Living in Mexico gives you the chance to enjoy amazing nature and clouds of butterflies. The Monarch butterfly biosphere reserve biosphere lies within rugged forested mountains about 62 miles or 100 km northwest of Mexico City.

Late autumn millions of butterflies from wide areas of North America return to the site and cluster in areas of the reserve turning trees orange and literally bending their branches under their collective weight a true natural phenomenon. When spring time comes these butterflies begin an 8 month migration that taking them all the way to Eastern Canada and back, during which time four successive generations are born and die. How they find their way back to their overwintering site remains a mystery.

Biologists living in Mexico in the park and workers are racing against the clock to fell as many as 9,000 fir trees infected with a deadly bark beetle that burrow into the trees of and live off the nutrients until they turn orange and die.

The parks workers are have to fell the trees before the beautiful orange and black monarch butterflies start arriving in the next couple of weeks carpeting the trees and bunching together on branches to spend the winter months.

Environmentalists say the tall firs that make up the forest canopy are essential to shelter the butterflies on their annual migration, living in Mexico, the United States and Canada. The trees provide protection from cold night air and freezing rains - both elements can kill the monarchs at the high-altitude reserve.

The deadly, threatening beetles have been present for years in the monarch reserve, in the driest months of early spring they normally start attacking a few trees but by May and into the summer months the activity ceases as the heavy rainy season starts.

This year was an exception as the park has had so little rainfall even through July leading the trees to weaken, this was a perfect environment for the burrowing beetles, the infestation was spurred on as the beetles thrive in warm weather. The best way to treat this beetle is to spray an insecticide called Carbaryl to eradicate the problem beetles; however this will kill any insect, including the butterflies. So workers living in Mexico at the reserve are fighting the plague on a tree by tree case.

This seems a cruel twist of nature as the park has been trying to stamp out illegal tree felling in the area in the effort to protect the migrating monarch butterflies, authorities were curbing against illegal logging, even using armed police since 2006 to patrol for combat logging gangs and aid mountain villages that are dotted around the reserves.

Forestry expert and reserve director, Rosendo Caro, said, "The forest is not going to disappear, but the conditions that make up the right environment for the wintering phenomenon could."

It is unsure if the butterflies would find another winter ground, although he does believe the problem has been identified and rectified in time this year. He went on to say, "It is obvious that in the medium and long term, if we do not act to adapt to the changes, then there could be a serious risk to the butterflies' migration".

The infestation so far has affected 100 of the 13,550 hectares in the reserve's core mountaintop wintering grounds. The UN Heritage site attracts many thousands of tourists, as well as favored school projects in tracking the migrating butterflies.

These deadly beetles leave a path of devastation when living in Mexico, and leaving millions of acres of dead trees in their wake from Colorado to the Yukon; dead trees increase the risk of forest fires leading to more environmental problems.

Although environmentalists are worried that the action of tree felling is going to lead to more holes appearing in the canopy the park is working extremely closely with environmental authorities by removing the bark, burying it under soil, and then taking away the wood to prevent the beetles from spreading.

Felipe Martinez, a biologist working on the anti-beetle effort, said, "not a single piece of wood will be moved out of the reserve unless environmental authorities authorize it." Once the butterflies return to the park all work will stop, you too could visit the park and experience the overwhelming natural beauty of these magnificent creatures while living in Mexico.