest acts like a blanket, protecting the butterflies from extremes in temperature. Without it, they freeze. But the forest, like the butterflies, is disappearing. More than a thousand acres were cut in the butterfly sanctuary last year, and in the last decade the number of monarchs migrating to Mexico declined from... Read On