The Butterfly Apocalypse

[ysabetwordsmith]

Study raises the possibility of a country without butterflies

A sweeping study for the first time tallies butterfly data from more than 76,000 surveys across the continental United States. The results: Butterflies -- all of them -- are disappearing.

Butterflies are disappearing in the United States. All kinds of them. With a speed scientists call alarming, and they are sounding an alarm.

A sweeping new study published in Science for the first time tallies butterfly data from more than 76,000 surveys across the continental United States. The results: between 2000 and 2020, total butterfly abundance fell by 22% across the 554 species counted. That means that for every five individual butterflies within the contiguous U.S. in the year 2000, there were only four in 2020.


ALL OF THEM. Not just monarchs, not just a few endangered species, but ALL THE BUTTERFLIES ARE DYING. When your small generalists are dying out, the mass extinction alarm is going AAAOOOGAH! AAAOOOGAH!

On the bright side, because butterflies are everywhere, this problem is readily in reach of everyone to address.


How You Can Help

Learn what native plants support pollinators in your locale.

Avoid using pesticides in your lawn and gardens.

Check your local nursery for pollinator-safe plants free of pesticides. If there are none, nag them. If there are neonicotinoids, nag them. You can be a complete pain in the ass to save the butterflies, because they are dying due to humans murdering them.

Do you have a big yard? Plant an oak tree. They support 950+ species of butterfly and moth caterpillars. Here are some different species to consider based on your locale. Thus they also support birds and other wildlife that need caterpillars to survive.

Here are more keystone plants that support the most butterflies, divided into native trees, flowering trees, evergreen trees, vines, shrubs, evergreen shrubs, grasses, flowers for sunny sites, groundcovers for sunny sites, groundcovers for shady sites, flowers for shady sites, ferns, and aquatics. Something for everyone!

Do you have a small to medium yard? Plant a butterfly or pollinator patch.

* Monarch Butterfly Wildflower Seed Mix -- American Meadows
This is my favorite, with four milkweeds, big zinnias, and many other flowers.

* Shop Regional Pollinator Wildflower Seed Mixes -- American Meadows
Find one tailored to your locale.

* Regional Wildflower Mixes -- Created by Nature
Another good source of regional mixes.

* Pollinator Conservation Seed Mixes -- Xerxes Society
Regional and thematic mixes.

* Birds and Butterflies Seed Mixes -- OPN Seed
Multiple options for different needs.

* Butterfly Host Seeds -- Joyful Butterfly

* Butterfly Host Plants -- Joyful Butterfly
Live plants with listing of species they host.

* Eastern Monarch Refuge Plant Collection -- American Meadows
Host plants and favorite nectaries.

* Butterfly and Bee-Friendly Collection for the West -- High Country Gardens
Host plants and favorite nectaries, choose 5 or 15 plants.

* Native Plant Finder by Zip Code -- Garden for Wildlife
Get recommendations for your immediate area.

Notice that nobody seems to sell a mix of larval host seeds. The closest is a monarch mix that contains milkweeds. So make a big batch, then package them to give away for Earth Day or at your local seed swap! Collect at least a couple milkweeds for monarchs; dill, fennel, and/or Queen Anne's lace for swallowtails; at least a couple each of goldenrods and asters, both keystone hosts of many species; and some hosts with pretty flowers like false indigo, Joe Pye weed, black-eyed Susans, sunflowers, and wild senna.

No yard? No problem! Buy a native wildflower seed mix (see above), make some seed bombs, and throw them in abandoned lots or any other ignored area.

You can also donate to any of the major wildlife organizations seeking to preserve large areas of land for wildlife. Or look for a local one, like Grand Prairie Friends in central Illinois.

Make a watering station for butterflies, bees, and other insects. This is a lifesaver in hot dry summers. Male butterflies also appreciate a puddler. Add a little mineral salt or sea salt for better nutrients.

Comments

[siliconshaman]

This is what ecosystem collapse looks like. Whilst small individual efforts are better than nothing, and will allow for a small reserve that could in theory repopulate given the right conditions... you're trying to stop an avalanche with an umbrella.

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> This is what ecosystem collapse looks like. <<

That's true.

>> Whilst small individual efforts are better than nothing, and will allow for a small reserve that could in theory repopulate given the right conditions... you're trying to stop an avalanche with an umbrella.<<

No, I'm trying to stop it with a hooknet the size of a continent. Think incrementally...

* These are actions that anyone and everyone can do some of, without necessarily needing anyone else's permission. This lets concerned citizens do an end-run around a torpid or actively hostile government.

* And what if everyone did that? The whole relationship with the environment would change for the better.

* A person who begins by caring for butterflies will quite likely go on to care for many other things, and expand their environmental efforts over time.

* I did list the big conservation groups in case someone lacks a yard and/or prefers large-scale efforts.

* The environment is designed for refugia as a safety catch, and thus many species are equipped to take advantage of that. There are some great studies on how this works in certain habitats or situations. For instance, small burrowing animals are among the first to recover after a wildfire, and large animals seek shelter in water. Glacial extension maps will show you how equatorward areas functioned as refugia then.

This situation looks bad, because it is bad. But it's not hopeless, because life finds a way. I like to watch for actionable things that people can do to make a difference.

The Horror.

[goatgodschild]

First the Barrier Reef, now this...it doesn't seem to matter whether I walk or bike or drive, it's all going down. I know that environmental despair is a white bourgeois emotion, but I find my mind fleeing to childhood structures of detachment.

Re: The Horror.

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> First the Barrier Reef, now this...it doesn't seem to matter whether I walk or bike or drive, it's all going down.<<

Down as a direction, yes: one air, one water, one Earth. But down as collapse, not necessarily. There are still some healthy ecosystems and even some that are improving. Locally we've built up quite a large reserve -- the biggest patch is over 1000 acres, and I suspect that's part of why we're seeing bald eagles here again. We made that, not the land itself, but the protection of it and the restored prairie on the flat parts (much is upland forest / riverbottom). Our choices make a difference.

>> I know that environmental despair is a white bourgeois emotion, but I find my mind fleeing to childhood structures of detachment.<<

No it's not. It's a human emotion. People just experience it in different ways. Poor brown people see their crops fail, livestock die, and may have to flee for their lives in a world that offers no protection for climate refugees. >_< This is a case where people should be upset. If you find it paralyzing, you can work on self-care and emotional skils, and when you get a better handle on yourself, then pick an outdoor project and start making a difference.

Re: The Horror.

[priscilla_king]

Environmental despair looks like the world. I used to have a pen friend in Zambia who belonged to a sort of religious community who lived in their traditional rural way; he was the writer for the whole village and their church and school, but I haven't heard from him lately and have heard bad things about villages like his being broken up by the greedheads. I currently have an e-friend in India who's always on about "climate change" because, this week, the temperature where she lives hit 34C (while where I live it was 34F). They feel it in a different way, but if anything more intensely than the people who, if one place becomes unlivable, can always move to some other beautiful scenic rural place.

Re: The Horror.

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> Environmental despair looks like the world.<<

True. Different miseries, but the same root source. :(

>> I used to have a pen friend in Zambia who belonged to a sort of religious community who lived in their traditional rural way; he was the writer for the whole village and their church and school, but I haven't heard from him lately and have heard bad things about villages like his being broken up by the greedheads. <<

Alas!

Other places in Africa are disappearing under floodwaters or turning into desert. It's fucked up.

>> I currently have an e-friend in India who's always on about "climate change" because, this week, the temperature where she lives hit 34C (while where I live it was 34F). <<

Yeah, it's unseasonably hot here. Yesterday was 77F, today was 72F.

India does have one really useful technology that will keep working even without modern bells and whistles: stepwells. They are super useful for capturing large influxes of water and storing it for later dry spells. As that weather pattern is spreading due to climate change, they will become useful in more places.

>> They feel it in a different way, but if anything more intensely than the people who, if one place becomes unlivable, can always move to some other beautiful scenic rural place.<<

True.

This is scary and sad.

[wyld_dandelyon]

And I was noticing butterfly decline long before 2000.

[priscilla_king]

In the Blue Ridge Mountains it's hard to separate unintended lepidopteran population decline (caused by damage to the environment) from the intended decline (caused by all-out germ war on spongey moths). I write about them because it's a niche and of course the butterflies are pretty pollinators. Some readers think the caterpillars are cute and say they want to be crawled on. I try to write as if I could relate to this feeling. In real life I dislike caterpillars, the witless way they crawl up onto you to get a look at you. I never would have thought I'd miss them but I do. Except for the Hemileucas.

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> In the Blue Ridge Mountains it's hard to separate unintended lepidopteran population decline (caused by damage to the environment) from the intended decline (caused by all-out germ war on spongey moths). <<

Yikes.

>>I write about them because it's a niche and of course the butterflies are pretty pollinators.<<

Sure they're pretty, but they're also crucial to the food web. First, they are pollinators, and if they disappear then many flowering plants will struggle to reproduce. Especially since we're also hemorrhaging bees. Second, almost all terrestrial birds raise their chicks on caterpillars, that is, the larvae of butterflies and moths. We're already down about a third of birds, and in some categories more -- it's half of grassland species. But if we lose the lepidopterans, then the avian population will really crash. O_O