FORESTS FOR MONARCHS, LA CRUZ HABITAT PROTECTION PROJECT

In 2008 LCHPP, Inc. in partnership with LCHPP - Mexico initiated a program to restore forest to the mountain slopes that drain into Lake Patzcuaro and nearby Lake Zirahuen. In 2010 the project distributed 125,000 trees to communities and small land owners around these two lakes. 

Lake Patzcuaro: 
It is one of the most important lakes in México for its role in the culture, ecology and economy of the region, yet experts call Lake Pátzcuaro a dying lake.  Once believed to be the gateway to heaven by pre-Hispanic P'urhépecha, the lake has been poisoned by pollution and is shrinking from siltation by topsoil that washes down from small family agricultural plots on the surrounding mountainsides.  Large scale erosion from the fields on its watershed have filled the western side of the shallow lake, making a peninsula of the island of Jarácuaro.   Agricultural pollutants add to the effluents of numerous communities along the shore.  Efforts to restore the lake can never be successful until cleared mountainsides are returned to forest, to the benefit of the environment and the land owners as well. 

Lake Zirahuen:
Smaller, but deeper than Lake Pátzcuaro, Lake Zirahuén is also being negatively impacted by pollutants and siltation.  Rapid development of its watershed demands attention to reforestation of eroded adjacent mountainsides. 

Recent conversion of native forest and agricultural fields around both lakes to avocado orchards can only exacerbate the already critical state of Lake Patzcuaro and speed up the degradation of Lake Zirahuen.  Establishment of new patches of forest among the new orchards can slow the runoff of silt and chemicals into the lakes.

Each year, LCHPP - Mexico, with the support of LCHPP, Inc,. makes presentations to Elementary schools in the areas where trees are distributed.  These lessons teach children the value of the forest and  forest ecology.  The day long program ends with the children planting trees on school property or other public lands.  The objective is to teach future generations to be good stewards of the forests and to give them experiences that will help them make good choices regarding the forest lands when they take their place as tomorrow's community leaders.

LCHPP, Inc. presents educational displays, presentations and talks aimed at educating the  public about the monarch butterflies and how deforestation of mountainsides around their winter roosts threatens the unique monarch migration.