National Network for Equitable Library Service

The Monarch butterfly is the marathon runner of the insect world. Each year in May hundreds of millions take off from their winter quarters in Mexico to begin a perilously delicate 3000-mile journey north. Three months later by the human calendar (but three generations later in butterfly time) they return back through the United States to Mexico. We don't know how they navigate the annual route along identical fight paths, or how they pass on the knowledge of those routes to future generations making the return trip. This butterfly is the symbol chosen to represent the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and while its flight symbolically unites Mexico, US and Canada, it also highlights environmental issues plaguing all 3 countries. Scientists warn that the migration is in peril; in Canada the monarch is officially listed as a species-at- risk. Is preserving a unique butterfly migration more important than indigenous logging? More important than cost-effective food agriculture?