Newspaper Page Text
Page 2C
May 3, 2023
^Reporter
MONROE OUTDOORS by Terry W. Johnson
Where have all the monarchs gone?
The large, showy monarch butterfly seen in Monroe Coun
ty in the summer spends winters in mountains near Mexico
City. (Photo/Terry Johnson)
E ach year one of the
reports I look for
is the report that
details the results
of surveys conducted each
winter on the monarch but
terfly’s wintering grounds. It
provides an estimate of the
number of monarchs win
tering in Mexico as well as
the status of the
butterfly’s winter
habitat.
Recently a
report detailing
the results of
these surveys,
conducted by
the World Wild
life Fund-Tele-
mex Foundation
Alliance and the
National Commission and
Mexico’s National Commis
sion of Protected Areas, was
released.
These large orange and
black butterflies winter in
the forested mountains
almost two miles above sea
level east of Mexico City.
Cedar, pine and fir trees
cloak the landscape. The
area is known as the Mon
arch Butterfly Biosphere
Reserve.
It is hard for anyone that
has never visited this special
place to visualize what it
actually looks like during
the winter. During this time
the wintering butterflies
literally blanket the trees in
large roosting clusters.
The surveys that took
place this past winter re
vealed 145 acres
of the mon
arch’s wintering
habitat had been
degraded. This
represents a
significant loss
in habitat com
pared to what
was lost the pre
vious year. The
previous year’s
surveys found 47 acres
of wintering habitat were
rendered uninhabitable by
monarchs in 2021.
The annual report also
addressed how much of the
wintering habitat was occu
pied by the butterflies this
past winter. Since it would
be impossible to count all of
these individuals, research
ers measure the amount
of habitat they occupy to
extrapolate the number of
monarchs wintering there
based on this acreage. It
seems that the number of
monarchs roosting fluc
tuates from year to year; it
averages roughly 21 million
per 2.5 acres (one hectare).
This year’s report indicates
that biologists found the
amount of forested winter
ing habitat used by winter
ing monarchs plummeted
22 percent. This means
roughly only 5.46 acres of
woodlands was used by the
butterflies this past winter.
In comparison, monarchs
occupied 7.03 acres during
the winter of2021-22.
This means that the winter
population found in the
mountains of Mexico was
somewhere around 114.6
million.
To put this all in perspec
tive, monarch experts tell us
as many as 1 billion mon
archs were there as recently
as 1996.
In describing the stagger
ing loss of monarchs, Tierra
Curry, a senior scientist
at the Center of Biologist
Diversity wrote in 2022,
“The 90 percent drop in
the monarch population is
a loss so staggering that in
human population terms it
would be like losing every
living person in the United
States except those living in
Florida and Ohio.”
While there appears to be
no immediate end to the
loss of wintering habitat in
Mexico, researchers have
learned that the size of
the monarch population
that winters in Mexico is
influenced by a number of
factors, including weather
conditions encountered by
the butterflies while migrat
ing through the southern
United States.
Such factors determine
the size of the monarch’s
summer population. For
example, it does not bode
well for them when the
weather is colder, wetter,
hotter or drier than normal.
The weather during the
spring, summer and fall are
also critical. If that is not
enough, monarchs face a
litany of other perils while
living on their breeding
grounds, including the use
of herbicide-tolerant corn
and soybean seeds (today
practically all corn and
soybean fields in the heart
of the monarch’s breeding
range are planted with the
genetically modified seeds).
This year the majority
of the monarchs left their
winter sanctuary by March
7. Indeed, they face an
uncertain fate. However,
hopefully, efforts here in
Georgia and throughout the
United States and Canada
to enhance their habitat will
help ensure that later this
year many more of these
iconic butterflies will wing
their way south than did so
in 2022.
Terry Johnson is a retired
Program Manager of the
Georgia Nongame-Endan
gered Wildlife Program. He
has written the informative
column Monroe Outdoors’
for the Reporter for many
years. His book, “A Journey
to Discovery,” is available at
The Reporter. Email him at
tjwoodduck@bellsouth. net.
TERRY W. JOHNSON
MP boys track team narrowly misses Region title
The Mary Persons track team
took third place in the Region
2-AAA meet in Jackson last
Wednesday, April 26, falling just
12 points short of what would
have been a fifth straight region
title.
Pike County took first place
with 156.5 points, Peach County
was second with 155, and Mary
Persons was third with 144.5.
Jackson was fourth with 139 and
Upson-Lee was last with 75.
The MP boys who came in
fourth place or better will advance
to the AAA Sectional Track &
Field Meet on Saturday, May 6 at
Kinnett Stadium in Columbus.
The Mary Persons boys with top
finishes were:
MP Boys track results - May 5
100 Meter Dash: 6th- Christian
Stewart (11.62)
200 Meter Dash: 4th- Christian
Stewart (23.64) and 5th- Kaethen
Bowers (23.87)
400 Meter Dash: 2nd- Kaethen
Bowers (51.37), 4th- Carter Cole
(54.19) and 7th- Christian Stew
art (55.32)
800 Meter Run: 4th- Bryce
Shelton (2:12.91)
1600 Meter Run: 4th- Jonathan
Head (5:11.12), 5th- Cole Battles
(5:11.76) and 6th- Mac Roeser
(5:12.81)
3200 Meter Run: 3rd- Mac
Roeser (11:05.66) 4th- Jonathan
Head (11:07.11) and 6th- Cole
Battles (11:14.07)
110 Meter Hurdles: 3rd- Mar
cus Guntter (16.69)
300 Meter Hurdles: 6th- R.J.
Holder (45.07) and 8th- Gavin
Martin (45.70)
4x100 Meter Relay: 3rd- Relay
Team (44.97)
4x200 Meter Relay: 2nd- Relay
Team (1:33.24)
4x400 Meter Relay: 3rd- Relay
Team (3:39.83)
4x800 Meter Relay: 3rd- Relay
Team (9:04.49)
High Jump: 8th- Nehemiah
Jones (5-6) and 11th- Shamon
Reese (5-4)
Long Jump: 8th- Najeh Reese
(18-8.5) 11th- Marcus Guntter
(18-0) and 13th- Nehemiah Jones
(16-3)
Triple Jump: 2nd- Champ
Brantley (38-5), 4th- Nehemiah
Jones (38-5) and 5th- Brandon
Alford (35-10)
Pole Vault: 4th- R.J. Holder
(38-5), 6th- Carter Stembridge
(38-5) and 8th- Cayden Burnette
(35-10)
Discus: 2nd- Van Tane (112-8)
and 4th- Caden Lavinka (106-3)
Shotput: 2nd- Andon Riley
(42-6), 7th- Andon Riley (38-7.5)
and 9th- Gevone Sands (38-2)
MCMS caps summer workouts
By Michael Smallwood
michael.smallwood@mcschools.org
The Monroe County Middle School
football team held its spring football
practice during the last week of April.
The practices are run by the varsity
coaches so that the players can get a
realistic feel for what it’s like to be an
MP Bulldog. The players run through
speed and agility drills then are put to
the test in individual position groups.
The MCMS Bulldogs are coming off
back-to-back league championships,
having gone undefeated this past year.
The Dogs will have to replace some
key parts of those teams, including
tight end Isiah Hendricks, receiv
er Daniel Jungberg, linebacker CJ
Banks, and defensive lineman Jayden
Coleman. Luckily they have a num
ber of returning starters. Running
backs LJ Zellner and Mason Stephens
will be back as well as linebackers
Braylen Perry and Kylan Mays. The
team had around 90 kids out for
practice each day which is a little
more than normal. “Turnout is a big
factor in success for the MP program.
We just had 55 players move up to the
9th grade. That’s going to be a huge
boost for our varsity program in the
future.” according to head coach Mi
chael Smallwood. “It’s a lot of kids to
manage but we get plenty of support
from Coach Nelson and the varsity
program”.
Freshman workouts started on
Monday, May 1 with 54 of them
participating. By comparison, the MP
football team had just 19 seniors last
season.
The 54 freshmen will be joined
by the rest of the varsity squad next
Monday, May 8. MP will host its
spring game at 6:30 p.m. on Friday,
May 19 vs Therrell.
The middle school will start its
summer workouts on June 6.
Mary Persons hires two new basketball coaches
Mary Persons has hired new basketball
coaches for both the
boys and the girls.
Lemetrice Ray has
been named the boys
coach. He had been
coaching the boys at
Wayne County High in
Jesup since 2016. He led
the Yellow Jackets to a
16-10 record this year.
Ray compiled a 109-78
record with region titles in 2018 and 2019.
During those two years, he was named the
Region 2-5A Coach of the Year. He also led
his teams to six berths in the GHSA state
tournament. The Jackets advanced to the
Sweet 16 in three of
those years. The 2018
team set a school record
of most wins in a season
with 20.
In making the an
nouncement, Ray said,
“I’m not sure it’s possi
ble to fully express the
gratitude that I have
to the Wayne County
school system for taking a chance without
hesitation to hire a first-year coach in 2016.
I want to give all praise to God for allowing
me to lead young men through these years
at the helm. The last eight years have been
amazing from the classroom to the court.”
Wayne County athletic director Justin
McDonald spoke highly of Ray.
“Can’t say enough about what Lemetrice
has meant to Wayne County basketball and
athletics,” said coach Justin McDonald. “He
has done a tremendous job of taking our
basketball program to be state contend
ers each year. The culture of the program
speaks for the type of person Coach Ray
is, and how he went about his day-to-day
operations within our school and athletic
program. Our basketball program is better
because of Coach Ray, and we wish him
nothing but the best moving forward.”
He replaces Jason Morrow, the MP foot
ball offensive coordinator who filled in for
one year after long-time coach Greg Nix
retired.
Meanwhile, Tray Tucker was named the
new MP girls coach. He comes to Mary Per
sons from Lanier County in South Georgia.
Tucker replaces Lamon McElhaney, who
led the MP girls to their first region title in a
decade this year with a 25-5 record. Lanier
County was 1 -23 this past season but was
13-8 in 2020-21.
Neither Mary Persons athletic director
Robert Lindsey nor Ray or Tucker returned
messages for comment.
TUCKER
Former Mary Persons soccer coach Dallas Hall returning in August
Former Mary Persons soccer coach
Dallas Hall is returning in August
after one year at Johns Creek High
School in Fulton County.
“Were looking forward to being
back,” Hall told the Reporter. “We are
not a fan of up here.”
Hall said he doesn’t know which
coaching position he will be taking,
but he will definitely be working in
Monroe County schools.
Hall was just 25 years old when he
came to MP in 2016 as the girls head
coach. He led the Lady Dogs to the
Sweet 16 of the playoffs all six years,
and to the Elite 8 in 2021. His girls
record is 76-33.
Hall told the Reporter last spring
that telling the MP girls team good
bye was one of the hardest things he’s
ever done.
“We’ve been a family since my
first year and I’ve been blessed with
amazing girls on and off the field,”
said Hall.
Hall was originally going to be the
head boys soccer coach at Flowery
Branch, a Class AAAA school in
Hall County. But then he decided
to be the girls coach at Johns Creek.
They went 5-9-1 this year.
His wife Casey Hall helped coach
last year when Hall took over coach
ing both the girls and the boys. But
she will not be teaching next year
while she has their first child.
Former MP player Jacob Haygood
coached the girls this year while
former MP player Kenny Miller
coached the boys. Assistant super
intendent Jim Finch said it may not
have been determined yet who will
coach what.