Monarch butterflies cluster on oyamel branches in Mexican preserve.
The newly protected area will connect the current butterfly sanctuaries within the forest with a linking corridor. The decree will implement a system through which local people will be financially compensated for their lost logging rights in the preserve. The Spanish sign translates as Protect the Butterfly. In the 1940s, when University of Toronto entomologist Fred Urquhart and his wife Norah began tracing the monarchs' fall migration by tagging their wings, the Mexican forest was undisturbed. By the mid-seventies, when the monarchs' unique winter haven was reported to the scientific community, scientists began to see the first signs of trouble in the monarch's winter habitat.