“The number of monarch butterflies wintering in the mountains west of Mexico City rebounded this year, doubling the area they covered in 2024…The annual butterfly count doesn’t calculate the individual number of butterflies, but rather the number of acres they cover as they gather on tree branches in the mountain pine and fir forests. Monarchs from east of the Rocky Mountains in the United States and Canada overwinter there,” reports the Associated Press.
“Mexico’s Commission for National Protected Areas (CONANP) said that this year, butterflies covered 4.4 acres compared to only 2.2 acres the year before….After wintering in Mexico, the iconic butterflies with black and orange wings fly north, breeding multiple generations along the way for thousands of miles. The offspring that reach southern Canada begin the trip back to Mexico at the end of summer.”
In Europe, bears, jackals, wolves, lynx and wolverine have multiplied. There are now 150,000 golden jackals, mostly in southern Europe, an increase of 46% since 2016. “There are now about 20,500 brown bears in Europe, a rise of 17% since 2016, while there are 9,400 Eurasian lynx, a 12% increase.” Wolverines have increased by 16% to 1,300, while wolves have increased by 35% to 23,000. There are now about 2,000 Iberian lynxes in Spain and Portugal, a comeback for a species that once verged on extinction.
In 2023, a baby beaver was born in London, the first beaver birth there in 400 years. And carnivorous plants were reintroduced to English wetlands.
Forests are expanding in much of the world. China’s forests have grown by about 234,000 square miles over the last 30 years, an area the size of Ukraine. The European Union has added an area the size of Cambodia to its woodlands. Costa Rica has 150% more forest than it did in 1987.
The replacement of horses with automobiles restored New England’s forests, which had mostly disappeared by 1910, but now cover much of the region. Today, Vermont is 78% forested, but in 1910, it was mostly un-forested.
