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Avocados imperil Monarch butterflies’ winter home in Mexico

by Victoria Burnett

Davíd Romero Hernández, 51, center, trimming grass in his new avocado orchard on the edge of Apútzio de Juárez, in Mexico, in October. Photo: Adriana Zehbrauskas/The New York Times
Davíd Romero Hernández, 51, center, trimming grass in his new avocado orchard on the edge of Apútzio de Juárez, in Mexico, in October. Photo: ©   Adriana Zehbrauskas/The New York Times

APÚTZIO DE JUÁREZ, Mexico — The green volcanic hills that tower above Apútzio de Juárez have begun to fill with swarms of monarch butterflies, which return each year for the winter stretch of their celebrated — and imperiled — migration. But downhill from the monarchs’ mountain roost, in the oak and pine forests that border this small farming town, there lurks a new threat to their winter habitat: a lust to grow the lucrative avocados that are being consumed at record rates in the United States.

See full story at “http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/18/world/americas/ambition-of-avocado-imperils-monarch-butterflies-winter-home.html

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