Orley R. "Chip" Taylor, professor of biological sciences at the University of Kansas, said millions of monarchs were killed in early March, but conflicting reports have attributed the deaths to different causes.

One report indicated a winter storm had hit the area, bringing low temperatures and freezing rain to the mountaintops where monarchs dwell from early November to late March. "It could conceivably have removed up to one-sixth of the monarchs in the overwintering colonies," Taylor said.

However, another report suggested the losses were inflicted by humans, rather than by nature. In the overwintering sites, lumber is a major source of income, and it was rumored that loggers sprayed trees with pesticides in order to harvest the lumber.

"We're having difficulty sorting out whether spraying actually occurred or whether this is normal winter mortality that was mistaken for spraying," Taylor said.

A mission for monarchs

Taylor has been studying monarch butterflies since the early 1990s and has made several trips to observe them at their overwintering sites in Mexico. While he said it was doubtful pesticide spraying occurred, Taylor has been aware of that threat.

"The very idea that there are rumors about spraying and logging is very disconcerting to a lot of us," Taylor said. "We look at this as being a real fight, a real battle for preservation, so that the butterflies will have a wintering safe site."

One of the ways Taylor and others have been fighting that battle is through a program called Monarch Watch, located at KU. With the help of three full-time employees, Taylor leads a program focused on education, conservation and research. The 1900 members of Monarch Watch include students, teachers, volunteers and researchers who are interested in the butterflies.

The group's latest project involves outreach to the communities in Mexico where monarchs spend the winter months. For the last two years, Taylor and others have collected textbooks and educational materials and given them to schools in Mexico.

By providing math and science resources, the Adopt-A-Classroom project aims to make a small contribution to the children who will one day make decisions about the land. Taylor said a many area students dropped out of school before sixth grade.

"The presumption of our education philosophy is that if they are well educated, they will have a better chance of making wise decisions on the use of their local resources," Taylor said. "We're not trying to tell them how to live."

Jim Lovett, Monarch Watch staff member, said the program had been well received. In January, several members of the group delivered $80,000 worth of supplies to 30 schools. While obtaining the textbooks was easy, it was expensive and challenging to transport the materials across the border.

"Getting all these donated materials into Mexico is a big deal," Lovett said.

Taylor has ambitions to increase the amount of support given to the schools, and would like to add computers to the list of donations. "We're just starting to get the ball rolling by giving them simple materials," Taylor said. "Computers have the ability to move them to a different level in terms of opportunities for education."

Obstacles and optimism

Despite Taylor's optimism for Adopt-A-Classroom, he admits it may be difficult to overcome existing circumstances in Mexico and prevent deforestation.

"Most things on this planet are driven by economics, and there's no difference down there," he said. "If people need a resource from the land and the land has it, they're going to take it."

It remains unclear whether loggers recently sprayed trees in the overwintering colonies with pesticides. Taylor said researchers had taken samples of the butterflies and would try to determine whether pesticides had been used. But regardless of the outcome of the tests, the threat of deforestation remains. "We need to try to figure out a way to make the living forest more valuable than the dead trees," Taylor said. "It seems to be more of a challenge than we're capable of meeting at the present time."

Another challenge Taylor faces is the viability of Adopt-A-Classroom. After two years of operation, the project is in financial trouble. Taylor said the program had lost $5,000 to $7,000 each year, and unless corporate sponsorship is obtained, the program will have difficulty continuing next year.

However, Taylor and his staff remain dedicated to their vision of education, conservation and sharing the intriguing story of the monarch.

"It's got this really puzzling life history and lifestyle and migration, going to this mysterious place in the mountains in Mexico and then coming back again," Taylor said. "If you're a biologist, occasionally things just catch your imagination, and this butterfly caught mine."