Mexican environmental inspectors said Wednesday they found 7.4 acres (3 hectares) of illegal avocado plantations in the Monarch butterfly wintering grounds west of Mexico City. Previously, deforestation linked to lucrative avocado planting had been seen in areas to the west and south of the reserve. In April, police found that a 91-acre (37-hectare) swath of pine trees had been cut down in the nature reserve of Valle de Bravo, a bit east of the butterfly reserve, to plant avocado trees. Without pine trees to provide thermal cover and roosting sites, the butterflies can freeze to death. And the butterfly reserve is threatened by other factors, including illegal logging and increasingly fierce storms than freeze butterflies or blow down big swathes of trees.

Source: ABC News February 21, 2018 20:47 UTC