Butterflies and Tractor-Trailers

I found something profound ..... Sat Feb 24, 9:25 PM ET MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico will enforce a "zero tolerance" policy against logging that threatens to wipe out the monarch butterfly and will act to stop a rare and ancient oasis from drying up, President Felipe Calderon said on Saturday. Calderon said soldiers will be deployed to clamp down on illegal logging in a protected forest where monarch butterflies winter after migrating thousands of miles from Canada and the United States. "We will work intensively to establish a zero tolerance policy to illegal logging in the monarch zone," he told villagers in the region at the launch of a five-year conservation plan. Mexico vows to protect monarch butterfly In the fall of 2000, I was west bound on the I-20 near Sweetwater, Texas. It was one of those days that we all know & love.... bright, clear, and still. I was in a Freightliner FLD, which for those who have never experienced it, puts your eye level almost 10 ft. off the ground. My eyes glanced-up and a Monarch Butterfly was bravely beating it's way cross the 20 south bound to Mexico. As I proceeded down the road more and more of his kin began to appear. One had to be looking closely as the little guys were some 50 to 60 feet off the ground. But there it was, one of the great migrations in nature, moving unnoticed by us humans all breaking the speed limit on the Interstate. It took awhile for me to recognize what I was seeing, but as I went on I became more and more excited. I emailed my mom on the Qualcom that night telling her what I'd seen. She was just as excited. The following spring I was parked on a small turn-out near Del Rio, Texas, taking a leak, and a north bound Monarch bravely beat his way pass me.