LEARNING BALANCE FROM BUTTERFLIES : NOT ONLY DOES THEIR TRANSFORMATION FROM CATERPILLARS TEACH US ABOUT THE.

Byline: Claire Merriam Hoffman

IN January, Mother Nature made my back yard a butterfly nursery. As the entire family worked in the yard cutting back last year's growth, we noticed little caterpillars crawling on the Asclepias tuberosa - a k a butterfly weed.

These were not the fat green worms that you squish gleefully under you heels to protect your tomatoes, but the black, yellow and orange-striped prince and princesses of the monarch butterfly.

cycles of life, but protecting their habitat can provide a lesson in cooperation.

We had already trimmed a branch with a little prince on it, so we brought it inside. We made a terrarium out of a see-through plastic container and a nylon stocking so our 5-year-old son could watch it grow and change.

After a few days in the warm house, the pudgy caterpillar stopped eating and attached itself to a branch upside down. The next morning, it spun like a top, shed its striped skin and became a green chrysalis complete with royal crown.

We were so excited by our success, that we gave several caterpillars to our son's preschool class as a science project. Soon the other preschool teachers wanted caterpillars too, and by mid-February I was carrying handfuls of milkweed up to the school on a daily basis. The children watched in awe as the ``babies'' grew and changed before their eyes.

After a few weeks, they emerged. Beautiful orange, yellow and black butterflies gifted with the ability to fly like angels.

As the first of our adopted butterflies flew off to their new home, an editorial appeared in The New York Times about the endangered monarch butterfly habitat in Mexico.

The eastern monarch butterflies, it turns out, migrate every year to a high altitude fir forest in Mexico to spend the winter. The seamless forest canopy acts like a giant butterfly incubator, shielding the caterpillars from the winter chill.

Unfortunately, harvesting by tree poachers over the years, has made holes in the forest canopy. The holes act like an open door, allowing frost and freezing temperatures inside. There is debate between scientists over how many butterflies died last year. However, few doubt the negative effects that continued poaching will have on the butterfly's habitat in years to come.

While the future of the eastern butterfly's habitat is precarious, so is the future of the poachers. Poor, with little money to feed and clothe their children, local residents cut wood to sell as a source of income. Wood is a lucrative cash crop in lumber-poor Mexico.

Fortunately, damage to the forest is not extensive so far. However, protecting the mountain tops is difficult, especially during the seven months when the butterflies are in the United States.

Without a joint effort by the United States and Mexico that encourages environmental awareness and economic changes - that allows a balance between the needs of man and butterfly - the eastern monarchs face a questionable future.

Does that mean western monarchs are safe? No.

Western habitats also are being destroyed by man. While the future of the Mexican habitat hinges on families' struggle for survival and the butterflies' nursery, California butterfly habitats head for destruction in the face of our desire for oceanside homes.

California's butterflies spend the winter on the coast. In the spring they move into the Sierras or go north to Oregon to breed and feed. In the fall, the great-great grandchildren of the coastal-born butterflies return to the ocean for the winter months.

The loss of habitat has been gradual. The worst hit areas are along the coast where ocean-front properties are being developed. Many roosting trees are being destroyed and the land re-landscaped with ornamental plants that are not part of an ecosystem hospitable to butterflies.

California cities have some laws to protect the habitats. Unfortunately for the butterflies, enforcement of these laws depends on the environmental leanings of the current city council members and that changes from time to time.

Though butterflies may lose in the fight between habitat and starvation, a landscaped beach house is not a necessity for human survival. A balance can exist between man and nature, but only if man is willing to make compromises. The building and landscaping of our homes must take into account the effect we have on the homes of other creatures.

If we want our great-grandchildren to experience the wonder of butterflies, California environmental laws must be strengthened and enforced. Now and in the future. The United States must also work with its neighbors to ensure that Earth's creatures, which do not understand international borders, do not die from their ignorance.

We could not explain to the preschoolers, the complex mix of poverty, politics and greed that that affect the future of our butterfly friends. So instead, what had started out as a backyard preschool science project, became a lesson in man's responsibility to his fellow earthlings.

The children learned that, as earthlings, mother nature requires us to care for our planet and that she sometimes obligates us to make difficult compromises - that simple acts like cutting down a few trees or clearing land for homes, without regard for the creatures that also live there, can have a global effect.

Asclepias tuberosas (or butterfly weeds), will be available at local nurseries in the next few weeks.

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PHOTO Monarch butterflies are threatened by a loss of their winter b reeding habitats.