View allAll Photos Tagged diversification
Still trying to diversify my subjects a bit.
I've always been in awe before those steam monster but really didn't knew first thing about trains, let alone Lego trains.
So after enlightening myself a bit I started building and went for an original design to have less constraints. Still I was strongly inspired by the PRR K4 as well as some German Kriegslok'
My camera doesn't have a video function so I can't show off as much as I would like, but know the gear are working, it's motorised & it can take turns, no problems ^^
Enjoy !
The buses of Scotland - Park’s of Hamilton (Coach Hirers) Limited
Park's Motor Group is a private family-owned business which is one of the largest privately owned motor dealership groups in Scotland, representing 26 manufacturers. They are also partners in the Motability scheme, offering cars to disabled road users. In addition to motor vehicle retailing, the company has a luxury coach hire service under the name Park's of Hamilton, and operates scheduled services in Scotland and England.
Douglas Park founded the business in 1971 as Park’s Thistle Coaches, initially as a small, three-coach operation. In 1977, the company diversified into the motor trade with their first Datsun franchise in Hamilton, before adding a second a year later in Strathaven. From this point on, the business began to grow in the motor trade and by 1986 were appointed agents for Honda and BMW. In 1992, Park's Motor Group opened the UK's first multi-franchise complex in East Kilbride which featured Citroën, Fiat, Honda, Kia, Nissan, Renault and Suzuki. Since then through acquisitions and good reputations, it has added dealerships for most car companies including high end companies such as Bentley and McLaren.
Park's of Hamilton are Scotland's leading luxury coach operators with in excess of 120 coaches, which caters for both business and leisure travel throughout Britain and Europe. it’s a reputation that they’ve gained from their earliest days focusing on high quality and rapidly replacing vehicles after a few years meaning a very low average age.
Initially Bedford coaches were preferred but from the mid-1970s, Volvo coaches were purchased and these became increasingly preferred almost to the exclusion of others. Park’s became one of Volvo Bus’s most important customers and indeed a Volvo service centre for buses and trucks was opened near to Park’s depot, which is located not in Hamilton but actually in Blantyre.,That’s not to say we’re not to say other types were not used and many manufacturers have offered demonstration vehicles to try and tempt Park’s away from Volvo including Scania. MAN and IVECO.
Initially Duple body work was specified but Park’s wasn’t immune to high profile purchase. It was one of the few UK-users of Volvo’s integral C10M coach launched in the 1980s although after the demise of Duple, it moved to Plaxton bodywork. However quality issues with new Plaxton Premiere and Excalibur ranges saw overseas bodywork preferred, from either Van Hool and Jonckheere. Plaxton bodywork came back in to the frame with the launch of the Plaxton Panther and Paragon ranges.
Initially an all black livery was used with white lettering and initially Park’s Thistle Coaches fleet name although it later changed to the more recognised Park’s of Hamilton fleet name. Black was apparently selected as no other company used an overall such coloured livery and the coaches would stand out. Then with the arrivals of the C10M the livery changed from allover black to a red/grey livery. The amounts of red and grey were then tinkered with over the next few years. The fleet name then changed in the 1990s to ‘Park’s Motor Group - Scotland’s Driving Force’ although a black /gold livery returned in at the start of the millennium and Park’s of Hamilton fleetname came back soon after that.
In 1996 Park's of Hamilton expanded with the acquisition of Trathens Travel Services, based in Plymouth. In late 2009, the Trathens branding was dropped in favour of the Park's of Hamilton branding. The company provides VIP coaches for most Central Scotland based Scottish Premiership football teams, including Celtic, Rangers and the Scottish National Football Team. The continued provision of coaches to Celtic FC is seen as controversial by some of that clubs fans as Douglas Park is also chairman of arch rivals Rangers FC. Tour buses have also been supplied to holiday companies.
Although primarily a coach operator, service bus work has been run although it could be best described as ‘dipping a toe into the water’….for a short while in 1994 it ran an East Kilbride-Glasgow City Centre express service, with its Van Hool bodied Volvo B10Ms probably offering a higher standard than the competing Atlanteans and Olympians of competing Strathclyde’s Buses services. The services were withdrawn after a few weeks. It also assisted Stagecoach when it launched Stagecoach Glasgow in 1997 by running some local services, again in East Kilbride, using Stagecoach branded minibuses but utilising Park’s drivers. Again these were unsuccessful. Commuter services have also been run in the past but the pandemic and home working has blasted the economics of such services and they’ll be unlikely to return. Some schools services have also been run.
Park's of Hamilton have also operated express coach services under contract to National Express from London Victoria Coach Station to Plymouth, Newquay, Penzance, Manchester, Blackpool and Aberdeen.
It also operates services on behalf of Megabus and Scottish Citylink and is a significant contractor for Citylink. Following the joint venture between Stagecoach and Comfort Delgo to run Scottish Citylink, the Competition Authorities demanded that the joint venture divest certain journeys to increase competition. In 2008 Parks purchased these Glasgow to Aberdeen and Edinburgh to Inverness services of Scottish Citylink. They run using Park’s branded buses but in Citylink colours, Citylink route-numbers, are bookable through the Citylink website and ticket agents. You have to ask whether it was worth all the effort by the Competition Authorities.
It also run for a while Citylink Gold. This was a laudable attempt to improve the image of coach travel offering a hostess service, complementary beverages and food, wi-fi and improved seating. The services were initially run by Park’s on behalf of Scottish Citylink but proved very successful. They ran initially between Glasgow - Inverness/Aberdeen but were so successful they were expanded and extra journeys added using Stagecoach vehicles (branded Megabus Gold) and services started from Edinburgh. However the pandemic saw these off.
Park’s set the standard of luxury coaching in Scotland and many operators aspire to the standards they set. It has a modern fleet which is constantly renewed and kept immaculate. It’s fleet consists mainly of Volvo buses, mostly Plaxton and Jonckheere bodies. However this odd example is LSK870, which was new for National Express duties as BV67JYZ. It’s time on National Express over, it’s been repainted into Citylink livery for use on those services. Note the Parks of Hamilton logo on the upper front windows.
Developed by Developers Diversified, Quincy Place Mall opened in August 1990, as a 270,000 ft2 mall anchored by JCPenney, Herberger's, and Walmart.
A decades long weak economy and the departures of Walmart, JCP, and Herberger's have left the former industrial hub without a thriving retail destination. The Target behind the mall closed in 2015.
Developers Diversified really copied what Dial Properties of Omaha was doing when building this mall. The corrugated ceilings, circular lights, dated colors, and anchor combination match the Walmart, JCP, and Herberger's anchored malls that DP was building elsewhere in the Midwest. The mall was build to replace an ailing downtown pedestrian mall that was foundering even before the loss of Younkers.
Wanted to diversify the train with a bit more then flats and coal hoppers, I’m avoiding box cars for now as I want to do a lot of the more interesting shapes or with the flat cars ability to do interesting things! Still have not decided how many cars there will be yet as I do not have much space but I loved how this tanker came out. I used a few different technics from a number of builds.
Bulbophyllum cf. popayanense in situ. Du genre le plus diversifié au monde avec 2182 espèces actuellement connues. Beaucoup plus commun et diversifié dans le sud-est asiatique y en Afrique, mais également présent en Amérique Latine. En Colombie, environ 10 espèces ont été recensées. Département du Valle del Cauca, Colombie.
Bulbophyllum cf. popayanense in situ. From the more diversified genus in the world with 2182 species already known. Much more diversified and common in south-east Asia and Africa, but also present in Latin America. In Colombia, around 10 species have been registered. Valle del Cauca department, Colombia.
Bulbophyllum cf. popayanense in situ. Del género más diversificado del mundo con 2182 especies actualmente conocidas. Mucho más común y diversificado en el sudeste asiático y en África, pero también presente en Latinoamérica. En Colombia, alrededor de 10 especies han sido registradas. Departamento del Valle del Cauca, Colombia.
A little different style than my usual fashion shoots. This series is a lot more editorial than my usual style (i'll post some more images soon). I needed to diversify my portfolio and actually did this shoot with Erin way back in May but didn't edit the photos until recently.
Erin is simply one of the best models I've ever worked with. There's just no contest. I've never met anyone that gives more to a shoot than she does. Like in this shoot for example - what you can't tell from just a picture is that we were both SO paranoid and afraid something would happen because there was a ton of what looked like poison oak all over the place. While the model's safety is always #1 priority, she was a tropper and frolicked all over this forest despite everything we were worried about... she was striking poses on the ground, next to trees, etc etc etc. She really is a total professional and always braves the elements to make sure we get the shots we need. I have a tremendous amount of respect for this girl... especially because I've worked with one or two other models who were total divas and complained even when it got a bit cold. sheesh. Not Erin. She and I once did a bikini shoot on the beach in the FREEZING weather. I had three layers of clothes on and she had a two-piece on, but never complained. we shot for 6 hours that day.
This was actually one of those images that looks great on my calibrated monitor, but is off on so many levels when I upload to the web (even with an sRGB profile). See discussion here.
Model: Erin
Hair & MUA: Erin
Photography & Editing: Me
Strobist info:
single SB-600 high camera left driven by SB-800 on camera via Nikon CLS on my D300.
Developed by Developers Diversified, Quincy Place Mall opened in August 1990, as a 270,000 ft2 mall anchored by JCPenney, Herberger's, and Walmart.
A decades long weak economy and the departures of Walmart, JCP, and Herberger's have left the former industrial hub without a thriving retail destination. The Target behind the mall closed in 2015.
Developers Diversified really copied what Dial Properties of Omaha was doing when building this mall. The corrugated ceilings, circular lights, dated colors, and anchor combination match the Walmart, JCP, and Herberger's anchored malls that DP was building elsewhere in the Midwest. The mall was build to replace an ailing downtown pedestrian mall that was foundering even before the loss of Younkers.
In the small, rural town of Unadilla, in south-central Georgia, apparently you must diversify your business in order to make a living. Looks like you can have your car detailed while waiting to get your cousin out of jail!.
The dome ceiling at the Westfield San Francisco Centre is big, abstract and dramatic. Don't miss the second dramatic ceiling over at Nordstroms on the other side of the center as well.
The Burj Khalifa is a skyscraper in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. With a total height of 829.8 m (2,722 ft, just over half a mile) and a roof height (excluding antenna, but including a 244 m spire[2]) of 828 m (2,717 ft), the Burj Khalifa has been the tallest structure and building in the world. The building was opened in 2010 as part of a new development called Downtown Dubai. It is designed to be the centrepiece of large-scale, mixed-use development. The decision to construct the building is based on the government's decision to diversify from an oil-based economy, and for Dubai to gain international recognition.
For those time when chocolate won't do (said Wonka never). Still, time to make a quick buck by licensing your name and likeness..
As the ms Zaandam leaves its Canada Place birth the Centerm container dock comes into full view. Port Metro Vancouver is Canada’s largest and most diversified port.
CENTERM:
Centerm, located on the south shore of Burrard Inlet, is a container facility that handles cargo for some of the world's largest shipping lines.
Port Metro Vancouver offers four common-user container terminals with extensive on-dock rail facilities and features the only quad lift cranes in North and South America. Container cargo accounts for approximately 20 per cent of Port Metro Vancouver's annual throughput.
Centerm is managed by DP World.
SEOUL EXPRESS:
Flag:Germany
Length:294 m
IMO:9193305
Beam:32 m
MMSI:211331640
Gross Tonnage:54465
Year Built:2000
Dead weight:66971 tons
Permission to use photo:
29 Sep 15:
Hello Mr. McGrath,
I wanted to use your picture of the Port of Vancouver (www.flickr.com/photos/time-to-look/15298114215/) for a professional, non-commercial use. This is with appropriate credit given with a link back to your picture and your flickr account.
I am willing to inform you any modifications I will make.
Regards
Oke
Permission to use photo
.
05 Apr 2018
.
Dear Mr. McGrath,
The Montreal Biosphere, Environment Museum, is developing an outdoor exhibition about Canadian oceans and we would be interested in displaying your photograph of Centerm Terminal within this event:
www.flickr.com/photos/time-to-look/15298114215/
Approximately 50 striking images will highlight many aspects of our oceans, such as biodiversity, history, landscapes and environmental health. The photographs will be printed on a 6-by-4-foot format (on a laminated vinyl) and the general public will have free access to the exhibition.
If you are interested, we would like to know what would be the best available resolution for the image, and the fee for a license to enlarge, print and display the work for a period of 5 years, including the right to use a small copy in a visual presentation within the museum (Powerpoint).
Of course, the source and credits of the photographs will be acknowledged when displayed.
Thank you very much for your consideration. We look forward to hearing from you soon.
Sophie Malouin
Researcher - exhibition Oceans
For the Montreal Biosphere, Environment Museum
sophie@9moineaux.com
The South Brisbane Branch of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia at 87 Grey Street, was constructed by Frank Lee in 1929. It was open for business by 1930. Prior to this, the bank had occupied temporary premises in and around Melbourne Street since the 3rd of January 1921. Plans for this purpose-built bank designed by the architects in the Commonwealth Department of Works are dated on the 9th of December 1927.
The site on which the bank is located was one of thirty allotments sold in the Brisbane land sales of 1854. It was acquired by Deed of Grant on the 11th of May 1854 by William John London. Situated within the Brisbane town limits drawn up in 1846, this allotment was affected by each of the major urban developments on the South Brisbane peninsula; the development of the public transport systems, the declaration of first-class urban areas, and the widening of the major arterial roads (Melbourne & Stanley Streets). Subdivision of the original blocks was underway by 1870 and allotment 1 section 15, of which this site is a part, was acquired by Patrick Maunsell on the 3rd of March 1871. Once it was sold by Maunsell's widow in 1897, it passed through various hands until the site was acquired by Janet Mearns Pike and Richard Pike in 1912.
The more diversified nature of commerce in the area from that time is reflected in the tenancy of the Pikes Building which was erected on the site by 1917. The State Department of Works leased the site in 1917 and various State offices including the Chief Protector of Aboriginals and the Department of Water Supply were situated there. In 1925, the whole of the site was resumed by the South Brisbane City Council. It passed to the Brisbane Municipal Council in 1927 when part of the land was dedicated for road purposes. Re-subdivision of the land followed and subs. 1 & 2 of allot 1 of section 15 were sold to the Commonwealth Bank of Australia by the Brisbane City Council in September 1927. The property was taken over by the Commonwealth Trading Bank of Australia in September 1956.
Centrally situated in one of the three distinct shopping centres which developed in South Brisbane in the early twentieth century, that at Bayard's Corner Melbourne Street, the Commonwealth Bank was ideally placed to take advantage of the industrial and commercial development which was the predominant feature of the early 1920s. Custom would have been further enhanced when the in-bound lane of the tramway in Stanley Street was relocated in Grey Street in 1918. From that time, all in-bound trams from West End, Dutton Park, Ipswich Road, Coorparoo, Greenslopes, and Balmoral stopped at Bayard’s corner.
When the Melbourne Street Railway Station became the terminus for both the interstate line through Kyogle as well as the southside commuter services the business potential was further enhanced. By this time, the bank was both a trading and savings bank and it also had the custom of the Queensland Government. The South Brisbane Branch was one of a number of suburban branches established in the 1920s. Its move into the area reflects the bank's optimism and confidence in the potential of the locale and its desire to capture a share of the area's financial market; a confidence and a desire which it apparently shared with its counterpart and rival, the Queensland National Bank which adjoined. The building, in its aspect and architecture, reflects both the optimism for the future and the challenge which was being posed by the bank, casually dismissed at its inception in 1911 as "a new bank controlled by political amateur financiers."
The property remained in the ownership of the Commonwealth Bank until the early 1990s. It has been subsequently been used as office space and is a coffee shop today.
Source: Brisbane City Council Heritage Register.
Developed by Developers Diversified, Quincy Place Mall opened in August 1990, as a 270,000 ft2 mall anchored by JCPenney, Herberger's, and Walmart.
A decades-long weak economy and the departures of Walmart, JCP, and Herberger's have left the former industrial hub without a thriving retail destination. The Target behind the mall closed in 2015.
Developers Diversified copied what Dial Properties of Omaha was doing when building this mall. The corrugated ceilings, circular lights, dated colors, and anchor combination match the Walmart, JCP, and Herberger's anchored malls that DP was building elsewhere in the Midwest. The mall was built to replace an ailing downtown pedestrian mall that was foundering even before the loss of Younkers.
White Marble Lime Company
Schoolcraft County
.
These towers are the remains of kilns used by the White Marble Lime Company, founded by George Nicholson, Jr., in 1889.
.
The kilns, which were fired by wood waste from the lumber industry, burned dolomite to produce quicklime for use as a building material and an ingredient in the manufacture of paper. As larger corporations were formed and the methods of producing lime were made more efficient, the company diversified; it established a sawmill and a shingle mill and became a dealer in forest products, as well as crushed stone, cement and builders' supplies. Its operations here and in Manistique and Blaney once employed some 250 men.
.
In 1925 the company was reorganized as the Manistique Lime and Stone Company, and continued under that name until the Depression of 1929.
Dec. 13–Boca Raton's first downtown hotel — the 200-room Hyatt Place Boca Raton/Downtown– is welcoming its first guests.
The Hyatt Place Boca's room offerings include 17 suites. The onsite amenities include a fitness center, rooftop pool and terrace, lobby bar, a Coffee-to-Cocktails bar and snack counter, and 4,000 square feet of flexible meeting and function space.
The hotel opened for business Tuesday. A grand opening is planned for Jan. 11. By mid-January, a Louie Bossi Restaurant is slated to open, in time for its official grand opening, said Audra Durham, director of sales.
Introductory rates for the Hyatt Place Boca start at $159 per night, noted Durham. Guest parking in the hotel's 200-space parking garage is an extra $19 per day.
"The business mix of room sales is expected to be about 50 percent corporate, 30 percent group and the rest leisure," Durham said during a tour of the property.
Developer Kolter Group of West Palm Beach had originally projected an opening for August or September after breaking ground on the new hotel at 100 E. Palmetto Park Road in May 2015. But rainy weather and site preparations for a possible strike by Hurricane Matthew led to construction delays.
"We probably lost about three or four weeks because of the hurricane, not because of damage," said James Hansen, vice president sales for Kolter Hospitality, the developer's hotel management and operations arm. He said it took a considerable amount of time to dismantle and remove equipment ahead of the storm, and then reassemble it after Matthew brushed past South Florida.
Kolter Hospitality also operates the Hyatt Place West Palm Beach, Hyatt Place Delray Beach and Hyatt Place Fort Lauderdale 17th Street Convention Center.
The Boca hotel was built by general contractor Kast Construction of West Palm Beach.
Chicago-based Hyatt Hotels Corp. launched its Hyatt Place brand in 2006. The hotels are designed to appeal to the 24/7 multitasking traveler, and offer large guest rooms with sofa sleepers, free Wi-Fi and a free hotel breakfast.
"We are so excited to open the doors of the Hyatt Place Boca Raton and show off what is going to be the coolest hotel in the city," said Scott Webb, president of Kolter Hospitality, the hotel's operator. in a statement Tuesday. "We acquired the most coveted location in Boca and have built a stunning hotel located in the center of this booming downtown."
For information on Hyatt Place Boca, visit bocaraton.place.hyatt.com.
Credit for the data above is given to the following websites:
www.constructionjournal.com/companies/details/pages/DCES-...
www.hotel-online.com/press_releases/release/boca-ratons-f...
www.travelweekly.com/Hotels/Boca-Raton-FL/Hyatt-Place-Boc...
www.hyatt.com/brands/hyatt-place
fau4u2.wordpress.com/2015/04/28/construction-commences-fo...
© All Rights Reserved - you may not use this image in any form without my prior permission.
FR :
J'ai revu en profondeur, la soute de fret/de débarquement. J'ai maximisé les détails. J'ai également revu les véhicules de la soute, pour les diversifier.
les 4 véhicules :
1/- Le Space Scooter, grand standard du Classic Space
2/- Le Space Buggy, un tout petit peu différent, et grand standard du Classic Space
3/- Un Heavy Space Buggy avec :
[*] - Mini Parabole de communication
[*] - Caméra
[*] - Capteurs frontaux
[*] - Trousse à outils rouge entre les 2 sièges
[*] - 2 Panneaux de contrôle / d'informations de données
[*] - 2 Sièges en brick build
[*] - Bras articulé à l'arrière
[*] - 2 outils capteurs à main
[*] - 1 conteneur pour mettre des roches
[*] - 1 talkie walkie
[*] - Panneau de contrôle du bras articulé
[*] - Calculateur de charge du bras articulé
[*] - Juge de pression du bras articulé
[*] - 2 extincteurs
[*] - 1 petit outil de réparation entre le bras et les extincteurs
4/- Le Space Buggy avec sa remorque composée de :
[*] - 2 bonhommes d'air (airtank)
[*] - 2 sacs
[*] - 1 caméra
[*] - 1 paire de jumelle
[*] - 2 outils capteurs à main
[*] - 1 réacteur dorsal (il se voit mal, car entre les bonbonnes d'air et les sac, et les antennes repliées)
[*] - 1 sac à dos noir (incrusté entre les 2 sacs gris, et légèrement décalé en dessous)
C'est bon, je crois que je suis paré pour l'exploration Lunaire ! :)
===============================
EN :
I thoroughly reviewed the cargo / disembarkation hold. I maximized the details. I also reviewed the vehicles in the hold, to diversify them.
The 4 vehicles:
1/- The Space Scooter, great standard of Classic Space
2/- The Space Buggy, a little different, and standard of the Classic Space
3/- A Heavy Space Buggy with:
[*] - Mini communication dish
[*] - Camera
[*] - Front sensors
[*] - Red tool kit between the 2 seats
[*] - 2 Control / data information panels
[*] - 2 seats-brick build
[*] - Articulated arm at the rear
[*] - 2 hand sensor tools
[*] - 1 container to put rocks
[*] - 1 Talkie walkie
[*] - Control panel of the articulated arm
[*] - Articulated arm load calculator
[*] - Articulated arm pressure judge
[*] - 2 fire extinguishers
[*] - 1 small repair tool between the arm and the extinguishers
4/ - The Space Buggy with its trailer composed of:
[*] - 2 airtanks
[*] - 2 bags
[*] - 1 camera
[*] - 1 pair of binoculars
[*] - 2 hand sensor tools
[*] - 1 dorsal reactor (it is difficult to see itself, because between the airtanks and the bags, and the antennas folded up)
[*] - 1 black backpack (inlaid between the 2 gray bags, and slightly offset below)
It's okay, I think I'm ready for Lunar exploration ! :)
"I’m a modern man, a man for the millennium. Digital
and smoke free. A diversified multi-cultural, post-
modern deconstructionist, politically, anatomically
and ecologically incorrect. I’ve been up linked and
downloaded, I’ve been inputted and outsourced, I know
the upside of downsizing, I know the downside of
upgrading. I’m a high-tech low-life. A cutting edge,
state-of-the-art bi-coastal multi-tasker and I can give
you a gigabyte in a nanosecond!
I’m new wave, but I’m old school and my inner child is
outward bound. I’m a hot-wired, heat seeking, warm-
hearted cool customer, voice activated and bio-
degradable. I interface with my database, my database
is in cyberspace, so I’m interactive, I’m hyperactive
and from time to time I’m radioactive.
Behind the eight ball, ahead of the curve, ridin the
wave, dodgin the bullet and pushin the envelope. I’m
on-point, on-task, on-message and off drugs. I’ve got
no need for coke and speed. I've got no urge to binge
and purge. I’m in-the-moment, on-the-edge, over-the-top
and under-the-radar. A high-concept, low-profile,
medium-range ballistic missionary. A street-wise smart
bomb. A top-gun bottom feeder. I wear power ties, I
tell power lies, I take power naps and run victory
laps. I’m a totally ongoing big-foot, slam-dunk,
rainmaker with a pro-active outreach. A raging
workaholic. A working rageaholic. Out of rehab and in
denial!
I’ve got a personal trainer, a personal shopper, a
personal assistant and a personal agenda. You can’t
shut me up. You can’t dumb me down because I’m tireless
and I’m wireless, I’m an alpha male on beta-blockers.
I’m a non-believer and an over-achiever, laid-back but
fashion-forward. Up-front, down-home, low-rent, high-
maintenance. Super-sized, long-lasting, high-
definition, fast-acting, oven-ready and built-to-last!
I’m a hands-on, foot-loose, knee-jerk head case
pre-maturely post-traumatic and I’ve got a love-child
that sends me hate mail.
But, I’m feeling, I’m caring, I’m healing, I’m sharing-
- a supportive, bonding, nurturing primary care-giver.
My output is down, but my income is up. I took a short
position on the long bond and my revenue stream has its
own cash-flow. I read junk mail, I eat junk food, I buy
junk bonds and I watch trash sports! I’m gender
specific, capital intensive, user-friendly and lactose
intolerant.
I like rough sex. I like tough love. I use the “F” word
in my emails and the software on my hard-drive is
hardcore--no soft porn.
I bought a microwave at a mini-mall; I bought a mini-
van at a mega-store. I eat fast-food in the slow lane.
I’m toll-free, bite-sized, ready-to-wear and I come in
all sizes. A fully-equipped, factory-authorized,
hospital-tested, clinically-proven, scientifically-
formulated medical miracle. I’ve been pre-wash, pre-
cooked, pre-heated, pre-screened, pre-approved, pre-
packaged, post-dated, freeze-dried, double-wrapped,
vacuum-packed and, I have an unlimited broadband
capacity.
I’m a rude dude, but I’m the real deal. Lean and mean!
Cocked, locked and ready-to-rock. Rough, tough and hard
to bluff. I take it slow, I go with the flow, I ride
with the tide. I’ve got glide in my stride. Drivin and
movin, sailin and spinin, jiving and groovin, wailin
and winnin. I don’t snooze, so I don’t lose. I keep the
pedal to the metal and the rubber on the road. I party
hearty and lunch time is crunch time. I’m hangin in,
there ain’t no doubt and I’m hangin tough, over and
out!"
- George Carlin (1937 – 2008) "A Modern Man"
Source: (Elyrics.net)
Developed by Developers Diversified, Quincy Place Mall opened in August 1990, as a 270,000 ft2 mall anchored by JCPenney, Herberger's, and Walmart.
A decades long weak economy and the departures of Walmart, JCP, and Herberger's have left the former industrial hub without a thriving retail destination. The Target behind the mall closed in 2015.
Developers Diversified really copied what Dial Properties of Omaha was doing when building this mall. The corrugated ceilings, circular lights, dated colors, and anchor combination match the Walmart, JCP, and Herberger's anchored malls that DP was building elsewhere in the Midwest. The mall was build to replace an ailing downtown pedestrian mall that was foundering even before the loss of Younkers.
Best viewed on black
View of a shop in Gent!
Now thats what I call diversification !
Go in by the left to buy socks, and by
the right for wine and cheese......
Didnt seem to work though the shop is closed !
Trying to diversified so I went to takes photo of the stiff-necked Ibis from Lake Sanctuary. If only they hold still while I'm taking the shot.
Nikon D600 | AF-S NIKKOR 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II | Handheld
Manufacturer: Diversified Plastics Inc. Model: 2 Yard
Newer 2YD dumpster in an alley in downtown Saint Cloud.
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Please do not use this photo or any part of this photo without first asking for permission, thank you.
____________________________________________
The Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) is a fascinating species known for its spectacular annual migration and vibrant orange and black wings. Its evolution and history can be traced back millions of years, and its story encompasses adaptations, ecological relationships, and conservation challenges.
The evolutionary history of the Monarch butterfly begins in the Late Cretaceous period, approximately 90 million years ago. Fossil evidence suggests that ancient ancestors of the Monarch belonged to a diverse group of butterflies called the Nymphalidae family. Over time, these butterflies evolved and diversified, eventually giving rise to the genus Danaus, which includes the Monarch.
The Monarch butterfly we know today likely emerged around two million years ago. It is believed to have originated in the Americas, with its range extending from southern Canada down to South America. This widespread distribution allowed for genetic diversity and the development of different populations with unique adaptations.
One of the most remarkable aspects of the Monarch's life cycle is its long-distance migration. In the late summer and early fall, Monarchs from the eastern and northeastern parts of North America embark on an incredible journey spanning thousands of miles to overwintering sites in central Mexico. Western populations of Monarchs in North America migrate to the California coast for the winter. These migrations are driven by seasonal changes, photoperiod cues, and a complex interplay of genetic and environmental factors.
During the migration, Monarchs rely on nectar-rich flowers as a source of energy. They also require milkweed plants (Asclepias spp.) as their larval host plants. Monarch caterpillars exclusively feed on milkweed leaves, which contain toxins called cardiac glycosides. Through a process known as sequestration, Monarchs store these toxins in their bodies, making them unpalatable to many predators.
The relationship between Monarchs and milkweed is a critical ecological link. Monarchs lay their eggs on milkweed plants, and the toxins in the leaves protect the caterpillars and adult butterflies from predation. Additionally, milkweed serves as a habitat and a food source for other insect species, making it an important part of many ecosystems.
In recent years, Monarch populations have faced numerous challenges. Habitat loss due to urbanization, agriculture, and the use of herbicides has significantly reduced milkweed availability. Climate change and extreme weather events also impact the butterflies' breeding and migratory patterns. Furthermore, illegal logging in the overwintering sites in Mexico and the loss of forest cover pose additional threats to their survival.
To address these conservation concerns, efforts have been made to protect and restore Monarch habitat. Organizations and individuals work to establish milkweed corridors, plant native flowers, and promote sustainable land management practices. International cooperation has been crucial in protecting the overwintering sites, including establishing biosphere reserves and promoting ecotourism to support local communities.
Understanding the Monarch butterfly's evolution and history provides insights into the intricate web of life and the importance of preserving biodiversity. By conserving Monarchs and their habitats, we not only protect a remarkable species but also contribute to the well-being of entire ecosystems and the delicate balance of nature.
In North America, monarchs migrate both north and south on an annual basis, making long-distance journeys that are fraught with risks. This is a multi-generational migration, with individual monarchs only making part of the full journey. The population east of the Rocky Mountains attempts to migrate to the sanctuaries of the Mariposa Monarca Biosphere Reserve in the Mexican state of Michoacán and parts of Florida. The western population tries to reach overwintering destinations in various coastal sites in central and southern California. The overwintered population of those east of the Rockies may reach as far north as Texas and Oklahoma during the spring migration. The second, third, and fourth generations return to their northern locations in the United States and Canada in the spring.
Captive-raised monarchs appear capable of migrating to overwintering sites in Mexico, though they have a much lower migratory success rate than do wild monarchs (see section on captive-rearing below). Monarch overwintering sites have been discovered recently in Arizona. Monarchs from the eastern US generally migrate longer distances than monarchs from the western US.
Since the 1800s, monarchs have spread throughout the world, and there are now many non-migratory populations globally.
Flight speeds of adults are around 9 km/h (6 mph).
In both caterpillar and butterfly form, monarchs are aposematic, warding off predators with a bright display of contrasting colors to warn potential predators of their undesirable taste and poisonous characteristics. One monarch researcher emphasizes that predation on eggs, larvae or adults is natural, since monarchs are part of the food chain, thus people should not take steps to kill predators of monarchs.
Larvae feed exclusively on milkweed and consume protective cardiac glycosides. Toxin levels in Asclepias species vary. Not all monarchs are unpalatable, but exhibit Batesian or automimics. Cardiac glycosides levels are higher in the abdomen and wings. Some predators can differentiate between these parts and consume the most palatable ones.
Butterfly weed (A. tuberosa) lacks significant amounts of cardiac glycosides (cardenolides), but instead contains other types of toxic glycosides, including pregnanes. This difference may reduce the toxicity of monarchs whose larvae feed on that milkweed species and affect the butterfly's breeding choices, as a naturalist and others have reported that egg-laying monarchs do not favor the plant. Some other milkweeds have similar characteristics.
Types of predators
While monarchs have a wide range of natural predators, none of these is suspected of causing harm to the overall population, or are the cause of the long-term declines in winter colony sizes.
Several species of birds have acquired methods that allow them to ingest monarchs without experiencing the ill effects associated with the cardiac glycosides (cardenolides). The black-backed oriole is able to eat the monarch through an exaptation of its feeding behavior that gives it the ability to identify cardenolides by taste and reject them. The black-headed grosbeak, though, has developed an insensitivity to secondary plant poisons that allows it to ingest monarchs without vomiting. As a result, these orioles and grosbeaks periodically have high levels of cardenolides in their bodies, and they are forced to go on periods of reduced monarch consumption. This cycle effectively reduces potential predation of monarchs by 50% and indicates that monarch aposematism has a legitimate purpose. The black-headed grosbeak has also evolved resistance mutations in the molecular target of the heart poisons, the sodium pump. The specific mutations that evolved in one of the grosbeak's four copies of the sodium pump gene are the same as those found in some rodents that have also evolved to resist cardiac glycosides. Known bird predators include brown thrashers, grackles, robins, cardinals, sparrows, scrub jays, and pinyon jays.
The monarch's white morph appeared in Oahu after the 1965–1966 introduction of two bulbul bird species, Pycnonotus cafer and Pycnonotus jocosus. These are now the most common avian insectivores in Hawaii, and probably the only ones that eat insects as large as monarchs. Although Hawaiian monarchs have low cardiac glycoside levels, the birds may also be tolerant of that toxin. The two species hunt the larvae and some pupae from the branches and undersides of leaves in milkweed bushes. The bulbuls also eat resting and ovipositing adults, but rarely flying ones. Because of its color, the white morph has a higher survival rate than the orange one. This is either because of apostatic selection (i.e., the birds have learned the orange monarchs can be eaten), because of camouflage (the white morph matches the white pubescence of milkweed or the patches of light shining through foliage), or because the white morph does not fit the bird's search image of a typical monarch, so is thus avoided.
Some mice, particularly the black-eared mouse (Peromyscus melanotis), are, like all rodents, able to tolerate large doses of cardenolides and are able to eat monarchs. Overwintering adults become less toxic over time making them more vulnerable to predators. In Mexico, about 14% of the overwintering monarchs are eaten by birds and mice and black-eared mice can eat up to 40 monarchs per night.
In North America, eggs and first-instar larvae of the monarch are eaten by larvae and adults of the introduced Asian lady beetle (Harmonia axyridis). The Chinese mantis (Tenodera sinensis) will consume the larvae once the gut is removed thus avoiding cardenolides. Predatory wasps commonly consume larvae. Many Hemipteran bugs including predatory stink bugs in the subfamily Asopinae and assassin bugs in family Reduviidae eat monarchs. Larvae can sometimes avoid predation by dropping from the plant or by jerking their bodies.
Parasitoids, including tachinid flies and braconid wasps develop inside the monarch larvae eventually killing it and emerging from the larvae or pupa. Non-insect parasites and infectious diseases (pathogens) also kill monarchs.
1) Fourth-instar monarch larvae killed and being consumed by a stink (shield) bug. 2) Mature fifth instar larvae jerks to dislodge a large milkweed bug (a herbivore). 3) Fourth-instar larvae killed by insect parasitoids, non-insect parasites or a pathogen.
Aposematism
Chemical structure of oleandrin, one of the cardiac glycosides
Monarchs are toxic and foul-tasting because of the presence of cardenolides in their bodies, which the caterpillars ingest as they feed on milkweed. Monarchs and other cardenolide-resistant insects rely on a resistant form of the Na+/ K+-ATPase enzyme to tolerate significantly higher concentrations of cardenolides than nonresistant species. By ingesting a large amount of plants in the genus Asclepias, primarily milkweed, monarch caterpillars are able to sequester cardiac glycosides, or more specifically cardenolides, which are steroids that act in heart-arresting ways similar to digitalis. It has been found that monarchs are able to sequester cardenolides most effectively from plants of intermediate cardenolide content rather than those of high or low content. Three mutations that evolved in the monarch's Na+/ K+-ATPase were found to be sufficient together to confer resistance to dietary cardiac glycosides. This was tested by swapping these mutations into the same gene in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster using CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing. These fruit flies-turned monarch flies were completely resistant to dietary ouabain, a cardiac glycoside found in Apocynaceae, and even sequestered some through metamorphosis, like the monarch.
Different species of milkweed have different effects on growth, virulence, and transmission of parasites. One species, Asclepias curassavica, appears to reduce the symptoms of Ophryocystis elektroscirrha (OE) infection. The two possible explanations for this include that it promotes overall monarch health to boost the monarch's immune system or that chemicals from the plant have a direct negative effect on the OE parasites. A. curassavica does not cure or prevent the infection with OE; it merely allows infected monarchs to live longer, and this would allow infected monarchs to spread the OE spores for longer periods. For the average home butterfly garden, this scenario only adds more OE to the local population.
After the caterpillar becomes a butterfly, the toxins shift to different parts of the body. Since many birds attack the wings of the butterfly, having three times the cardiac glycosides in the wings leaves predators with a very foul taste and may prevent them from ever ingesting the body of the butterfly. To combat predators that remove the wings only to ingest the abdomen, monarchs keep the most potent cardiac glycosides in their abdomens.
Mimicry
Monarchs share the defense of noxious taste with the similar-appearing viceroy butterfly in what is perhaps one of the most well-known examples of mimicry. Though long purported to be an example of Batesian mimicry, the viceroy is actually more unpalatable than the monarch, making this a case of Müllerian mimicry.
Human interaction
The monarch is the state insect of Alabama, Idaho, Illinois, Minnesota, Texas, Vermont, and West Virginia. Legislation was introduced to make it the national insect of the United States, but this failed in 1989 and again in 1991.
Homeowners are increasingly establishing butterfly gardens; monarchs can be attracted by cultivating a butterfly garden with specific milkweed species and nectar plants. Efforts are underway to establish these monarch waystations.
An IMAX film, Flight of the Butterflies, describes the story of the Urquharts, Brugger, and Trail to document the then-unknown monarch migration to Mexican overwintering areas.
Sanctuaries and reserves have been created at overwintering locations in Mexico and California to limit habitat destruction. These sites can generate significant tourism revenue. However, with less tourism, monarch butterflies will have a higher survival rate because they show more protein content and a higher value of immune response and oxidative defense.
Organizations and individuals participate in tagging programs. Tagging information is used to study migration patterns.
The 2012 novel by Barbara Kingsolver, Flight Behavior, deals with the fictional appearance of a large population in the Appalachians.
Captive rearing
Humans interact with monarchs when rearing them in captivity, which has become increasingly popular. However, risks occur in this controversial activity. On one hand, captive rearing has many positive aspects. Monarchs are bred in schools and used for butterfly releases at hospices, memorial events, and weddings. Memorial services for the September 11 attacks include the release of captive-bred monarchs. Monarchs are used in schools and nature centers for educational purposes. Many homeowners raise monarchs in captivity as a hobby and for educational purposes.
On the other hand, this practice becomes problematic when monarchs are "mass-reared". Stories in the Huffington Post in 2015 and Discover magazine in 2016 have summarized the controversy around this issue.
The frequent media reports of monarch declines have encouraged many homeowners to attempt to rear as many monarchs as possible in their homes and then release them to the wild in an effort to "boost the monarch population". Some individuals, such as one in Linn County, Iowa, have reared thousands of monarchs at the same time.
Some monarch scientists do not condone the practice of rearing "large" numbers of monarchs in captivity for release into the wild because of the risks of genetic issues and disease spread. One of the biggest concerns of mass rearing is the potential for spreading the monarch parasite, Ophryocystis elektroscirrha, into the wild. This parasite can rapidly build up in captive monarchs, especially if they are housed together. The spores of the parasite also can quickly contaminate all housing equipment, so that all subsequent monarchs reared in the same containers then become infected. One researcher stated that rearing more than 100 monarchs constitutes "mass rearing" and should not be done.
In addition to the disease risks, researchers believe these captive-reared monarchs are not as fit as wild ones, owing to the unnatural conditions in which they are raised. Homeowners often raise monarchs in plastic or glass containers in their kitchens, basements, porches, etc., and under artificial lighting and controlled temperatures. Such conditions would not mimic what the monarchs are used to in the wild, and may result in adults that are unsuited for the realities of their wild existence. In support of this, a recent study by a citizen scientist found that captive-reared monarchs have a lower migration success rate than wild monarchs do.
A 2019 study shed light on the fitness of captive-reared monarchs, by testing reared and wild monarchs on a tethered flight apparatus that assessed navigational ability. In that study, monarchs that were reared to adulthood in artificial conditions showed a reduction in navigational ability. This happened even with monarchs that were brought into captivity from the wild for a few days. A few captive-reared monarchs did show proper navigation. This study revealed the fragility of monarch development; if the conditions are not suitable, their ability to properly migrate could be impaired. The same study also examined the genetics of a collection of reared monarchs purchased from a butterfly breeder, and found they were dramatically different from wild monarchs, so much so that the lead author described them as "franken-monarchs".
An unpublished study in 2019 compared behavior of captive-reared versus wild monarch larvae. The study showed that reared larvae exhibited more defensive behavior than wild larvae. The reason for this is unknown, but it could relate to the fact that reared larvae are frequently handled and/or disturbed.
Threats
In February 2015, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reported a study that showed that nearly a billion monarchs had vanished from the butterfly's overwintering sites since 1990. The agency attributed the monarch's decline in part to a loss of milkweed caused by herbicides that farmers and homeowners had used.
Western monarch populations
Based on a 2014 20-year comparison, the overwintering numbers west of the Rocky Mountains have dropped more than 50% since 1997 and the overwintering numbers east of the Rockies have declined by more than 90% since 1995. According to the Xerces Society, the monarch population in California decreased 86% in 2018, going from millions of butterflies to tens of thousands of butterflies.
The society's annual 2020–2021 winter count showed a significant decline in the California population. One Pacific Grove site did not have a single monarch butterfly. A primary explanation for this was the destruction of the butterfly's milkweed habitats. This particular population is believed to comprise less than 2000 individuals, as of 2022.
Eastern and midwestern monarch populations
A 2016 publication attributed the previous decade's 90% decline in overwintering numbers of the eastern monarch population to the loss of breeding habitat and milkweed. The publication's authors stated that an 11%–57% probability existed that this population will go almost extinct over the next 20 years.
Chip Taylor, the director of Monarch Watch at the University of Kansas, has stated that the Midwest milkweed habitat "is virtually gone" with 120–150 million acres lost. To help fight this problem, Monarch Watch encourages the planting of "Monarch Waystations".
Habitat loss due to herbicide use and genetically modified crops
Declines in milkweed abundance and monarch populations between 1999 and 2010 are correlated with the adoption of herbicide-tolerant genetically modified (GM) corn and soybeans, which now constitute 89% and 94% of these crops, respectively, in the U.S. GM corn and soybeans are resistant to the effect of the herbicide glyphosate. Some conservationists attribute the disappearance of milkweed to agricultural practices in the Midwest, where GM seeds are bred to resist herbicides that farmers use to kill unwanted plants that grow near their rows of food crops.
In 2015, the Natural Resources Defense Council filed a suit against the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The Council argued that the agency ignored warnings about the dangers of glyphosate usage for monarchs. However, a 2018 study has suggested that the decline in milkweed predates the arrival of GM crops.
Losses during migration
Eastern and midwestern monarchs are apparently experiencing problems reaching Mexico. A number of monarch researchers have cited recent evidence obtained from long-term citizen science data that show that the number of breeding (adult) monarchs has not declined in the last two decades.
The lack of long-term declines in the numbers of breeding and migratory monarchs, yet the clear declines in overwintering numbers, suggests a growing disconnect exists between these life stages. One researcher has suggested that mortality from car strikes constitutes an increasing threat to migrating monarchs. A study of road mortality in northern Mexico, published in 2019, showed very high mortality from just two "hotspots" each year, amounting to 200,000 monarchs killed.
Loss of overwintering habitat
The area of Mexican forest to which eastern and midwestern monarchs migrate reached its lowest level in two decades in 2013. The decline was expected to increase during the 2013–2014 season. Mexican environmental authorities continue to monitor illegal logging of the oyamel trees. The oyamel is a major species of evergreen on which the overwintering butterflies spend a significant time during their winter diapause, or suspended development.
A 2014 study acknowledged that while "the protection of overwintering habitat has no doubt gone a long way towards conserving monarchs that breed throughout eastern North America", their research indicates that habitat loss on breeding grounds in the United States is the main cause of both recent and projected population declines.
Western monarch populations have rebounded slightly since 2014 with the Western Monarch Thanksgiving Count tallying 335,479 monarchs in 2022. The population still has much to go for a full recovery.
Parasites
Parasites include the tachinid flies Sturmia convergens and Lespesia archippivora. Lesperia-parasitized butterfly larvae suspend, but die prior to pupation. The fly's maggot lowers itself to the ground, forms a brown puparium and then emerges as an adult.
Pteromalid wasps, specifically Pteromalus cassotis, parasitize monarch pupae. These wasps lay their eggs in the pupae while the chrysalis is still soft. Up to 400 adults emerge from the chrysalis after 14–20 days, killing the monarch.
The bacterium Micrococcus flacidifex danai also infects larvae. Just before pupation, the larvae migrate to a horizontal surface and die a few hours later, attached only by one pair of prolegs, with the thorax and abdomen hanging limp. The body turns black shortly thereafter. The bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa has no invasive powers, but causes secondary infections in weakened insects. It is a common cause of death in laboratory-reared insects.
Ophryocystis elektroscirrha is another parasite of the monarch. It infects the subcutaneous tissues and propagates by spores formed during the pupal stage. The spores are found over all of the body of infected butterflies, with the greatest number on the abdomen. These spores are passed, from female to caterpillar, when spores rub off during egg laying and are then ingested by caterpillars. Severely infected individuals are weak, unable to expand their wings, or unable to eclose, and have shortened lifespans, but parasite levels vary in populations. This is not the case in laboratory rearing, where after a few generations, all individuals can be infected.
Infection with O. elektroscirrha creates an effect known as culling, whereby migrating monarchs that are infected are less likely to complete the migration. This results in overwintering populations with lower parasite loads. Owners of commercial butterfly-breeding operations claim that they take steps to control this parasite in their practices, although this claim is doubted by many scientists who study monarchs.[
Confusion of host plants
The black swallow-wort (Cynanchum louiseae) and pale swallow-wort (Cynanchum rossicum) plants are problematic for monarchs in North America. Monarchs lay their eggs on these relatives of native vining milkweed (Cynanchum laeve) because they produce stimuli similar to milkweed. Once the eggs hatch, the caterpillars are poisoned by the toxicity of this invasive plant from Europe.
Climate
Climate variations during the fall and summer affect butterfly reproduction. Rainfall and freezing temperatures affect milkweed growth. Omar Vidal, director general of WWF-Mexico, said, "The monarch's lifecycle depends on the climatic conditions in the places where they breed. Eggs, larvae, and pupae develop more quickly in milder conditions. Temperatures above 35 °C (95 °F) can be lethal for larvae, and eggs dry out in hot, arid conditions, causing a drastic decrease in hatch rate." If a monarch's body temperatures is below 30 °C (86 °F), a monarch cannot fly. To warm up, they sit in the sun or rapidly shiver their wings to warm themselves.
Climate change may dramatically affect the monarch migration. A study from 2015 examined the impact of warming temperatures on the breeding range of the monarch, and showed that in the next 50 years the monarch host plant will expand its range further north into Canada, and that the monarchs will follow this. While this will expand the breeding locations of the monarch, it will also have the effect of increasing the distance that monarchs must travel to reach their overwintering destination in Mexico, which could result in greater mortality during the migration.
Milkweeds grown at increased temperatures have been shown to contain higher cardenolide concentrations, making the leaves too toxic for the monarch caterpillars. However, these increased concentrations are likely in response to increased insect herbivory, which is also caused by the increased temperatures. Whether increased temperatures make milkweed too toxic for monarch caterpillars when other factors are not present is unknown. Additionally, milkweed grown at carbon dioxide levels of 760 parts per million was found to produce a different mix of the toxic cardenolides, one of which was less effective against monarch parasites.
Conservation status
On July 20, 2022, the International Union for Conservation of Nature added the migratory monarch butterfly (the subspecies common in North America) to its red list of endangered species.
The monarch butterfly is not currently listed under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora or protected specifically under U.S. domestic laws.
On August 14, 2014, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Center for Food Safety filed a legal petition requesting Endangered Species Act protection for the monarch and its habitat, based largely on the long-term trends observed at overwintering sites. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) initiated a status review of the monarch butterfly under the Endangered Species Act with a due date for information submission of March 3, 2015, later extended to 2020. On December 15, 2020, the FWS ruled that adding the butterfly to the list of threatened and endangered species was "warranted-but-precluded" because it needed to devote its resources to 161 higher-priority species.
The number of monarchs overwintering in Mexico has shown a long-term downward trend. Since 1995, coverage numbers have been as high as 18 hectares (44 acres) during the winter of 1996–1997, but on average about 6 hectares (15 acres). Coverage declined to its lowest point to date (0.67 hectares (1.66 acres)) during the winter of 2013–2014, but rebounded to 4.01 hectares (10 acres) in 2015–2016. The average population of monarchs in 2016 was estimated at 200 million. Historically, on average there are 300 million monarchs. The 2016 increase was attributed to favorable breeding conditions in the summer of 2015. However, coverage declined by 27% to 2.91 hectares (7.19 acres) during the winter of 2016–2017. Some believe this was because of a storm that had occurred during March 2016 in the monarchs' previous overwintering season, though this seems unlikely since most current research shows that the overwintering colony sizes do not predict the size of the next summer breeding population.
In Ontario, Canada, the monarch butterfly is listed as a species of special concern. In fall 2016, the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada proposed that the monarch be listed as endangered in Canada, as opposed to its current listing as a "species of concern" in that country. This move, once enacted, would protect critical monarch habitat in Canada, such as major fall accumulation areas in southern Ontario, but it would also have implications for citizen scientists who work with monarchs, and for classroom activities. If the monarch were federally protected in Canada, these activities could be limited, or require federal permits.
In Nova Scotia, the monarch is listed as endangered at the provincial level, as of 2017. This decision (as well as the Ontario decision) apparently is based on a presumption that the overwintering colony declines in Mexico create declines in the breeding range in Canada. Two recent studies have been conducted examining long-term trends in monarch abundance in Canada, using either butterfly atlas records or citizen science butterfly surveys, and neither shows evidence of a population decline in Canada.
Conservation efforts
See also: Monarch butterfly conservation in California
Although numbers of breeding monarchs in eastern North America have apparently not decreased, reports of declining numbers of overwintering butterflies have inspired efforts to conserve the species.
Federal actions
On June 20, 2014, President Barack Obama issued a presidential memorandum entitled "Creating a Federal Strategy to Promote the Health of Honey Bees and Other Pollinators". The memorandum established a Pollinator Health Task Force, to be co-chaired by the Secretary of Agriculture and the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, and stated:
The number of migrating Monarch butterflies sank to the lowest recorded population level in 2013–14, and there is an imminent risk of failed migration.
In May 2015, the Pollinator Health Task Force issued a "National Strategy to Promote the Health of Honey Bees and Other Pollinators". The strategy laid out federal actions to achieve three goals, two of which were:
Monarch Butterflies: Increase the Eastern population of the monarch butterfly to 225 million butterflies occupying an area of approximately 15 acres (6 hectares) in the overwintering grounds in Mexico, through domestic/international actions and public-private partnerships, by 2020.
Pollinator Habitat Acreage: Restore or enhance 7 million acres of land for pollinators over the next 5 years through Federal actions and public/private partnerships.
Many of the priority projects that the national strategy identified focused on the I-35 corridor, which extends for 1,500 miles (2,400 km) from Texas to Minnesota. The area through which that highway travels provides spring and summer breeding habitats in the United States' key monarch migration corridor.
The Task Force simultaneously issued a "Pollinator Research Action Plan". The Plan outlined five main action areas, covered in ten subject-specific chapters. The action areas were: Setting a Baseline; Assessing Environmental Stressors; Restoring Habitat; Understanding and Supporting Stakeholders; Curating and Sharing Knowledge.
In June 2016, the Task Force issued a "Pollinator Partnership Action Plan". That Plan provided examples of past, ongoing, and possible future collaborations between the federal government and non-federal institutions to support pollinator health under each of the national strategy's goals.
The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) publishes sets of landscape performance requirements in its P100 documents, which mandate standards for the GSA's Public Buildings Service. Beginning in March 2015, those performance requirements and their updates have included four primary aspects for planting designs that are intended to provide adequate on-site foraging opportunities for targeted pollinators. The targeted pollinators include bees, butterflies, and other beneficial insects.
On December 4, 2015, President Obama signed into law the Fixing America's Surface Transportation (FAST) Act (Pub. L.) The FAST Act placed a new emphasis on efforts to support pollinators. To accomplish this, the FAST Act amended Title 23 (Highways) of the United States Code. The amendment directed the United States Secretary of Transportation, when carrying out programs under that title in conjunction with willing states, to:
encourage integrated vegetation management practices on roadsides and other transportation rights-of-way, including reduced mowing; and
encourage the development of habitat and forage for Monarch butterflies, other native pollinators, and honey bees through plantings of native forbs and grasses, including noninvasive, native milkweed species that can serve as migratory way stations for butterflies and facilitate migrations of other pollinators.
The FAST Act also stated that activities to establish and improve pollinator habitat, forage, and migratory way stations may be eligible for Federal funding if related to transportation projects funded under Title 23.
The United States Department of Agriculture's Farm Service Agency helps increase U.S. populations of monarch butterfly and other pollinators through its Conservation Reserve Program's State Acres for Wildlife Enhancement (SAFE) Initiative. The SAFE Initiative provides an annual rental payment to farmers who agree to remove environmentally sensitive land from agricultural production and who plant species that will improve environmental health and quality. Among other things, the initiative encourages landowners to establish wetlands, grasses, and trees to create habitats for species that the FWS has designated to be threatened or endangered.
Other actions
Agriculture companies and other organizations are being asked to set aside areas that remain unsprayed to allow monarchs to breed. In addition, national and local initiatives are underway to help establish and maintain pollinator habitats along corridors containing power lines and roadways. The Federal Highway Administration, state governments, and local jurisdictions are encouraging highway departments and others to limit their use of herbicides, to reduce mowing, to help milkweed to grow and to encourage monarchs to reproduce within their right-of-ways.
National Cooperative Highway Research Program report
In 2020, the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCRHP) of the Transportation Research Board issued a 208-page report that described a project that had examined the potential for roadway corridors to provide habitat for monarch butterflies. A part of the project developed tools for roadside managers to optimize potential habitat for monarch butterflies in their road rights-of-way.
Such efforts are controversial because the risk of butterfly mortality near roads is high. Several studies have shown that motor vehicles kill millions of monarchs and other butterflies every year. Also, some evidence indicates that monarch larvae living near roads experience physiological stress conditions, as evidenced by elevations in their heart rate.
The NCRHP report acknowledged that, among other hazards, roads present a danger of traffic collisions for monarchs, stating that these effects appear to be more concentrated in particular funnel areas during migration. Nevertheless, the report concluded:
In summary, threats along roadway corridors exist for monarchs and other pollinators, but in the context of the amount of habitat needed for recovery of sustainable populations, roadsides are of vital importance.
Butterfly gardening
A monarch waystation near the town of Berwyn Heights in Prince George's County, Maryland (June 2017)
The practice of butterfly gardening and creating "monarch waystations" is commonly thought to increase the populations of butterflies. Efforts to restore falling monarch populations by establishing butterfly gardens and monarch waystations require particular attention to the butterfly's food preferences and population cycles, as well to the conditions needed to propagate and maintain milkweed.
For example, in the Washington, DC, area and elsewhere in the northeastern and midwestern United States, common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) is among the most important food plants for monarch caterpillars. A U.S. Department of Agriculture conservation planting guide for Maryland recommends that, for optimum wildlife and pollinator habitat in mesic sites (especially for monarchs), a seed mix should contain 6.0% A. syriaca by weight and 2.0% by seed.
However, monarchs prefer to lay eggs on A. syriaca when its foliage is soft and fresh. Because monarch reproduction peaks in those areas during the late summer when milkweed foliage is old and tough, A. syriaca needs to be mowed or cut back in June through August to assure that it will be regrowing rapidly when monarch reproduction reaches its peak. Similar conditions exist for showy milkweed (A. speciosa) in Michigan and for green antelopehorn milkweed (A. viridis), where it grows in the Southern Great Plains and the Western United States. Further, the seeds of A. syriaca and some other milkweeds need periods of cold treatment (cold stratification) before they will germinate.
To protect seeds from washing away during heavy rains and from seed–eating birds, one can cover the seeds with a light fabric or with an 0.5-inch (13 mm) layer of straw mulch. However, mulch acts as an insulator. Thicker layers of mulch can prevent seeds from germinating if they prevent soil temperatures from rising enough when winter ends. Further, few seedlings can push through a thick layer of mulch.
Although monarch caterpillars will feed on butterfly weed (A. tuberosa) in butterfly gardens, it is typically not a heavily used host plant for the species. The plant has rough leaves and a layer of trichomes, which may inhibit oviposition or decrease a female's ability to sense leaf chemicals. The plant's low levels of cardenolides may also deter monarchs from laying eggs on the plant. While A. tuberosa's colorful flowers provide nectar for many adult butterflies, the plant may be less suitable for use in butterfly gardens and monarch waystations than are other milkweed species.
Breeding monarchs prefer to lay eggs on swamp milkweed (A. incarnata). However, A. incarnata is an early successional plant that usually grows at the margins of wetlands and in seasonally flooded areas. The plant is slow to spread via seeds, does not spread by runners and tends to disappear as vegetative densities increase and habitats dry out. Although A. incarnata plants can survive for up to 20 years, most live only two-five years in gardens. The species is not shade-tolerant and is not a good vegetative competitor.
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The Burj Khalifa is a skyscraper in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. With a total height of 829.8 m (2,722 ft, just over half a mile) and a roof height (excluding antenna, but including a 244 m spire[2]) of 828 m (2,717 ft), the Burj Khalifa has been the tallest structure and building in the world. The building was opened in 2010 as part of a new development called Downtown Dubai. It is designed to be the centrepiece of large-scale, mixed-use development. The decision to construct the building is based on the government's decision to diversify from an oil-based economy, and for Dubai to gain international recognition.
The Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) is a fascinating species known for its spectacular annual migration and vibrant orange and black wings. Its evolution and history can be traced back millions of years, and its story encompasses adaptations, ecological relationships, and conservation challenges.
The evolutionary history of the Monarch butterfly begins in the Late Cretaceous period, approximately 90 million years ago. Fossil evidence suggests that ancient ancestors of the Monarch belonged to a diverse group of butterflies called the Nymphalidae family. Over time, these butterflies evolved and diversified, eventually giving rise to the genus Danaus, which includes the Monarch.
The Monarch butterfly we know today likely emerged around two million years ago. It is believed to have originated in the Americas, with its range extending from southern Canada down to South America. This widespread distribution allowed for genetic diversity and the development of different populations with unique adaptations.
One of the most remarkable aspects of the Monarch's life cycle is its long-distance migration. In the late summer and early fall, Monarchs from the eastern and northeastern parts of North America embark on an incredible journey spanning thousands of miles to overwintering sites in central Mexico. Western populations of Monarchs in North America migrate to the California coast for the winter. These migrations are driven by seasonal changes, photoperiod cues, and a complex interplay of genetic and environmental factors.
During the migration, Monarchs rely on nectar-rich flowers as a source of energy. They also require milkweed plants (Asclepias spp.) as their larval host plants. Monarch caterpillars exclusively feed on milkweed leaves, which contain toxins called cardiac glycosides. Through a process known as sequestration, Monarchs store these toxins in their bodies, making them unpalatable to many predators.
The relationship between Monarchs and milkweed is a critical ecological link. Monarchs lay their eggs on milkweed plants, and the toxins in the leaves protect the caterpillars and adult butterflies from predation. Additionally, milkweed serves as a habitat and a food source for other insect species, making it an important part of many ecosystems.
In recent years, Monarch populations have faced numerous challenges. Habitat loss due to urbanization, agriculture, and the use of herbicides has significantly reduced milkweed availability. Climate change and extreme weather events also impact the butterflies' breeding and migratory patterns. Furthermore, illegal logging in the overwintering sites in Mexico and the loss of forest cover pose additional threats to their survival.
To address these conservation concerns, efforts have been made to protect and restore Monarch habitat. Organizations and individuals work to establish milkweed corridors, plant native flowers, and promote sustainable land management practices. International cooperation has been crucial in protecting the overwintering sites, including establishing biosphere reserves and promoting ecotourism to support local communities.
Understanding the Monarch butterfly's evolution and history provides insights into the intricate web of life and the importance of preserving biodiversity. By conserving Monarchs and their habitats, we not only protect a remarkable species but also contribute to the well-being of entire ecosystems and the delicate balance of nature.
In North America, monarchs migrate both north and south on an annual basis, making long-distance journeys that are fraught with risks. This is a multi-generational migration, with individual monarchs only making part of the full journey. The population east of the Rocky Mountains attempts to migrate to the sanctuaries of the Mariposa Monarca Biosphere Reserve in the Mexican state of Michoacán and parts of Florida. The western population tries to reach overwintering destinations in various coastal sites in central and southern California. The overwintered population of those east of the Rockies may reach as far north as Texas and Oklahoma during the spring migration. The second, third, and fourth generations return to their northern locations in the United States and Canada in the spring.
Captive-raised monarchs appear capable of migrating to overwintering sites in Mexico, though they have a much lower migratory success rate than do wild monarchs (see section on captive-rearing below). Monarch overwintering sites have been discovered recently in Arizona. Monarchs from the eastern US generally migrate longer distances than monarchs from the western US.
Since the 1800s, monarchs have spread throughout the world, and there are now many non-migratory populations globally.
Flight speeds of adults are around 9 km/h (6 mph).
In both caterpillar and butterfly form, monarchs are aposematic, warding off predators with a bright display of contrasting colors to warn potential predators of their undesirable taste and poisonous characteristics. One monarch researcher emphasizes that predation on eggs, larvae or adults is natural, since monarchs are part of the food chain, thus people should not take steps to kill predators of monarchs.
Larvae feed exclusively on milkweed and consume protective cardiac glycosides. Toxin levels in Asclepias species vary. Not all monarchs are unpalatable, but exhibit Batesian or automimics. Cardiac glycosides levels are higher in the abdomen and wings. Some predators can differentiate between these parts and consume the most palatable ones.
Butterfly weed (A. tuberosa) lacks significant amounts of cardiac glycosides (cardenolides), but instead contains other types of toxic glycosides, including pregnanes. This difference may reduce the toxicity of monarchs whose larvae feed on that milkweed species and affect the butterfly's breeding choices, as a naturalist and others have reported that egg-laying monarchs do not favor the plant. Some other milkweeds have similar characteristics.
Types of predators
While monarchs have a wide range of natural predators, none of these is suspected of causing harm to the overall population, or are the cause of the long-term declines in winter colony sizes.
Several species of birds have acquired methods that allow them to ingest monarchs without experiencing the ill effects associated with the cardiac glycosides (cardenolides). The black-backed oriole is able to eat the monarch through an exaptation of its feeding behavior that gives it the ability to identify cardenolides by taste and reject them. The black-headed grosbeak, though, has developed an insensitivity to secondary plant poisons that allows it to ingest monarchs without vomiting. As a result, these orioles and grosbeaks periodically have high levels of cardenolides in their bodies, and they are forced to go on periods of reduced monarch consumption. This cycle effectively reduces potential predation of monarchs by 50% and indicates that monarch aposematism has a legitimate purpose. The black-headed grosbeak has also evolved resistance mutations in the molecular target of the heart poisons, the sodium pump. The specific mutations that evolved in one of the grosbeak's four copies of the sodium pump gene are the same as those found in some rodents that have also evolved to resist cardiac glycosides. Known bird predators include brown thrashers, grackles, robins, cardinals, sparrows, scrub jays, and pinyon jays.
The monarch's white morph appeared in Oahu after the 1965–1966 introduction of two bulbul bird species, Pycnonotus cafer and Pycnonotus jocosus. These are now the most common avian insectivores in Hawaii, and probably the only ones that eat insects as large as monarchs. Although Hawaiian monarchs have low cardiac glycoside levels, the birds may also be tolerant of that toxin. The two species hunt the larvae and some pupae from the branches and undersides of leaves in milkweed bushes. The bulbuls also eat resting and ovipositing adults, but rarely flying ones. Because of its color, the white morph has a higher survival rate than the orange one. This is either because of apostatic selection (i.e., the birds have learned the orange monarchs can be eaten), because of camouflage (the white morph matches the white pubescence of milkweed or the patches of light shining through foliage), or because the white morph does not fit the bird's search image of a typical monarch, so is thus avoided.
Some mice, particularly the black-eared mouse (Peromyscus melanotis), are, like all rodents, able to tolerate large doses of cardenolides and are able to eat monarchs. Overwintering adults become less toxic over time making them more vulnerable to predators. In Mexico, about 14% of the overwintering monarchs are eaten by birds and mice and black-eared mice can eat up to 40 monarchs per night.
In North America, eggs and first-instar larvae of the monarch are eaten by larvae and adults of the introduced Asian lady beetle (Harmonia axyridis). The Chinese mantis (Tenodera sinensis) will consume the larvae once the gut is removed thus avoiding cardenolides. Predatory wasps commonly consume larvae. Many Hemipteran bugs including predatory stink bugs in the subfamily Asopinae and assassin bugs in family Reduviidae eat monarchs. Larvae can sometimes avoid predation by dropping from the plant or by jerking their bodies.
Parasitoids, including tachinid flies and braconid wasps develop inside the monarch larvae eventually killing it and emerging from the larvae or pupa. Non-insect parasites and infectious diseases (pathogens) also kill monarchs.
1) Fourth-instar monarch larvae killed and being consumed by a stink (shield) bug. 2) Mature fifth instar larvae jerks to dislodge a large milkweed bug (a herbivore). 3) Fourth-instar larvae killed by insect parasitoids, non-insect parasites or a pathogen.
Aposematism
Chemical structure of oleandrin, one of the cardiac glycosides
Monarchs are toxic and foul-tasting because of the presence of cardenolides in their bodies, which the caterpillars ingest as they feed on milkweed. Monarchs and other cardenolide-resistant insects rely on a resistant form of the Na+/ K+-ATPase enzyme to tolerate significantly higher concentrations of cardenolides than nonresistant species. By ingesting a large amount of plants in the genus Asclepias, primarily milkweed, monarch caterpillars are able to sequester cardiac glycosides, or more specifically cardenolides, which are steroids that act in heart-arresting ways similar to digitalis. It has been found that monarchs are able to sequester cardenolides most effectively from plants of intermediate cardenolide content rather than those of high or low content. Three mutations that evolved in the monarch's Na+/ K+-ATPase were found to be sufficient together to confer resistance to dietary cardiac glycosides. This was tested by swapping these mutations into the same gene in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster using CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing. These fruit flies-turned monarch flies were completely resistant to dietary ouabain, a cardiac glycoside found in Apocynaceae, and even sequestered some through metamorphosis, like the monarch.
Different species of milkweed have different effects on growth, virulence, and transmission of parasites. One species, Asclepias curassavica, appears to reduce the symptoms of Ophryocystis elektroscirrha (OE) infection. The two possible explanations for this include that it promotes overall monarch health to boost the monarch's immune system or that chemicals from the plant have a direct negative effect on the OE parasites. A. curassavica does not cure or prevent the infection with OE; it merely allows infected monarchs to live longer, and this would allow infected monarchs to spread the OE spores for longer periods. For the average home butterfly garden, this scenario only adds more OE to the local population.
After the caterpillar becomes a butterfly, the toxins shift to different parts of the body. Since many birds attack the wings of the butterfly, having three times the cardiac glycosides in the wings leaves predators with a very foul taste and may prevent them from ever ingesting the body of the butterfly. To combat predators that remove the wings only to ingest the abdomen, monarchs keep the most potent cardiac glycosides in their abdomens.
Mimicry
Monarchs share the defense of noxious taste with the similar-appearing viceroy butterfly in what is perhaps one of the most well-known examples of mimicry. Though long purported to be an example of Batesian mimicry, the viceroy is actually more unpalatable than the monarch, making this a case of Müllerian mimicry.
Human interaction
The monarch is the state insect of Alabama, Idaho, Illinois, Minnesota, Texas, Vermont, and West Virginia. Legislation was introduced to make it the national insect of the United States, but this failed in 1989 and again in 1991.
Homeowners are increasingly establishing butterfly gardens; monarchs can be attracted by cultivating a butterfly garden with specific milkweed species and nectar plants. Efforts are underway to establish these monarch waystations.
An IMAX film, Flight of the Butterflies, describes the story of the Urquharts, Brugger, and Trail to document the then-unknown monarch migration to Mexican overwintering areas.
Sanctuaries and reserves have been created at overwintering locations in Mexico and California to limit habitat destruction. These sites can generate significant tourism revenue. However, with less tourism, monarch butterflies will have a higher survival rate because they show more protein content and a higher value of immune response and oxidative defense.
Organizations and individuals participate in tagging programs. Tagging information is used to study migration patterns.
The 2012 novel by Barbara Kingsolver, Flight Behavior, deals with the fictional appearance of a large population in the Appalachians.
Captive rearing
Humans interact with monarchs when rearing them in captivity, which has become increasingly popular. However, risks occur in this controversial activity. On one hand, captive rearing has many positive aspects. Monarchs are bred in schools and used for butterfly releases at hospices, memorial events, and weddings. Memorial services for the September 11 attacks include the release of captive-bred monarchs. Monarchs are used in schools and nature centers for educational purposes. Many homeowners raise monarchs in captivity as a hobby and for educational purposes.
On the other hand, this practice becomes problematic when monarchs are "mass-reared". Stories in the Huffington Post in 2015 and Discover magazine in 2016 have summarized the controversy around this issue.
The frequent media reports of monarch declines have encouraged many homeowners to attempt to rear as many monarchs as possible in their homes and then release them to the wild in an effort to "boost the monarch population". Some individuals, such as one in Linn County, Iowa, have reared thousands of monarchs at the same time.
Some monarch scientists do not condone the practice of rearing "large" numbers of monarchs in captivity for release into the wild because of the risks of genetic issues and disease spread. One of the biggest concerns of mass rearing is the potential for spreading the monarch parasite, Ophryocystis elektroscirrha, into the wild. This parasite can rapidly build up in captive monarchs, especially if they are housed together. The spores of the parasite also can quickly contaminate all housing equipment, so that all subsequent monarchs reared in the same containers then become infected. One researcher stated that rearing more than 100 monarchs constitutes "mass rearing" and should not be done.
In addition to the disease risks, researchers believe these captive-reared monarchs are not as fit as wild ones, owing to the unnatural conditions in which they are raised. Homeowners often raise monarchs in plastic or glass containers in their kitchens, basements, porches, etc., and under artificial lighting and controlled temperatures. Such conditions would not mimic what the monarchs are used to in the wild, and may result in adults that are unsuited for the realities of their wild existence. In support of this, a recent study by a citizen scientist found that captive-reared monarchs have a lower migration success rate than wild monarchs do.
A 2019 study shed light on the fitness of captive-reared monarchs, by testing reared and wild monarchs on a tethered flight apparatus that assessed navigational ability. In that study, monarchs that were reared to adulthood in artificial conditions showed a reduction in navigational ability. This happened even with monarchs that were brought into captivity from the wild for a few days. A few captive-reared monarchs did show proper navigation. This study revealed the fragility of monarch development; if the conditions are not suitable, their ability to properly migrate could be impaired. The same study also examined the genetics of a collection of reared monarchs purchased from a butterfly breeder, and found they were dramatically different from wild monarchs, so much so that the lead author described them as "franken-monarchs".
An unpublished study in 2019 compared behavior of captive-reared versus wild monarch larvae. The study showed that reared larvae exhibited more defensive behavior than wild larvae. The reason for this is unknown, but it could relate to the fact that reared larvae are frequently handled and/or disturbed.
Threats
In February 2015, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reported a study that showed that nearly a billion monarchs had vanished from the butterfly's overwintering sites since 1990. The agency attributed the monarch's decline in part to a loss of milkweed caused by herbicides that farmers and homeowners had used.
Western monarch populations
Based on a 2014 20-year comparison, the overwintering numbers west of the Rocky Mountains have dropped more than 50% since 1997 and the overwintering numbers east of the Rockies have declined by more than 90% since 1995. According to the Xerces Society, the monarch population in California decreased 86% in 2018, going from millions of butterflies to tens of thousands of butterflies.
The society's annual 2020–2021 winter count showed a significant decline in the California population. One Pacific Grove site did not have a single monarch butterfly. A primary explanation for this was the destruction of the butterfly's milkweed habitats. This particular population is believed to comprise less than 2000 individuals, as of 2022.
Eastern and midwestern monarch populations
A 2016 publication attributed the previous decade's 90% decline in overwintering numbers of the eastern monarch population to the loss of breeding habitat and milkweed. The publication's authors stated that an 11%–57% probability existed that this population will go almost extinct over the next 20 years.
Chip Taylor, the director of Monarch Watch at the University of Kansas, has stated that the Midwest milkweed habitat "is virtually gone" with 120–150 million acres lost. To help fight this problem, Monarch Watch encourages the planting of "Monarch Waystations".
Habitat loss due to herbicide use and genetically modified crops
Declines in milkweed abundance and monarch populations between 1999 and 2010 are correlated with the adoption of herbicide-tolerant genetically modified (GM) corn and soybeans, which now constitute 89% and 94% of these crops, respectively, in the U.S. GM corn and soybeans are resistant to the effect of the herbicide glyphosate. Some conservationists attribute the disappearance of milkweed to agricultural practices in the Midwest, where GM seeds are bred to resist herbicides that farmers use to kill unwanted plants that grow near their rows of food crops.
In 2015, the Natural Resources Defense Council filed a suit against the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The Council argued that the agency ignored warnings about the dangers of glyphosate usage for monarchs. However, a 2018 study has suggested that the decline in milkweed predates the arrival of GM crops.
Losses during migration
Eastern and midwestern monarchs are apparently experiencing problems reaching Mexico. A number of monarch researchers have cited recent evidence obtained from long-term citizen science data that show that the number of breeding (adult) monarchs has not declined in the last two decades.
The lack of long-term declines in the numbers of breeding and migratory monarchs, yet the clear declines in overwintering numbers, suggests a growing disconnect exists between these life stages. One researcher has suggested that mortality from car strikes constitutes an increasing threat to migrating monarchs. A study of road mortality in northern Mexico, published in 2019, showed very high mortality from just two "hotspots" each year, amounting to 200,000 monarchs killed.
Loss of overwintering habitat
The area of Mexican forest to which eastern and midwestern monarchs migrate reached its lowest level in two decades in 2013. The decline was expected to increase during the 2013–2014 season. Mexican environmental authorities continue to monitor illegal logging of the oyamel trees. The oyamel is a major species of evergreen on which the overwintering butterflies spend a significant time during their winter diapause, or suspended development.
A 2014 study acknowledged that while "the protection of overwintering habitat has no doubt gone a long way towards conserving monarchs that breed throughout eastern North America", their research indicates that habitat loss on breeding grounds in the United States is the main cause of both recent and projected population declines.
Western monarch populations have rebounded slightly since 2014 with the Western Monarch Thanksgiving Count tallying 335,479 monarchs in 2022. The population still has much to go for a full recovery.
Parasites
Parasites include the tachinid flies Sturmia convergens and Lespesia archippivora. Lesperia-parasitized butterfly larvae suspend, but die prior to pupation. The fly's maggot lowers itself to the ground, forms a brown puparium and then emerges as an adult.
Pteromalid wasps, specifically Pteromalus cassotis, parasitize monarch pupae. These wasps lay their eggs in the pupae while the chrysalis is still soft. Up to 400 adults emerge from the chrysalis after 14–20 days, killing the monarch.
The bacterium Micrococcus flacidifex danai also infects larvae. Just before pupation, the larvae migrate to a horizontal surface and die a few hours later, attached only by one pair of prolegs, with the thorax and abdomen hanging limp. The body turns black shortly thereafter. The bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa has no invasive powers, but causes secondary infections in weakened insects. It is a common cause of death in laboratory-reared insects.
Ophryocystis elektroscirrha is another parasite of the monarch. It infects the subcutaneous tissues and propagates by spores formed during the pupal stage. The spores are found over all of the body of infected butterflies, with the greatest number on the abdomen. These spores are passed, from female to caterpillar, when spores rub off during egg laying and are then ingested by caterpillars. Severely infected individuals are weak, unable to expand their wings, or unable to eclose, and have shortened lifespans, but parasite levels vary in populations. This is not the case in laboratory rearing, where after a few generations, all individuals can be infected.
Infection with O. elektroscirrha creates an effect known as culling, whereby migrating monarchs that are infected are less likely to complete the migration. This results in overwintering populations with lower parasite loads. Owners of commercial butterfly-breeding operations claim that they take steps to control this parasite in their practices, although this claim is doubted by many scientists who study monarchs.[
Confusion of host plants
The black swallow-wort (Cynanchum louiseae) and pale swallow-wort (Cynanchum rossicum) plants are problematic for monarchs in North America. Monarchs lay their eggs on these relatives of native vining milkweed (Cynanchum laeve) because they produce stimuli similar to milkweed. Once the eggs hatch, the caterpillars are poisoned by the toxicity of this invasive plant from Europe.
Climate
Climate variations during the fall and summer affect butterfly reproduction. Rainfall and freezing temperatures affect milkweed growth. Omar Vidal, director general of WWF-Mexico, said, "The monarch's lifecycle depends on the climatic conditions in the places where they breed. Eggs, larvae, and pupae develop more quickly in milder conditions. Temperatures above 35 °C (95 °F) can be lethal for larvae, and eggs dry out in hot, arid conditions, causing a drastic decrease in hatch rate." If a monarch's body temperatures is below 30 °C (86 °F), a monarch cannot fly. To warm up, they sit in the sun or rapidly shiver their wings to warm themselves.
Climate change may dramatically affect the monarch migration. A study from 2015 examined the impact of warming temperatures on the breeding range of the monarch, and showed that in the next 50 years the monarch host plant will expand its range further north into Canada, and that the monarchs will follow this. While this will expand the breeding locations of the monarch, it will also have the effect of increasing the distance that monarchs must travel to reach their overwintering destination in Mexico, which could result in greater mortality during the migration.
Milkweeds grown at increased temperatures have been shown to contain higher cardenolide concentrations, making the leaves too toxic for the monarch caterpillars. However, these increased concentrations are likely in response to increased insect herbivory, which is also caused by the increased temperatures. Whether increased temperatures make milkweed too toxic for monarch caterpillars when other factors are not present is unknown. Additionally, milkweed grown at carbon dioxide levels of 760 parts per million was found to produce a different mix of the toxic cardenolides, one of which was less effective against monarch parasites.
Conservation status
On July 20, 2022, the International Union for Conservation of Nature added the migratory monarch butterfly (the subspecies common in North America) to its red list of endangered species.
The monarch butterfly is not currently listed under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora or protected specifically under U.S. domestic laws.
On August 14, 2014, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Center for Food Safety filed a legal petition requesting Endangered Species Act protection for the monarch and its habitat, based largely on the long-term trends observed at overwintering sites. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) initiated a status review of the monarch butterfly under the Endangered Species Act with a due date for information submission of March 3, 2015, later extended to 2020. On December 15, 2020, the FWS ruled that adding the butterfly to the list of threatened and endangered species was "warranted-but-precluded" because it needed to devote its resources to 161 higher-priority species.
The number of monarchs overwintering in Mexico has shown a long-term downward trend. Since 1995, coverage numbers have been as high as 18 hectares (44 acres) during the winter of 1996–1997, but on average about 6 hectares (15 acres). Coverage declined to its lowest point to date (0.67 hectares (1.66 acres)) during the winter of 2013–2014, but rebounded to 4.01 hectares (10 acres) in 2015–2016. The average population of monarchs in 2016 was estimated at 200 million. Historically, on average there are 300 million monarchs. The 2016 increase was attributed to favorable breeding conditions in the summer of 2015. However, coverage declined by 27% to 2.91 hectares (7.19 acres) during the winter of 2016–2017. Some believe this was because of a storm that had occurred during March 2016 in the monarchs' previous overwintering season, though this seems unlikely since most current research shows that the overwintering colony sizes do not predict the size of the next summer breeding population.
In Ontario, Canada, the monarch butterfly is listed as a species of special concern. In fall 2016, the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada proposed that the monarch be listed as endangered in Canada, as opposed to its current listing as a "species of concern" in that country. This move, once enacted, would protect critical monarch habitat in Canada, such as major fall accumulation areas in southern Ontario, but it would also have implications for citizen scientists who work with monarchs, and for classroom activities. If the monarch were federally protected in Canada, these activities could be limited, or require federal permits.
In Nova Scotia, the monarch is listed as endangered at the provincial level, as of 2017. This decision (as well as the Ontario decision) apparently is based on a presumption that the overwintering colony declines in Mexico create declines in the breeding range in Canada. Two recent studies have been conducted examining long-term trends in monarch abundance in Canada, using either butterfly atlas records or citizen science butterfly surveys, and neither shows evidence of a population decline in Canada.
Conservation efforts
See also: Monarch butterfly conservation in California
Although numbers of breeding monarchs in eastern North America have apparently not decreased, reports of declining numbers of overwintering butterflies have inspired efforts to conserve the species.
Federal actions
On June 20, 2014, President Barack Obama issued a presidential memorandum entitled "Creating a Federal Strategy to Promote the Health of Honey Bees and Other Pollinators". The memorandum established a Pollinator Health Task Force, to be co-chaired by the Secretary of Agriculture and the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, and stated:
The number of migrating Monarch butterflies sank to the lowest recorded population level in 2013–14, and there is an imminent risk of failed migration.
In May 2015, the Pollinator Health Task Force issued a "National Strategy to Promote the Health of Honey Bees and Other Pollinators". The strategy laid out federal actions to achieve three goals, two of which were:
Monarch Butterflies: Increase the Eastern population of the monarch butterfly to 225 million butterflies occupying an area of approximately 15 acres (6 hectares) in the overwintering grounds in Mexico, through domestic/international actions and public-private partnerships, by 2020.
Pollinator Habitat Acreage: Restore or enhance 7 million acres of land for pollinators over the next 5 years through Federal actions and public/private partnerships.
Many of the priority projects that the national strategy identified focused on the I-35 corridor, which extends for 1,500 miles (2,400 km) from Texas to Minnesota. The area through which that highway travels provides spring and summer breeding habitats in the United States' key monarch migration corridor.
The Task Force simultaneously issued a "Pollinator Research Action Plan". The Plan outlined five main action areas, covered in ten subject-specific chapters. The action areas were: Setting a Baseline; Assessing Environmental Stressors; Restoring Habitat; Understanding and Supporting Stakeholders; Curating and Sharing Knowledge.
In June 2016, the Task Force issued a "Pollinator Partnership Action Plan". That Plan provided examples of past, ongoing, and possible future collaborations between the federal government and non-federal institutions to support pollinator health under each of the national strategy's goals.
The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) publishes sets of landscape performance requirements in its P100 documents, which mandate standards for the GSA's Public Buildings Service. Beginning in March 2015, those performance requirements and their updates have included four primary aspects for planting designs that are intended to provide adequate on-site foraging opportunities for targeted pollinators. The targeted pollinators include bees, butterflies, and other beneficial insects.
On December 4, 2015, President Obama signed into law the Fixing America's Surface Transportation (FAST) Act (Pub. L.) The FAST Act placed a new emphasis on efforts to support pollinators. To accomplish this, the FAST Act amended Title 23 (Highways) of the United States Code. The amendment directed the United States Secretary of Transportation, when carrying out programs under that title in conjunction with willing states, to:
encourage integrated vegetation management practices on roadsides and other transportation rights-of-way, including reduced mowing; and
encourage the development of habitat and forage for Monarch butterflies, other native pollinators, and honey bees through plantings of native forbs and grasses, including noninvasive, native milkweed species that can serve as migratory way stations for butterflies and facilitate migrations of other pollinators.
The FAST Act also stated that activities to establish and improve pollinator habitat, forage, and migratory way stations may be eligible for Federal funding if related to transportation projects funded under Title 23.
The United States Department of Agriculture's Farm Service Agency helps increase U.S. populations of monarch butterfly and other pollinators through its Conservation Reserve Program's State Acres for Wildlife Enhancement (SAFE) Initiative. The SAFE Initiative provides an annual rental payment to farmers who agree to remove environmentally sensitive land from agricultural production and who plant species that will improve environmental health and quality. Among other things, the initiative encourages landowners to establish wetlands, grasses, and trees to create habitats for species that the FWS has designated to be threatened or endangered.
Other actions
Agriculture companies and other organizations are being asked to set aside areas that remain unsprayed to allow monarchs to breed. In addition, national and local initiatives are underway to help establish and maintain pollinator habitats along corridors containing power lines and roadways. The Federal Highway Administration, state governments, and local jurisdictions are encouraging highway departments and others to limit their use of herbicides, to reduce mowing, to help milkweed to grow and to encourage monarchs to reproduce within their right-of-ways.
National Cooperative Highway Research Program report
In 2020, the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCRHP) of the Transportation Research Board issued a 208-page report that described a project that had examined the potential for roadway corridors to provide habitat for monarch butterflies. A part of the project developed tools for roadside managers to optimize potential habitat for monarch butterflies in their road rights-of-way.
Such efforts are controversial because the risk of butterfly mortality near roads is high. Several studies have shown that motor vehicles kill millions of monarchs and other butterflies every year. Also, some evidence indicates that monarch larvae living near roads experience physiological stress conditions, as evidenced by elevations in their heart rate.
The NCRHP report acknowledged that, among other hazards, roads present a danger of traffic collisions for monarchs, stating that these effects appear to be more concentrated in particular funnel areas during migration. Nevertheless, the report concluded:
In summary, threats along roadway corridors exist for monarchs and other pollinators, but in the context of the amount of habitat needed for recovery of sustainable populations, roadsides are of vital importance.
Butterfly gardening
A monarch waystation near the town of Berwyn Heights in Prince George's County, Maryland (June 2017)
The practice of butterfly gardening and creating "monarch waystations" is commonly thought to increase the populations of butterflies. Efforts to restore falling monarch populations by establishing butterfly gardens and monarch waystations require particular attention to the butterfly's food preferences and population cycles, as well to the conditions needed to propagate and maintain milkweed.
For example, in the Washington, DC, area and elsewhere in the northeastern and midwestern United States, common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) is among the most important food plants for monarch caterpillars. A U.S. Department of Agriculture conservation planting guide for Maryland recommends that, for optimum wildlife and pollinator habitat in mesic sites (especially for monarchs), a seed mix should contain 6.0% A. syriaca by weight and 2.0% by seed.
However, monarchs prefer to lay eggs on A. syriaca when its foliage is soft and fresh. Because monarch reproduction peaks in those areas during the late summer when milkweed foliage is old and tough, A. syriaca needs to be mowed or cut back in June through August to assure that it will be regrowing rapidly when monarch reproduction reaches its peak. Similar conditions exist for showy milkweed (A. speciosa) in Michigan and for green antelopehorn milkweed (A. viridis), where it grows in the Southern Great Plains and the Western United States. Further, the seeds of A. syriaca and some other milkweeds need periods of cold treatment (cold stratification) before they will germinate.
To protect seeds from washing away during heavy rains and from seed–eating birds, one can cover the seeds with a light fabric or with an 0.5-inch (13 mm) layer of straw mulch. However, mulch acts as an insulator. Thicker layers of mulch can prevent seeds from germinating if they prevent soil temperatures from rising enough when winter ends. Further, few seedlings can push through a thick layer of mulch.
Although monarch caterpillars will feed on butterfly weed (A. tuberosa) in butterfly gardens, it is typically not a heavily used host plant for the species. The plant has rough leaves and a layer of trichomes, which may inhibit oviposition or decrease a female's ability to sense leaf chemicals. The plant's low levels of cardenolides may also deter monarchs from laying eggs on the plant. While A. tuberosa's colorful flowers provide nectar for many adult butterflies, the plant may be less suitable for use in butterfly gardens and monarch waystations than are other milkweed species.
Breeding monarchs prefer to lay eggs on swamp milkweed (A. incarnata). However, A. incarnata is an early successional plant that usually grows at the margins of wetlands and in seasonally flooded areas. The plant is slow to spread via seeds, does not spread by runners and tends to disappear as vegetative densities increase and habitats dry out. Although A. incarnata plants can survive for up to 20 years, most live only two-five years in gardens. The species is not shade-tolerant and is not a good vegetative competitor.
Developed by Developers Diversified, Quincy Place Mall opened in August 1990, as a 270,000 ft2 mall anchored by JCPenney, Herberger's, and Walmart.
A decades long weak economy and the departures of Walmart, JCP, and Herberger's have left the former industrial hub without a thriving retail destination. The Target behind the mall closed in 2015.
Developers Diversified really copied what Dial Properties of Omaha was doing when building this mall. The corrugated ceilings, circular lights, dated colors, and anchor combination match the Walmart, JCP, and Herberger's anchored malls that DP was building elsewhere in the Midwest. The mall was build to replace an ailing downtown pedestrian mall that was foundering even before the loss of Younkers.
Family-owned Briggs Coaches of Swansea has diversified from minicoaches to full-size coaches and buses in recent years. The varied fleet now contains a number of Dennis Javelins, a King Long, a Noge Catalan-bodied MAN, a Beulas-bodied Iveco, a Mercedes Tourino, an Optare Tempo, a Plaxton Centro-bodied MAN and a little Plaxton Primo.
CN57 EFK is one of six Primos new to Veolia Transport Cymru. She was acquired by Briggs in early 2018 and is seen on Oystermouth Road, Swansea in mid October 2018 when returning to base.
Her regular duties are a farepaying service for schoolchildren and Wednesdays and Fridays Service 113 between the Bishopston area and Mumbles, operated under contract to Bishopston Community Council.
Guemes Channel.
April 1, 2017 - "Portland, Oregon-based Diversified Marine has delivered the new 120-foot tractor tug Earl W Redd to Seattle-based Harley Marine, for use within its Olympic Tug & Barge division."
Bulbophyllum cf. popayanense in situ. Du genre le plus diversifié au monde avec 2182 espèces actuellement connues. Beaucoup plus commun et diversifié dans le sud-est asiatique y en Afrique, mais également présent en Amérique Latine. En Colombie, environ 10 espèces ont été recensées. Département du Valle del Cauca, Colombie.
Bulbophyllum cf. popayanense in situ. From the more diversified genus in the world with 2182 species already known. Much more diversified and common in south-east Asia and Africa, but also present in Latin America. In Colombia, around 10 species have been registered. Valle del Cauca department, Colombia.
Bulbophyllum cf. popayanense in situ. Del género más diversificado del mundo con 2182 especies actualmente conocidas. Mucho más común y diversificado en el sudeste asiático y en África, pero también presente en Latinoamérica. En Colombia, alrededor de 10 especies han sido registradas. Departamento del Valle del Cauca, Colombia.
In Support Of All Diversified Lives In Peace - All faces, all races. / En apoyo de todas las vidas diversificadas En paz - Todas las caras, todas las razas.- - - - Peace is fine, sometimes hate intertwine. Why can't we feel safe, where we go, and live and grow. / La paz está bien, a veces el odio se entrelaza. ¿Por qué no podemos sentirnos seguros, a dónde ir, y vivir y crecer? - - - - - - Reflection / Reflexión - - Photograph / scenic. - - Fotografía / escénico. #plawson8
Waterlilies in Meteer Lake at Pine Knob Park, LaGrange County, Indiana.
Pine Knob Park is a 254-acre county-owned park with a lot of natural diversity including woodlands, two lakes, and numerous buttonbush swamps. There are ambitious projects going on there to restore and diversify oak savanna, prairie and wetland habitats. One very significant project yet in its early years is restoring sedge-dominated wetlands around Duff Lake over many acres in a muck and marl filled basin that had been drained many years ago. So far, it appears successful beyond expectations. This park is remarkably user-friendly with numerous trails, many with boardwalk access through or near habitats where visitors would normally never go due to deep water.
On the west side of Meteer Lake, there is a short fishing pier into the lake that gives visitors access to both emergent and submergent vegetation that is normally in water too deep to access without hip or chest waders. And along much of the west side of the lake, a boardwalk takes you through forested and shrub swamp, and for a couple hundred feet goes along the edge of an open waterlily and bulrush marsh. Photographic opportunities are not necessarily optimal from these spots, but at least opportunities are possible that would not be otherwise due to inaccessibility.
The morning after photographing the small purple fringed orchids elsewhere in LaGrange County, I went to Pine Knob Park at daybreak hoping for lovely landscapes at Meteer Lake against the backdrop of an awesome, colorful sunrise. The awesome sunrise failed to materialize. Apparently, the sunrise gods found out ahead of time that I was coming and convinced the clouds and colors to take a day off. Since I was there, many hours from home, I decided to try making lemonade from the lemons I had been served. Let’s just say the lemonade was not all that good despite a reasonable amount of effort!
The photo here is perhaps the best I got from my attempt to make tolerable lemonade from a sunrise that did not meet expectations. It was taken from the end of the fishing pier. This is one of those shots that I like, yet I don’t! It begs for something besides the waterlilies to be the focus of attention, like a waterlily flower, a frog’s head poking above the water line, or even a tuft of bulrushes in just the perfect spot.
I processed two different versions of this. In one, I removed the hardly visible underwater stems of the waterlily leaves. THAT was interesting! I think this shot has a bit of an abstract quality to it but at least the stems give it a somewhat visible anchor point. The one with the stems removed had no point of reference for an anchor point so the leaves looked like they may have been floating in the air or outer space.
So, to end this long, goofy narrative, do you think this photo has any redeeming qualities whatsoever? As lemonade goes, is it good, mediocre or just plain bad?
Developed by Developers Diversified, Quincy Place Mall opened in August 1990, as a 270,000 ft2 mall anchored by JCPenney, Herberger's, and Walmart.
A decades long weak economy and the departures of Walmart, JCP, and Herberger's have left the former industrial hub without a thriving retail destination. The Target behind the mall closed in 2015.
Developers Diversified really copied what Dial Properties of Omaha was doing when building this mall. The corrugated ceilings, circular lights, dated colors, and anchor combination match the Walmart, JCP, and Herberger's anchored malls that DP was building elsewhere in the Midwest. The mall was build to replace an ailing downtown pedestrian mall that was foundering even before the loss of Younkers.
(Diversification)
En el día Escuela de Manejo, de noche tiendita al aire libre. Hay que buscarle señores / During day Driving School, at night little store. We must seek for it, gentlemen.
One of the vineyards of the renowned champagne house Taittinger in the vicinity of Château de la Marquetterie, Pierry (Épernay), Grand Est (Champagne), France
Some background information:
Taittinger is a famous producer of champagne. The family-owned company has diversified holdings including Champagne Taittinger, Société du Louvre and Concorde Hotels, whose flagship is the famed Hotel de Crillon on the Place de la Concorde in Paris, as well as the Loire Valley wine-producing firm of Bouvet-Ladubay.
Founded in 1734, the Taittinger champagne house is based in the city of Reims. However, it also owns the Château de la Marquetterie in Pierry, a village in the immediate vicinty of the French champagne capital Épernay in the department of Marne. The château was acquired by Pierre Taittinger in 1932, after he had fallen in love with the estate, and is now used for representational purposes, receptions and corporate events. Unfortunately, it is not open to the public. In the vicinity of the Château de la Marquetterie, Taittinger also owns some vineyards where grapes for the company’s champagnes are grown.
In 1734, Jacques Fourneaux established a wine-business in Champagne while working closely with the Benedictine Abbeys which, at that time, owned the finest vineyards in the region. The Taittingers were a family of wine merchants who moved to the Paris region from the Lorraine in order to retain their French citizenship after the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71.
In 1932, Pierre Taittinger bought the Château de la Marquetterie from the wine house of Forest-Fourneaux. It had been used as a command post during World War I and he had been laid up there after suffering a heart-attack during combat. The vineyards of the château had been planted with Chardonnay and Pinot Noir since the 18th Century. The estate had been developed by Brother Jean Oudart, a Benedictine monk, one of the founding fathers of champagne wine, and later it had belonged to the writer Jacques Cazotte.
From 1945 to 1960 the business was run by Pierre's third son François. Under his direction, the Taittinger cellars were established in the Abbey of Saint-Nicaise, built in the thirteenth century in Gallo-Roman chalk pits dating from the fourth century. After François' death in an accident, his brother Claude took over and directed the business from 1960 to 2005. It was during this time that Taittinger became a champagne house of world renown.
In 2005, Champagne Taittinger was sold by the Taittinger family, along with its subsidiary, Société du Louvre, to the U.S. private investment firm Starwood Capital Group. Those in the profession (Champagne houses, wine-producers, cooperatives, distributors and customers) proposed that the objectives of short-term profitability, or even medium term, at any price, advocated by the then current managers of the business, were not compatible with the production of Champagne wine of quality, which takes time, trust and a large delegation of authority to the masters of the cellar. In addition, the arrival of investors completely foreign to the culture of Champagne could result in a major breakdown of the equilibrium of the industry.
Finally, on 31st May 2006, the Northeast Regional Bank of the Crédit Agricole, in collaboration with Pierre-Emmanuel Taittinger, bought the business back for 660 million euros. The area covers almost 289 hectares of vineyards and has 12 to 13 million bottles in stock. The Château de la Marquetterie and its cellars were part of the overall purchase. But the Starwood group retained some of the hotels, including the luxury hotels Crillon, Lutetia and Martinez, and the hotel chains Campanile and Kyriad.
In the same year, Claude Taittinger retired and his nephew Pierre-Emmanuel Taittinger replaced him as head of the business. In 2017, Taittinger became the first champagne house to plant vines in the UK. Champagne Taittinger entered into a joint venture with UK wine agents Hatch Mansfield and bought up land in Chilham, Kent, to plant 40 hectares of vines over the next three years.
At the end of 2019, Vitalie Taittinger, who had already been working for the company for twelve years, has become the company’s new president. She undertakes her new responsibilities with the support of Damien le Sueur and her brother Clovis Taittinger, who have both been appointed general managers.
Incidentally, the whole Champagne area was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2015. It was named "Champagne Hillsides, Houses and Cellars" and was admitted into the World Heritage List for being the site, where the method of producing sparkling wines was developed.