Sheri Moreau provided this copy of the times article, along with her initial annotation.
I'm putting the text of this Sept 15, 1998 article up here, cuz if you miss it in today's NYT, you have to pay to retrieve it tomorrow!! If anyone has a copy of the 17 August NYT article, I'd really like to see it. BTW, the "new disease" mentioned by David Marriott in the article, Noesema, is not new at all, and in fact is a protozoa occasionally used in the ag industry as a biological insect control device. Tests conducted at UC Davis dept of entomology last month determined that the disease that afflicted a number of California monarch breeders this summer (happily not my farm!!) was Polyhedrosis virus, one of the problems warned about in Rick's (and my and Bethany's) butterfly breeding seminars. The Polyhedrosis problems on the West Coast actually ORIGINATED at the Monarch Program, and were passed from breeder to breeder out here via infected larvae. Sheri
Basking in their first moments of nuptial bliss, brides and grooms around the country are exiting churches, showered not with rice or confetti, but surrounded instead by the fluttering gossamer wings of hundreds of butterflies. All but unheard of just a few years ago, butterfly releases are the latest fashion at weddings, not to mention at memorial services, grand openings, divorces and prison releases.
"The beautiful flight of the butterflies as they ascended -- it captured the beauty and the spirit of the day," said Dr. Patricia Heaman of White Haven, Pa., who ordered a "mixed bouquet" of several species of butterflies for the garden wedding last month of her nature-loving daughter. "It just seemed like the natural culmination to a natural event."
But while some view the release of butterflies as a celebration of natural beauty, many others -- including conservationists, scientists and amateur butterfly enthusiasts -- see it as a misguided practice that poses serious risks to wild butterfly populations and compromises scientists' ability to study phenomena like the annual migration of the monarch butterfly.
"It's really such a disgusting development," said Dr. Jeffrey Glassberg, president of the North American Butterfly Association in Morristown, N.J. "Environmentally, it's the worst thing you could do at your wedding."
With confetti and rice frowned upon as environmentally incorrect, many couples choose butterflies as a green alternative.
Dr. Robert Michael Pyle, the founder of the Xerces Society, an insect conservation group based in Portland, Ore., and an outspoken critic, said: "It's getting absolutely mad. People are making these butterflies into baubles."
Despite such objections, the butterfly breeding business is unlikely to go away soon. About 60 companies are in operation, many having sprung up in the last year or two, said Dr. Robert V. Flanders, senior entomologist at the United States Department of Agriculture in charge of regulation of butterfly releases. Tens of thousands of butterflies are being sold each season, with monarchs the most popular for weddings, at $10 each or $100 a dozen.
Scientists say the most serious threat to wild populations is the potentially rapid spread of disease. Sonia Altizer, disease ecologist at the University of Minnesota in St. Paul and one of the few scientists studying monarch diseases, said, "In natural populations, there are all sorts of parasites present that aren't a problem until you do captive breeding at high densities in close quarters."
With dealers shipping the butterflies by overnight mail all around the country, a localized outbreak of disease could spread quickly. She added, "I'm definitely not in favor of releases."
But breeders interviewed are adamant that their colonies are clean. They say they regularly check for the best-known malady of monarchs: a devastating parasite named Ophryocystis, which can wipe out whole colonies.
"We run an extremely tight ship," said Jacob Groth, a recent college graduate who studied business and now owns one of the largest of the new companies, Swallowtail Farms, in Carmichael, Calif. "When diseases do come through, they are caught immediately and destroyed. A butterfly operation can't last too long if it's sending out diseased butterflies."
But most diseases of monarchs, scientists say, remain unknown or little understood, so that even the most conscientious breeders cannot diagnose or even recognize them.
Moreover, Altizer said, many people raise caterpillars on drugs that can suppress diseases caused by protozoa and bacteria but not eliminate them. When such apparently healthy butterflies are released, they can act as carriers, spreading disease.
At the same time, new diseases continue to appear. Dr. David Marriott, founder of the Monarch Program, a nonprofit research and education organization based in Encinitas, Calif., said he receives inquiries every week from various callers about diseases that are killing off monarchs. While most breeders have learned to deal with Ophryocystis, now another disease is plaguing those who are trying to raise monarch butterflies. Dr. Marriott said that he suspects it is a protozoan parasite known as Nosema.
Breeders point out that critics lack any hard data that show releases have damaged wild butterflies. "If I saw definite proof that shows this is hurting them, I would've stopped in a minute," said Rick Mikula, who sells butterflies through his company, Hole in Hand, in Hazleton, Pa.
But such proof will be difficult if not impossible to come by, given that once the butterflies are released, they are indistinguishable from wild butterflies. If commercial butterflies are spreading disease or corrupting scientific studies, they will probably do so without anyone's ever knowing.
With so many human-raised butterflies in the wild, researchers say it is already impossible to know whether butterflies they catch in the wild are from that area or from a wedding that took place nearby. Releases make it impossible to confidently study migration routes, the incidence of disease or such basic things as where different species of butterflies can be found. Unfortunately for biologists, the two most commonly released butterflies, monarchs and painted ladies, are two of the few butterflies that actually have a migration pattern to study.
"It's unnecessarily muddling the biology of the monarch butterfly," said Dr. Lincoln Brower, a biologist at Sweet Briar College in Virginia who has studied monarchs for 20 years and published articles arguing against the release of monarchs.
In this battle, which both sides say is getting uglier, breeders find little that is compelling in such arguments.
"The chance of finding a butterfly that's been released is not enough to where it's worthwhile putting a bunch of people out of business and ruining something that is so special to a lot of people," Groth said.
Though butterfly enthusiasts, teachers and scientists have moved small numbers of butterflies and released them for years, the U.S.D.A. began to get involved only when commercial releases began to boom a few years ago.
Flanders has been criticized for regulations that breeders describe as "overbearing" and that conservationists say are too liberal. He tries to be conservative in what he will permit, Flanders said. In order to ship butterflies across state lines for release, breeders must obtain a permit from U.S.D.A. Nine species are permitted for release.
"Something irretrievable can happen," said Flanders, referring to the devastating effects of events like the inadvertent introduction to the United States of gypsy moths, an insect that has decimated forests at various times. "If I make the wrong decision, it could impact this society for many centuries."
Breeders prefer to focus on the brighter side of things.
Balloons, confetti and birdseed are today viewed as just so much littering. Rice is not only difficult to clean up, but some fear that birds can be harmed when the rice they eat expands. The ads for breeders use phrases like "ecologically sound" and "enhance the environment" when describing butterfly releases.
"We wanted to get into a green business," said Gordon Laatz, who left the telecommunications business last year to begin breeding butterflies as Painted Sky Butterflies in West Bloomfield, Mich. "We might take two dozen butterflies out and then put five or six thousand back into the environment and give them a chance to replenish their numbers. I think it's alarmist to say we shouldn't do it just because we don't know what the consequences are."
Most important, breeders say, are the many stories they hear of customers changed forever by a profound experience with released butterflies. Chris Hundley of Magical Beginnings in Los Gatos, Calif., who along with his partner was formerly in the computer business, said: "The thing I like best is the emotions, reactions and how much a butterfly can touch somebody. Butterflies are just so happy."
While there are a few fairly large businesses, most breeders work out of their garages or back bedrooms, with little overhead, and sell via the World Wide Web. Most people attribute the rapid growth of this cottage industry to Mikula, a former machinist who several years ago began giving seminars on raising butterflies. While Mikula said his seminars are more for butterfly lovers than entrepreneurs, many breeders and scientists say it has been his descriptions of the money to be made that have gotten so many started. A Web page advertisement for Mikula's next seminar, which costs $195 for one day, describes butterfly farming as "a lucrative business opportunity." It adds, "Be prepared to be sold out at least a year in advance, every year."
Swallowtail Farms, Groth said, expects to sell nearly 10,000 monarch butterflies this season, priced from $7 to $9 each, double their sales from last year. John White, marketing director for Butterfly Celebration, of Shafter, Calif., which sells painted lady butterflies, said, in just a few years, the company had catered nearly 4,000 events.
But not everyone loves butterflies at weddings.
Rita Bloom, a wedding coordinator at Creative Parties in Bethesda, Md., described a wedding ceremony in which guests were asked to release butterflies. "It was horrendous," she said. "Some people didn't even want to touch them. There were black crows flying up overhead and people were convinced they were there for the butterflies. They were brown and looked like moths. Half were dead or dying. It was a disaster, an absolute disaster."
In the meantime, Flanders said legislation before Congress could create much stiffer penalties for rogue breeders, helping to enforce regulations in what is now largely an honor system. Individual states are clamping down as well. Arizona, Dr. Flanders said, has banned shipments of butterflies for release into the state.
But for the moment, more butterflies continue to flitter off in front of dewy-eyed wedding guests, and conservationists continue to stew.
Groth was optimistic. "These scientists are all focusing on protecting the monarch as if it were a helpless, weak little creature," he said. "It's hardy. It does just fine on its own."
But Brower, told of this argument, responded, "That's probably what people said about the passenger pigeon 100 years ago."
In the industry we go through this week after week and in some of our cases year after year. Jacob you know what I mean. I spent quite a bit of time with Ms.Yoons for this article. When she brought up a negative point I sent her postings from PHDs to counter her charges. It is most interesting to see the parts she used. I will try to address some of the issues.
All but unheard of just a few years ago, butterfly releases are the latest fashion at weddings, not to mention at memorial services, grand openings, divorces and prison releases. Actually even Winston Churchill loved to import butterflies to his garden parties for his guest to release. That is probably why there are no butterflies left in England. OOPS I'm sorry there are still butterflies in England!!!
But while some view the release of butterflies as a celebration of natural beauty, many others -- including conservationists, scientists and amateur butterfly enthusiasts -- see it as a misguided practice that poses serious risks to wild butterfly populations and compromises scientists' ability to study phenomena like the annual migration of the monarch butterfly. Prior to this article some experts stated that "farmed raised butterflies" were mixed up and could not migrate. In the same article they also said that they did migrate only to pass disease to the others. I am confused. Did they or did they not migrate.
"It's really such a disgusting development," said Dr. Jeffrey Glassberg, president of the North American Butterfly Association in Morristown, N.J. "Environmentally, it's the worst thing you could do at your wedding." The worst thing you can do Environmentally for butterflies is have the Lawn people come in a spray for bad bugs. But in Mr Glassberg's article "The Good The Bad and The Ugly" he also accused butterfly farmers of importing exotic butterfly species of various colors from other countries to match the colors of the dresses at the wedding. It hard enough reaing domestics and shipping under permits, who the heck is going to import exotics.
Dr. Robert Michael Pyle, the founder of the Xerces Society, an insect conservation group based in Portland, Ore., and an outspoken critic, said: "It's getting absolutely mad. People are making these butterflies into baubles." On the contrary. People's eyes are opened up to the beauty of butterflies. The average person on the street can not name three butterflies. After such an affair they will become butterfly aware. probably they may even put in a butterfly garden.
Scientists say the most serious threat to wild populations is the potentially rapid spread of disease. Not all scientist. Come on Ms. Yoons not all scientist only the one that urged this article to be written. How about Dr. Chip Taylor at the University of Kansas and the wonderful work he has been doing with school groups all these years.
Sonia Altizer, disease ecologist at the University of Minnesota in St. Paul and one of the few scientists studying monarch diseases, said, "In natural populations, there are all sorts of parasites present that aren't a problem until you do captive breeding at high densities in close quarters." Too bad Ms. Yoons did not interview Dr Bruce Walsh who prove that it is mathematically impossible for all the released butterflies to infect the wild population. Perhaps she did but it didn't fit her agenda???? I don't know. Since most of the article is hearsay or possible speculation on some people's part lets throw some more into it. Dr. Altizer also state in a public posting that when she crossed western monarchs with eastern monarch she ended up with a population that was more disease resistant. They I would assume where rearing in high density and in close quarters.
But breeders interviewed are adamant that their colonies are clean. They say they regularly check for the best-known malady of monarchs: a devastating parasite named Ophryocystis, which can wipe out whole colonies. As I told Ms. Yoons that over the years I have been very impressed with the the breeders I know. They told me that they refused to send an order because they were afraid that there may have a problem with their stock. Rather than take a chance they refuse to ship. Pretty nice people if you ask me.It was the butterfly over the dollar.
Moreover, Altizer said, many people raise caterpillars on drugs that can suppress diseases caused by protozoa and bacteria but not eliminate them. When such apparently healthy butterflies are released, they can act as carriers, spreading disease. These are the same diseases that have been always present in the populations. It is a natural check and balance to the butterfly populations as diseases are to the human population. It controls over populating. This is not to say that we should release diseased butterflies. No one in their right mind would do that. But it does exist as a natural control
At the same time, new diseases continue to appear. Dr. David Marriott, founder of the Monarch Program, a nonprofit research and education organization based in Encinitas, Calif., said he receives inquiries every week from various callers about diseases that are killing off monarchs. While most breeders have learned to deal with Ophryocystis, now another disease is plaguing those who are trying to raise monarch butterflies. Dr. Marriott said that he suspects it is a protozoan parasite known as Nosema. Please read Sheri's posting RE; Dr Marriott and protoza. But please keep in mind that Dr. Marriott told me that his PHD is in guitar.
With so many human-raised butterflies in the wild, researchers say it is already impossible to know whether butterflies they catch in the wild are from that area or from a wedding that took place nearby. Recently I took a walk through my favorite tagging fields. Normally I could find a hundred to two hundred monarchs there on any nice summer day. When I took my walk I counted only four. In the immediate area, over the course of the summer(June to August) I released 150 monarchs at various weddings. Now shouldn't I have counted 154 if they were staying around to screw up my count? Shouldn't the 4th of July butterflies counts show too many monarchs in an area rather than too few? It is not the released butterflies killing off the the monarchs. Did any one take in mind the thousand upon thousands of lady bugs, praying mantis and lacey wings that are bought from commercial breeders and released in gardens all over this country. YO! THEY EAT CATERPILLARS AND BUTTERFLIES! And that includes monarchs. That's their job, to eat other bugs. They do not have a "Field Guide to Good Bugs" in their pockets.
Dale McClung made an excellent point in regard to all the universities that have been experimenting and using viruses in the field to control insects. These are the same diseases that the other half of Academia is accussing us of distributing!!!! Perhaps they should patrol their own ranks a little more closely.
Releases make it impossible to confidently study migration routes, The last anti-release article they accussed us of releasing mixed up monarchs that find it impossible to migrate. Please make up your minds so we can follow you.
"It's unnecessarily muddling the biology of the monarch butterfly," said Dr. Lincoln Brower, a biologist at Sweet Briar College in Virginia who has studied monarchs for 20 years and published articles arguing against the release of monarchs. In Dr Brower's article in the March/April 1998 issue of AUDUBON by Sue Halpern, Dr Brower speaks of all the mistakes they had in his plan for the overwinter sites over the last twenty years. I tried being objective when reading the article be he even admitted that he was wrong and why he should be allowed to do it over again. I guess the first twenty years of mistakes were not enough for him.
In this battle, which both sides say is getting uglier, breeders find little that is compelling in such arguments. That is because we have been going through this over and over again. Week after week year after year.
"We wanted to get into a green business," said Gordon Laatz, who left the telecommunications business last year to begin breeding butterflies as Painted Sky Butterflies in West Bloomfield, Mich. "We might take two dozen butterflies out and then put five or six thousand back into the environment and give them a chance to replenish their numbers. I think it's alarmist to say we shouldn't do it just because we don't know what the consequences are." As I always said butterfly farmers do not TAKE BUTTERFLIES WE MAKE THEM
While there are a few fairly large businesses, most breeders work out of their garages or back bedrooms, with little overhead, and sell via the World Wide Web. Butterfly farming in the US started in Donner's Pass Ca. in 1911 It peaked during the 50's and 60's Until the government cut fundinto the sciences. At that time they were only use in Bio classe for disections. Funny no one cried when there were being cut to pieces. But release them into the wild and look out.
Rita Bloom, a wedding coordinator at Creative Parties in Bethesda, Md., described a wedding ceremony in which guests were asked to release butterflies. "It was horrendous," she said. "Some people didn't even want to touch them. There were black crows flying up overhead and people were convinced they were there for the butterflies. They were brown and looked like moths. Half were dead or dying. It was a disaster, an absolute disaster." This is the biggest pile I ever read. Who on earth is going to believe that the crows were circling, like buzzards, waiting for the butterflies to die. I love that story I really do. You will all hear it over and over again in other articles because I will use it. It blew me away. How many stories are there out there about DOVES taking a dump on wedding guests. Or I have heard many stories about people getting sick on wedding food. So I say STOP SERVING FOOD AT WEDDINGS - IT WILL KILL US ALL!!!!
But for the moment, more butterflies continue to flitter off in front of dewy-eyed wedding guests, and conservationists continue to stew. Not All conservationist only the one that provoked this article. There are just as many PHDs out there that say its fine and not hurting anyone.
But Brower, told of this argument, responded, "That's probably what people said about the passenger pigeon 100 years ago." Come on already!!! They were hunted to extinction. They did not die off from people releasing other passenger pigeons. They were hunted and killed by people with guns not wedding parties. If that was the case Dr. Brower then all birds would be extinct, not just the passenger pigeons. What a pile. John James Audubon, the great conservationalist and sicentist, spent most of his days elbow deep in blood from all the birds he shot that day.
Just adding a couple of things to consider in the response, in addition to the problems mentioned in the NYT article.
Most farmers point out that butterfly species should only be released where the particular species already occurs, although relative abundance is not addressed. An often overlooked problem can occur when butterflies from one population are released where they can breed with butterflies from a (normally) geographically remote population of the same species. An obvious example, and one widely recognized on the Butterfly Farmers List, is the potentially negative effect on migratory behavior resulting from interbreeding between eastern and western populations of Monarchs. However, migration also occurs in other butterflies, although it is less dramatic and less well studied.
An additional problem is that some butterflies, for example the Tiger Swallowtail, have heritable localized dietary preferences, laying and feeding on different larval hosts in different parts of the country. Butterflies also have latitudinally different responses to environmental cues that trigger initiation and breaking of diapause. This behavior is also potentially vulnerable to inappropriate releases and subsequent interbreeding. Historical "beneficial" releases that have backfired, such as the many birds and the mongoose in the Hawaiian Islands and the Gypsy Moth in the northeastern U.S. clearly show that it is better to err on the side of caution when there is any question about the ultimate environmental impact of any artificial introduction.
Regards, Devil's Advocate David
Just to clarify some potential mis-information about the immune system of higher animals and that of butterflies.
The way we and other mammals fight disease is through a complex system that provides us with the ability to recognize materials that come into our body as foreign. Our immune system can then make "antibodies" or proteins that neutralize the invading bacteria or viruses. We also have specialized cells that recognize these intruders and swallow them up, break them down and allow other cells to build a memory about them...in this way, we can recognize them the next time they come to call...that is why we only get many diseases only once (and the reason that vaccination works...we are tricking our bodies into thinking the visitor has come around for it's first visit..so when we really do meet it, we already know it's a bad guy) all the signals for this immune system are encoded by a complex set of genes that are highly regulated and specific.... lower animals, including butterflies aren't so lucky as to have such a system to protect them against disease....
Having just gotten off of the phone with DR. Flanders, USDA, I will try to reiterate much of what he passed on to me!!!
1. He is still behind the butterfly breeders selling commercially, there are 9 species that are permittable. Understand that although they are permittable, they can not all be sent to all of the States. Arizona has denied all permits, (forgot to ask about Insect Lore--Painted Ladies) in regards to the Monarchs in AZ, they claim to have several species of Milkweed that are on the endangered species list, and therefore if they allow the import of Monarch, they are endangering the milkweed.
2. About the legislation before Congress There is an executive order before Clinton it is a petition for Alien Invasive Species. This is for Species being brought in from overseas, which will have no bearing on us as we only raise native species. So you think!!! There is a Company in Florida who is smuggling in Morphos from Costa Rica, and trying to breed them in this country. This is a commercial breeder, and this will reflect on all of us!!! If and when this is brought into the publics eye!!! Totally illegal, and not what we need!!!
3. There is new legislation before Congress with the Plant protection, I do not know the gist of this act, however I will research it later today (time permitting) and get back to you with it! DR. Flanders said that this will not harm the commercial breeders! If any thing it should help!! It is Bill # HR3766 1998 Plant protection Act. You can search for it through the USDA aphis site to laws and regulations to laws before congress in the House of Rep. This bill should determine that the Butterflies we are raising and releasing have a low or no impact.
Gary Cave at this time is now in charge of permits.
As far as dealing with the Negative publicity, we might do well, instead of just flat denying, and saying that mass releases do no harm, let the public know that we along with the USDA have considered all of these issues, and have determined that there is no detrimental environmental impact. Give a well rounded response. When the media gets an idea that there is controversy, they feed upon it like sharks!! We need to put out our own press releases, not just to say how wonderful a release is, but to show that the Butterfly is our # 1 concern, and how we have accepted the responsibilities of breeding this insect to release healthy Butterflies into the environment. This country is based on Capitalism and exploitation of our natural resources, there is nothing wrong with this if..... it is done is a responsible way and not to rape the environment. As far as DR. Flanders saying there were about 60 breeders throughout the Country, he also told the reporter that there are only about 3 or 4 of these Companies that are fairly large and reliable that he knows of. he did say that one of them was in Texas Thank you DR. Flanders.
Jeffery Glassburg before retiring was a lawyer, (I think I am correct in saying this) and has a background in genetic engineering. He has angered alot of people not just the breeders, but many of the conservationists. He will probably be our biggest problem, as it is my understanding that he knows how to work the media, etc.., to get the attention and say what he wants. Who in our group can and or will be the mouthpiece for the BBA???? Any Takers??? Need to be diplomatic!!!!!!! and not let our emotions get ahead of our Mouth. I know I have a hard time doing that!!!! I do not like being attacked when I truly know that what I am doing s right!! Do I have the scientific studies to back it up?? No, but neither to the nay sayers have any studies to back them up!!! If our Butterfly releases have really upset the balance, than why are so many complaining that they just haven't seen any Monarchs this year??? OK I will get off of the soapbox for a little while. Bethany
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