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Wild Exmoor ponies graze on a meadow in the Czech Republic. rapier / iStock / Getty Images Plus
By Nanticha Ocharoenchai
In the Czech Republic, horses have become the knights in shining armor. A study published in the Journal for Nature Conservation suggests that returning feral horses to grasslands in Podyjí National Park could help boost the numbers of several threatened butterfly species.
<p>In 2017, <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wildlife" target="_self">wildlife</a> organizations laid out their plan to introduce Exmoor ponies (<em>Equus ferus caballus</em>) to the dry, temperate grasslands of Podyjí along the Czech border with Austria. They aimed to "rewild" the region and restore natural ecosystems by allowing the land and its native species to develop free from human influence.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMjA4NzU0Mi9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxOTc3MTQxM30.HO9KnZk3lpI3K_9Hz7jEBn4HyF1v8IoQ_ewn69659jg/img.jpg?width=980" id="1f3b8" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="23ed9ae89e1048634aed33aef898db67" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
<p>At the same time, a team of researchers led by Martin Konvička, a researcher at the University of South Bohemia in the Czech Republic, began monitoring butterfly species in the reintroduction sites to predict how they would respond to this "refaunation," as scientists call the reintroduction of animals. Their results showed that the horses' grazing would likely improve conditions for many of the butterfly species that live in the area.</p><p>It turns out that horses encourage habitats that many butterflies flock to. By trampling and feeding on tall shrubs, young twigs and fruits, horses keep the grasslands short, which some butterfly species prefer. They also don't disturb the land as much as mowing or more intensive livestock grazing would.</p><p>Konvička and his team studied the population size, movements and larvae of five species of checkerspot butterflies, including four that are listed as <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/endangered-species">endangered</a> or critically endangered nationally. For more than two months, the researchers scoured the park's fields to find as many butterflies as possible. They marked them with unique codes using felt-tip pens and took note of their species, sex and wing wear on a scale of "fresh" to "heavily worn." Then they released them, only to repeat the procedure the next day.</p><p>To study checkerspots, Konvička said, "you need a group of dedicated people at the spot, ready to work every day with no days off for most of the summer, when most humans prefer to be at a beach."</p><p>The researchers' analysis allowed them to predict how the butterflies might respond to the reintroduction. The results showed that each species tends to specialize in different habitats. Some prefer short grass and woodland edges, and others like exposed rocks and ditches.</p><p>"The ongoing insect/pollinator crisis is at least partly due to homogenization of land use in agriculture, forestry, et cetera," Konvička said in an email. In other words, these human impacts are making landscapes more uniform with less variety, reducing the chances that they'll provide the right habitat for multiple species of butterflies.</p><p>That means "everything which brings back a semblance to pre-industrial/prehistoric conditions will help," Konvička added.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMjA4NzYxOS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTU4NjczNjg1MX0.4b0XP7KcAepHMtU2pv1w8CCjz024yGs0QSctbb7QIGg/img.jpg?width=980" id="a804c" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="85bb66c7d9665aac053d7f878f670fec" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
<p>One of the organizations involved in this project, the nature <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/conservation">conservation</a> NGO European Wildlife, decided to replicate their refaunation efforts after the success of reintroducing Exmoor ponies to a former military base in Milovice, also in the Czech Republic. That project demonstrated how butterflies benefited from the presence of Exmoor ponies, a breed native to the British Isles. They're also one of the oldest and most primitive horse breeds in Europe and handle cold weather well.</p><p>Dalibor Dostal, director of European Wildlife, said part of the challenge was "to give people confidence in natural processes."</p><p>Four of the studied butterfly species prefer habitats that horses help create and maintain. But the study also shows that the rarest of the five species, the Assmann's fritillary (<em>Melitaea britomartis</em>), will likely be threatened by the reintroduction due to the decrease of tall vegetation that it prefers.</p><p>The study site, which is also a former military base, was once home to other species like the hermit butterfly (<em>Chazara briseis</em>). The concrete military structures and ecological changes left behind from World War II drove out some species, but they created ideal living conditions for the Assmann's fritillary. The reintroduction of the horses will likely transform the landscape again.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMjA4NzYzNy9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0ODk3ODgyMn0.zZ3q6Ho1usOmMynw4-r0pXzQ6pLPIgp96ODCUxjzyFo/img.jpg?width=980" id="1e593" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="8cb18a1ae1e8eee0623f04adae91c9e0" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
<p>Konvička said that studies like this one could help predict those impacts before they occur.</p><p>"Detailed knowledge of [the ecology] of focal insects may point to rewilding-associated risks," he said.</p><p>He recommended the regulation of horse population sizes, as well as incrementally enlarging the project sites to avoid the risk of overgrazing, which could clip down the vegetation to a uniform length that's not ideal for many butterflies.</p><p>"I think the introduction of feral horses in such dry grasslands is an excellent idea," said Roel van Klink, a researcher at the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research at the University of Leipzig, who was not involved in the study.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMjA4NzY0Ny9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwMjQzNTU1MH0.1NBVPGDt7sjrneVrL27VybsgM0vVc2H_XmvIboTcEOU/img.jpg?width=980" id="62daf" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="448796c0cebb049b7c8b55ea6841946f" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
<p>"At this moment many such grasslands face abandonment, because appropriate management with livestock is very expensive," van Klink said in an email. "We know that if no management would take place at all, such grasslands would turn into … cold, dark forests with not much undergrowth. This would certainly lead to the extinction of all five butterfly species from the site."</p><p>Konvička said he believes many projects neglect the role of missing "ecological engineers" — sometimes called "ecosystem" engineers — that is, species that serve significant functions through the alteration, maintenance or destruction of habitats. As with the Exmoor ponies in this case, they may not be the original inhabitants, but the aim of rewilding is to get the ecosystem functioning again.</p><p>"At the scale of national parks, restoring all the missing ecosystem components is the only way in the long term," he said.</p>
<p><em>Nanticha Ocharoenchai is a communications graduate and environmental writer from Thailand, where she initiated the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/climatestrikethailand/" target="_blank">climate strike movement</a>.</em><br/></p><p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/11/feral-horses-gallop-to-the-rescue-of-butterflies-in-distress/" target="_blank">Mongabay</a>.</em></p>Related Articles Around the Web
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National Butterfly Center: Trump’s Border Wall Threatens Pollinators and Other Wildlife
17 June 2019
Animals
A butterfly in the National Butterfly Center, a private sanctuary for butterflies in southern Texas, on Jan. 22. Maren Hennemuth / picture alliance / Getty Images
While Trump's border wall has yet to be completed, the threat it poses to pollinators is already felt, according to the National Butterfly Center in Mission, Texas, as reported by Transmission & Distribution World.
<p>Earlier this year, <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/no-border-wall-butterfly-center-2628185754.html" target="_self">EcoWatch</a> reported that construction equipment showed up around the center, ready to bulldoze more than 70 percent of the butterfly sanctuary's 100 acres, which more than 200 species of butterflies call home.</p>
<p>The National Butterfly Center is not only home to butterflies but also to various species of bees, including some only found around the Rio Grande in southern Texas and northern Mexico. A team of wildlife photographers and scientists <a href="https://www.wildbeestexas.com/" target="_blank">documented the wild bees</a> found in the butterfly center that will be displaced if the border wall is constructed. They photographed some species that have never been seen before in the U.S.</p><p>"Many of these bees range no more than a few hundred yards from their nests in a lifetime, and so the National Butterfly Center is the only home they've ever known," said Paula Sharp, a lead photographer on the project, to the <a href="https://therevelator.org/trump-border-wall-butterflies-bees/" target="_blank">Revelator</a>. She noted that the butterfly center is safe zone for pollinators since it is ecologically pristine — that is, it is free from pesticides, erosion, invasive species and habitat destruction, which is found in nearby areas of the Lower Rio Grande Valley.</p><p>"Bees are central to every habitat because they are the pollinators that sustain the plants that feed birds, mammals and other creatures," Sharp said, according to the Revelator. "If you destroy the bees, you do irreparable harm to the environment."</p><p>EcoWatch reported earlier this year that "the butterfly center's fate was sealed in December when the Supreme Court declined to hear a case brought by the <a href="https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/" target="_blank">Center for Biological Diversity</a>, the <a href="https://aldf.org/" target="_blank">Animal Legal Defense Fund</a> and <a href="https://defenders.org/" target="_blank">Defenders of Wildlife</a> to <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/border-wall-mexico-2540848560.html" target="_self">appeal a federal court</a> decision that the Trump administration can waive 28 environmental laws including the Endangered Species Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, in order to build 33 more miles of wall, including the section that runs through the refuge."</p>
<p>If Trump's border wall goes up, "vegetation would be eliminated, leading to greater radiant heat temperatures, erosion, lack of water filtration, diminished air filtration" and other serious environmental issues, said Marianna Treviño-Wright, executive director of the National Butterfly Center, as reported by <a href="https://www.tdworld.com/vegetation-management/national-butterfly-center-warns-effect-border-wall-pollinators" target="_blank">Transmission & Distribution World</a>.</p><p>The threats to the environment extend beyond just the National Butterfly Center and continue to the <a href="https://www.fws.gov/refuge/lower_rio_grande_valley/" target="_blank">Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge</a>, 98,000 acres of federally protected land. The 300-mile wildlife corridor in South Texas is home to 17 threatened or endangered species, more than 530 species of birds, 330 butterfly species and 1,200 types of plants. It's one of the most biodiverse places in North America, according to <a href="https://e360.yale.edu/features/as-work-begins-on-trumps-border-wall-a-key-wildlife-refuge-is-at-risk" target="_blank">Yale Environment 360</a>.</p><p>"Whatever they build, it's going to be destructive to natural habitat," said Bob Dreher, an attorney who heads <a href="https://defenders.org/" target="_blank">Defenders of Wildlife</a> conservation programs, as <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2019/01/how-trump-us-mexico-border-wall-could-impact-environment-wildlife-water/" target="_blank">National Geographic</a> reported. "It's about the physical reality of what a permanent barrier will do in one of the most sensitive landscapes in North America."</p>
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‘Absolutely Magical’: Southern California Sees Largest Painted Lady Migration Since 2005
13 March 2019
Popular
Painted Ladies feeding near Thousand Palms, California as part of a massive migration north. David McNew / Getty Images
Southern California is in the midst of a "magical" surprise: unusually large swarms of Painted Lady butterflies filling the skies from San Diego to Pasadena.
"Everyone was posting about the butterflies all over Instagram," a woman told CBS Los Angeles Tuesday. "I saw so many, it was kinda like a swarm of them. It was pretty insane."
<p>The butterflies are passing through as part of their yearly migration from the deserts of Southeast California to the Pacific Northwest, but this year they are doing so in numbers not seen since 2005, when they totaled around one billion.</p><p>"When they are scarce nobody notices them," University of California (UC) Davis ecologist Art Shapiro told <a href="https://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-butterflies-desert-explosion-20190312-story.html" target="_blank">The Los Angeles Times</a>. "When they are abundant, everyone notices."</p>
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<p>For Shapiro, who has been monitoring California's butterflies for almost 50 years, it's a welcome change. He only counted 25,200 Painted Ladies in 2018, down from 315,997 the year before, an alarming trend in a state that is seeing butterfly populations decline across the board.<br></p><p>But this year, that trend has reversed and then some.</p><p>"They were flying parallel to me, just bobbing along as I rode past the date palms," The Living Desert Zoo and Gardens Conservation Director James Danoff-Burg told The Los Angeles Times. "It was absolutely magical. I felt like a Disney princess."</p><p>The reason for the population's explosion has been California's unusually wet winter.</p><p>"The average annual rainfall in the Coachella Valley is 3 inches," Danoff-Burg said. "This year, we had 3½ inches on Valentine's Day alone."</p><p>The rain led to a desert wildflower bloom, giving the caterpillars more to eat and a greater chance of surviving. Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, for example, has reported excellent wildflower viewing this year, <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/southern-california-skies-fill-butterflies-thanks-painted-lady-migration-n982551" target="_blank">NBC News reported</a>.</p>
<div class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="081fc03efedf2db4478642b6d3bfdd04"><div class="fb-video" data-href="https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=560846597747504" data-allowfullscreen="true"></div></div>
<p>However, the Painted Lady rebound doesn't necessarily mean that other California butterflies will recover.<br></p><p>"They are a boom-bust species," University of Nevada, Reno ecologist Matt Forister told The Los Angeles Times. "In some ways, they are the most successful butterflies on the planet."</p><p>California's overall butterfly population reached historic lows in 2018. A <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/monarch-butterflies" target="_self">monarch butterfly</a> count found numbers of the iconic species were down 85 percent compared to the year before, and Forister said at least 20 other species were declining even faster than the monarch.</p><p>Scientists think land use and farming changes that lead to less open space and fewer butterfly-friendly plants, an increased use of <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/pesticides" target="_self">pesticides</a> and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-change" target="_self">climate change</a> could all be contributing to a decrease in butterflies.</p><p>"There is not one cause for the butterfly decline — that's not how population extinction happens," Forister said. "It's more likely a suite of factors that are pushing on all these species."</p><p>Painted Ladies, though, are tough.</p><p>"They can pace cars at 25 miles per hour," Shapiro told NBC News.</p>
<iframe width="100%" height="150" scrolling="no" id="twitter-embed-1105518409280708608" src="/res/community/twitter_embed/?iframe_id=twitter-embed-1105518409280708608&created_ts=1552411102.0&screen_name=PeterMacNicol1&text=1%29+Walking+the+dogs+this+a.m.+I+found+myself+in+the+midst+of+the+Butterfly+migration.+My+first+experience+with+this%E2%80%A6+https%3A%2F%2Ft.co%2FIbvpJKBKix&id=1105518409280708608&name=Peter+MacNicol" frameborder="0" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="67LZDO1568219056"></iframe><p>The butterflies travel north for as long as their fat reserves will take them, then pause to breed. The next generation continues the trip. The butterflies then migrate back south in the winter.</p>
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An excavator shows up at the National Butterfly Center in Mission, Texas. National Butterfly Center / Facebook
Construction equipment has arrived to build a border wall through the National Butterfly Center in Mission, Texas, a protected habitat for more than 200 species of wild butterflies and other unique wildlife.
A planned 5.5 mile section of concrete and steel border wall that is already funded will cut off 70 percent of the 100-acre property. The barrier will be built on top of a levee of the Rio Grande that runs through the sanctuary.
<p>
An excavator and eight law enforcement units arrived around the center on Sunday, the National Butterfly Center wrote in a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/natbutterflies/posts/2319958811371164" target="_blank">Facebook post</a>.
</p><p>
"Effective Monday morning, it is all government land," a Mission police department officer said, according to the post.
</p><p>Bulldozing for the wall, which is expected to be about three stories tall, will commence any day now, the center wrote in another
<a href="https://www.facebook.com/natbutterflies/posts/2322889944411384?__xts__%5B0%5D=68.ARBy6zZb58xzCn-uDj2-gWZru7SG7aP2op2O7GviX--14o934idK-m9mdmBKlOkMcr7RNYk-Fce3I2ul1VP8sobGQwahc2ymCA2iqLSKxK5HYlz5o8c62dQ-pJTq5_pU2YHA3o4VJepsHPfaO9uzCtOEdXscQMPu4TcDbrSFl6V9g-3kkfYVhaLbfssGVC-7AB6-tn54p-H1ls5qORumzrHbsvhqUVX3w8THPSkHmfLuEasxasgdWdnmRnOEqbLJD0DP5D7YuPGKBAmMn3v6I6le7793h8eXVa-UhGEMn71b8fT4yz06rG3qXxVZgQJxPO7rQTnKSKdFEAjkmEEHmj3V6YWGzAHZisZhrIsITGYXkJQkqe2M2UClK8ZsixroXI4R5xKJ1f4NkVqBRPbVwJQPjo_kvTVxSA5ShiUMWCL0vbrQQj90uopZV9yeh3CGxslYPnnJgfW-02YWlWOCvt7kA6rrd_7nQrzfb4tu3c3u1sr7Uc3ZRaqzYiDc2Ctk4yrozV4rHvqA6mJf6Cs7DC0KsPK78MZ1cSE0aYSmPw&__tn__=-R" target="_blank">post</a> on Tuesday.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-youtube">
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<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">National Butterfly Center faces uncertainty as heavy equipment arrives</small>
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzgh-mOlLx4" target="_blank">www.youtube.com</a>
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</p><p>On Monday, as the construction equipment was off-loaded, roughly 35 local tribal members marched to the center in protest of the project, the
<a href="https://www.expressnews.com/news/local/article/First-signs-of-border-wall-construction-spotted-13587300.php" target="_blank">San Antonio Express-News</a> reported.<br></p><p>
Juan Mancias, the tribal chair of Carrizo Comecrudo, told the publication he did not expect construction to begin "this soon."
</p><p>
"You come over here, you see the butterflies here, the animals here, and you also see gravesites that have been here since 1865," Mancias said.
</p><p>
In federal documents seen by the publication, the barrier's construction includes a 150-foot-wide "enforcement zone" that could negatively impact gravesites of Mancias' ancestors buried at a nearby cemetery.
</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed">
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</p><p>
The butterfly center's fate was sealed in December when the Supreme Court declined to hear a case brought by the
<a href="https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/" target="_blank">Center for Biological Diversity</a>, the <a href="https://aldf.org/" target="_blank">Animal Legal Defense Fund</a> and <a href="https://defenders.org/" target="_blank">Defenders of Wildlife</a> to <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/border-wall-mexico-2540848560.html" target="_self">appeal a federal court</a> decision that the Trump administration can waive 28 environmental laws including the Endangered Species Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, in order to build 33 more miles of wall, including the section that runs through the refuge. </p><p>The project was funded in the 2018 Omnibus spending bill in March.</p><p>
In a recent Facebook Live with EcoWatch, Marianna Wright, executive director of the National Butterfly Center said morale on the ground was "pretty bad."
</p><p>
<span></span>"The potential impacts are devastating," Wright continued. "Especially for animals like the ocelot where we have fewer than 80 known in existence."
</p><p>
If you'd like to help, the center has started a
<a href="https://www.gofundme.com/protect-the-national-butterfly-center" target="_blank">Go Fund Me</a> to protect <span></span>the site.
</p><div class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="71c8d530611eae4e0e706daf1e79e91a"><div class="fb-video" data-href="https://www.facebook.com/EcoWatch/videos/345706262651120/" data-allowfullscreen="true"></div></div>
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What Will It Take to Stop Trump From Bulldozing Most Diverse Butterfly Center for Border Wall Section Already Funded?
21 December 2018
Facebook Videos
Bulldozers are expected to arrive at the National Butterfly Center in February or early March. A planned 5.5 mile section of concrete and steel border wall that is already funded will cut straight through the most diverse butterfly sanctuary in the U.S.
Marianna Wright, executive director of the National Butterfly Center believes most Americans are unaware that 33 new miles were funded in the 2018 Omnibus spending bill in March. The National Butterfly Center is on a segment of those 33 new miles, costing roughly $30 million per mile according to Wright.
<p>
EcoWatch <a href="https://www.facebook.com/EcoWatch/videos/345706262651120/" target="_blank">teamed up</a> with passionate individuals working on the border with the Center for Biological Diversity and the National Butterfly center on Wednesday to educate Facebook Live viewers on what is happening on the grounds. Viewers asked thought-provoking questions and left encouraging comments such as, "Calling my Senators right now."
</p><p>
"Nature knows no borders," said Laiken Jordahl, Center for Biological Diversity borderlands campaigner. "Animals have evolved to migrate freely for millennia and now we are proposing quite literally to slice the continent in two with the border wall. To think that we could do something like that free of consequence is delusional."<br>
</p><p>
Wright states that the morale on the ground right now is "pretty bad." To date, 28 laws have been <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/border-wall-mexico-2540848560.html" target="_blank">waived for border wall construction</a> including the National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act.
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<a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Bqocw_MAUgx/" style=" color:#000; font-family:Arial,sans-serif;
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word-wrap:break-word;" target="_top">National Butterfly Center on Instagram: “Some important information for those concerned with the future border wall.”</a></p>
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"The potential impacts are devastating," said Wright. "Especially for animals like the ocelot where we have fewer than 80 known in existence."<br>
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Not only will migration routes be divided for hundreds of species, including those endangered such as the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/trump-mexico-wall-jaguars-2216942406.html" target="_blank">jaguar</a> and Mexican gray <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/mexico-border-wall-2468270508.html">wolf</a>, but the border wall will divide tribal nations and interfere with the flow of water in certain sections.
</p><p><em><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/trump-border-wall-endangered-species-2410320620.html" target="_blank">[Read to find out 93 endangered species threatened by Trump's wall.]</a></em></p><p>
"Border walls are horrifically damaging for the environment," said Jordahl. "If these plans do move forward they will certainly be met with vociferous opposition," said Jordahl.
</p><p>
As one viewer asked, "Can we stop the construction of what has already been funded?" Jordahl answered with a hopeful response, urging viewers to continue to weigh in to Congress and to show up on the ground and fight when the time comes. He states that we must continue to <a href="https://www.cbp.gov/contact" target="_blank">put pressure on U.S. Customs and Border Protection</a> and make them question the morality of their actions.
</p><p>
"No, we cannot stop this," said Wright in a comment sent to EcoWatch. "Nothing Trumps eminent domain, so they will seize the property."
</p><p>
Whether or not we can stop the already funded destruction of the National Butterfly Center is up in the air and resistance plans are pending. However, Jordahl remains hopeful about maintaining #NoBorderWall advocacy.
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"I do believe that people can change and I do believe that if we make <a href="http://www.nowall.org" target="_blank">this project</a> so toxic and so unpalatable, they might reconsider."
</p><p>
The interview ends on a positive note as Jordahl urges viewers to remember to call their senators, regardless of who they are and to change the narrative whenever speaking about the borders. The borderlands are incredibly biodiverse filled with breathtaking flora and fauna—a true national treasure—and should not be viewed as a dangerous and out of control place.
</p>
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Most Diverse Butterfly Center in the U.S. to be Bulldozed for Trump’s Border Wall
14 December 2018
Animals
Mtwrighter / CC BY-SA 4.0
The National Butterfly Center in Mission, Texas is the most diverse butterfly sanctuary in the U.S. Some 200 species of butterflies find a home there each year, including the Mexican bluewing, the black swallowtail and the increasingly imperiled monarch. And, as soon as February, almost 70 percent of it could be lost to President Donald Trump's border wall, The Guardian reported Thursday.
<div class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="71c8d530611eae4e0e706daf1e79e91a"><div class="fb-video" data-href="https://www.facebook.com/EcoWatch/videos/345706262651120/" data-allowfullscreen="true"></div></div><p>"It's going to cut right through here," Center Director Marianna Wright told The Guardian as she indicated where the wall's construction would cut off the center's access to its own land in the Rio Grande Valley at a point 1.2 miles from the border. Wright said the wall threatened to end the center entirely and harm the butterflies and other species like the Texas tortoise, Texas indigo snake and Texas horned lizard that also find refuge on its land.<br></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed">
<iframe width="100%" height="150" scrolling="no" id="twitter-embed-1073301652139069440" src="/res/community/twitter_embed/?iframe_id=twitter-embed-1073301652139069440&created_ts=1544730029.0&screen_name=DefendersGovRel&text=The+Trump+administration+will+build+border+wall+right+through+the+heart+of+a+butterfly+sanctuary+in+the+lower+Rio+G%E2%80%A6+https%3A%2F%2Ft.co%2FVxkX4Vf1km&id=1073301652139069440&name=Defenders+Gov%27t+Rel." frameborder="0" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="GAXG641576662213"></iframe>
</p><p>The center's fate was sealed Dec. 3, when, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-court-border/u-s-top-court-snubs-environmental-challenge-to-trumps-border-wall-idUSKBN1O21QI" target="_blank">Reuters reported</a>, the Supreme Court refused to hear a case brought by the <a href="https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/" target="_blank">Center for Biological Diversity</a>, the <a href="https://aldf.org/" target="_blank">Animal Legal Defense Fund</a> and <a href="https://defenders.org/" target="_blank">Defenders of Wildlife</a> <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/border-wall-mexico-2540848560.html" target="_self">appealing a federal court</a> decision that the Trump administration can waive 28 environmental laws including the Endangered Species Act in order to build 33 more miles of wall.<br></p><p>The wall will be as many as three stories tall and construction in the butterfly refuge could begin as soon as February, <a href="https://www.expressnews.com/news/local/amp/Bulldozers-to-soon-plow-through-National-13447399.php?utm_campaign=twitter-premium&utm_source=CMS%20Sharing%20Button&utm_medium=social&__twitter_impression=true" target="_blank">The San Antonio Express-News reported</a>.</p><p>"Just like farmers get crop yield in acres and inches, we get butterflies based on what we have planted in acres and inches," Wright told The San Antonio Express-News. "So having a wide swath of our property bulldozed is going to negatively impact the volume of the species and diversity of the species."</p><div id="4c7ea" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="TUI0111576662214"><blockquote class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-version="4" style=" background:#FFF; border:0;
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<a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Bqocw_MAUgx/" style=" color:#000; font-family:Arial,sans-serif;
font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none;
word-wrap:break-word;" target="_top">National Butterfly Center on Instagram: “Some important information for those concerned with the future border wall.”</a></p>
</div></blockquote></div><p>The animals that pass through the butterfly center won't be the only living beings impacted by the wall. The Center for Biological Diversity found that the wall threatened a <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/trump-border-wall-endangered-species-2410320620.html" target="_self">total of 93</a> already endangered or threatened species, including ocelots and cactus ferruginous pygmy owls. The wall also makes the border crossing more dangerous for immigrants who will have to travel farther into the desert to bypass it.</p><p>"Border walls are death sentences for wildlife and humans alike," Amanda Munro of the <a href="http://www.wildmesquite.org/" target="_blank">Southwest Environmental Center</a> told The Guardian. "They block wild animals from accessing the food, water and mates they need to survive. They weaken genetic diversity, fragment habitat, and trap animals in deadly floods. At the same time, they drive desperate asylum seekers to risk their lives in the unforgiving desert."</p><p>For now, butterfly lovers have a little over a month to see the center in its full glory.</p><div id="88f4f" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="CF595N1576662214"><blockquote class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-version="4" style=" background:#FFF; border:0;
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<a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Bqocb6ggphw/" style=" color:#000; font-family:Arial,sans-serif;
font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none;
word-wrap:break-word;" target="_top">National Butterfly Center on Instagram: “To promote the growth of wild butterfly populations, NABA encourages gardening and has developed a series of guides for those interested in…”</a></p>
</div></blockquote></div><p>"It's like something from Fantasia," Wright told The Guardian. "When you walk you have to cover your mouth so you don't suck in a butterfly."<br></p>
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The rare white-letter hairstreak butterfly was spotted in Scotland for the first time since 1884. Ian Kirk / Wikipedia
By Lucy Goodchild van Hilten
A towering elm tree stands 30 meters (approximately 98 feet) tall, somewhere near the border between England and Scotland, defying the fate that so many of its cousins met when Dutch elm disease ravaged the species in the 1970s. One of relatively few elm trees left, it is a haven for wildlife. Look closely and you can see the erratic fluttering of a small brown butterfly, with a W-shaped white streak across its wing.
This butterfly is making history: It's crossed the border into Scotland, where it has settled happily in a native wych elm tree and been sighted in the country for the first time in 133 years. The white-letter hairstreak—Satyrium w-album—has been squeezed slowly out of its habitat over the last 40 years, but now it seems to be getting a helping hand from an unexpected source: climate change.
<p>Although numbers were up slightly in 2017, the white-letter hairstreak isn't doing well in the UK—the population has fallen 93 percent in the last 42 years, <a href="https://tinyurl.com/ycod9rbr" target="_blank">according to the United Kingdom Butterfly Monitoring Scheme</a>, with a 59 percent reduction in the last decade alone.</p><p>This is largely due to severe loss of habitat. Caterpillars feed on elm; when Dutch elm disease spread through the elm population in England in the 1970s and '80s, the caterpillars' source of food—the trees and their leaves—disappeared, and the butterfly declined. As a result, the white-letter hairstreak has made it onto various priority lists of species that need to be conserved. Volunteers across the country have been keeping an eye out for it.</p><p><strong>Return to the Highlands</strong></p><p>It was one such volunteer, butterfly recorder Iain Cowe, who made the exciting new discovery in the summer of 2017, in a field near Paxton, Berwickshire, about 100 meters from the English border.</p><p> "It is not every day that something as special as this is found when out and about on a regular butterfly foray," Cowe <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/aug/17/rare-butterfly-white-letter-hairstreak-spotted-in-scotland-for-the-first-time-since-1884?CMP=twt_gu" target="_blank">told The Guardian</a>. "It was a very ragged and worn individual found feeding on ragwort in the grassy edge of an arable field."</p><p>"Iain is indefatigable—he had an eye to look for it, and he came across it by accident," said Paul Kirkland, director of <a href="https://butterfly-conservation.org/in-your-area/scottish-office" target="_blank">Butterfly Conservation</a> in Scotland. "A couple of other volunteers found some eggs in the autumn, and Iain's been back this year and found caterpillars, so we now have the full life cycle recorded in Scotland."</p><p>The white-letter hairstreak's northward journey is thought to be a response to the warming climate. It's one of about 15 different butterflies heading north; other species spotted for the first time in Scotland include the <a href="https://butterfly-conservation.org/50-755/small-skipper.html" target="_blank">small</a> and <a href="https://butterfly-conservation.org/50-1039/essex-skipper.html" target="_blank">Essex skippers</a> and the <a href="https://butterfly-conservation.org/11908-1195/comma.html" target="_blank">comma butterfly</a>, which moved 220 kilometers (approximately 137 miles) <a href="https://www.scotsman.com/news/climate-change-forces-animals-and-plants-to-flee-equator-1-1803290" target="_blank">from central England to Edinburgh in just 20 years</a>.</p><p>"We assume this is related to a warming climate," said Kirkland. "It's hard to prove anything in relation to climate change, but the fact is that, certainly in the UK, Europe and North America, scientists are recording the northward movement of species that were formerly confined to southern areas. We don't know exactly which aspect is important—more sunshine, warmer winters, drier winters—but the core data shows us that many species in the UK are moving northward at different speeds."</p><p>We've seen this evidence for some time: In 2011, a team at the University of York in the UK <a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/08/110818142727.htm" target="_blank">analyzed data</a> from previous studies about animal and plant species. They estimated that, on average, species have moved 12.2 meters (approximately 40 feet) higher in altitude and 17.6 kilometers (approximately 11 miles) northward every decade.</p><p>Chris Thomas, a professor of conservation biology at York, led the project. "These changes are equivalent to animals and plants shifting away from the Equator at around 20 cm per hour, for every hour of the day, for every day of the year," <a href="https://www.york.ac.uk/news-and-events/news/2011/research/wildlife-responds/" target="_blank">he commented</a>. "This has been going on for the last 40 years and is set to continue for at least the rest of this century."</p><p><strong>Climate Change: A Double-Edged Sword</strong></p><p>The newly comfortable climate in Scotland opens up a whole new world for the butterfly: The country is full of healthy wych elm trees, which have evaded Dutch elm disease and are still prevalent there. According to Kirkland, this is good news for the white-letter hairstreak."They've only been spotted just over the border, but we're confident that there's so much elm in that area that they'll spread. The upshot is if the white-letter hairstreak can struggle north into Scotland, it'll be a very happy butterfly," he said.</p><p>Even though climate change now appears to be bringing at least one of the butterflies back, it's still bad news. "Although some of us are seeing a short-term benefit, the overall prognosis is pretty gloomy," said Kirkland. Climate change is threatening many species, but it seems to be giving the white-letter hairstreak a boost.</p><p>Species aren't just moving across the border, they're also moving north within Scotland—there is evidence that the northern species of butterfly are suffering due to climate change. Species like the <a href="https://butterfly-conservation.org/butterflies/orange-tip" target="_blank">orange-tip</a>, <a href="https://butterfly-conservation.org/butterflies/peacock" target="_blank">peacock</a> and <a href="https://butterfly-conservation.org/679-822/ringlet.html" target="_blank">ringlet</a> have moved further and further north, away from the rising warmth and humidity.</p><p>"It's much harder to prove something's disappearing than appearing, but there are some hints that northern species are retreating northward," Kirkland said.</p><p>But there is hope for other species. Those struggling to survive in England because of intensive agriculture and development might now find a suitable climate—and unspoiled land—in Scotland. For Kirkland, there's one species, in particular, that might do well to move.</p><p>"There's a lovely butterfly called the Duke of Burgundy," he said. "In recent years, it's really been in trouble in England, but I think the climate might be suitable in Scotland now, and there's plenty of habitat here. It won't get here on its own—it's a fussy species, even though it breeds on primrose and pansies."</p><p>Kirkland might be "flying a kite" as he puts it, but it's possible that as the climate continues to change, <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/conservation">conservation</a> organizations like his could even have a role in relocating butterflies to give them a helping hand.</p><p><strong>A Boost for Some Means a Bust for Others</strong></p><p>Climate change is also giving some less desirable species a helping hand. In the U.S., the Asian needle ant (<em>Pachycondyla chinensis</em>) is causing mayhem—invading ecosystems, threatening native species and even damaging human health with its potentially deadly sting. In a <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0075438" target="_blank">study in PLOS ONE</a>, researchers from France and Japan modeled the climate in 2020, 2050 and 2080 to work out where the ant could potentially spread to next. Their findings suggest that the ant's habitat could grow by almost 65 percent worldwide.</p><p><a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0075438" target="_blank">They wrote</a>: "Our models suggest that the species currently has a far greater potential distribution than its current exotic range, including large parts of the world landmass, including Northeast America, Southeast Asia and Southeast America. ... The results of our study suggest <em>P. chinensis</em> deserves increased attention, especially in the light of on-going climate change."<br></p><p>There's something strange happening in the water, too. The proliferation of "rock snot"—a kind of <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/algae">algae</a>—in eastern Canada was baffling (and angering) the local fishing community, and many thought it was an invasive species brought in by dirty fishing gear. But a <a href="https://tinyurl.com/ycfu7l6w" target="_blank">2014 study revealed</a> that the algae had actually been there for decades, and was just growing more due to the changing climate.</p><p>The blooms, made up of the diatom <em>Didymosphenia geminata</em>, had been undetectable in the 1970s, but were likely there since the 1800s. "We suspect that climate change is favoring this species in several ways," <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/rock-snot-gets-a-boost-from-climate-change/" target="_blank">said the study's lead author Michelle Lavery</a>, currently a Ph.D. candidate in animal behavior at the University of Guelph. For example, warmer air means less ice and therefore less disruption to the flow of water in the rivers; the algal blooms survive better when the water moves less. "Instead of having to start over every summer, they can build on themselves and get bigger and bigger," she explained to Scientific American.</p><p>It's not just about warmer temperatures; climate change is also altering the ocean's pH balance, impacting different species in different ways. We know more acidic waters are <a href="https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/02/ocean-acidification-causing-coral-reefs-dissolve" target="_blank">bad news for coral</a>, but the pH is having an indirect impact too, by favoring a predator. </p><p>Adult crown-of-thorns starfish (<em>Acanthaster planci</em>) eat coral—an increase in their number means a decrease in coral. Researchers in Australia wanted to know if the pH of the water affected how much of the coral the young of the starfish eat, determining how many of them survive into their coral-feeding adulthood. In a <a href="https://tinyurl.com/yam78m7f" target="_blank">2017 study</a>, the team grew juvenile crown-of-thorns and their food, coralline algae, at three different pH levels, going down to 7.6, the level expected in the next few decades.</p><p>The results showed that the young starfish ate more in water with a lower pH, possibly because the pH altered the chemical composition and therefore the "taste" of the food. <a href="https://tinyurl.com/yam78m7f" target="_blank">They wrote</a>: "These results indicate that near future acidification will increase the success of early juvenile [starfish] and boost recruitment into the coral-eating life stage."</p><p>There's still a lot we don't yet understand about how climate change will impact ecosystems, and indirect effects like these could be surprising. The <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/6xfyp/" target="_blank">emergence of the field of climate change ecology</a> is bringing many of these issues to light, but we must continue to monitor individual species and mitigate climate change in order to protect ecosystems.</p><p>For now, the white-letter hairstreak is enjoying its new home among Scotland's wych elms, as its cousins are being pushed further and further toward the northern Atlantic coast.</p>
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<p><em>Lucy Goodchild van Hilten is a writing fellow for <a href="https://independentmediainstitute.org/earth-food-life/" target="_blank">Earth | Food | Life</a>, a project of the Independent Media Institute.</em><br></p><p><em>Republished with permission from our media associate <a href="https://truthout.org/articles/climate-change-is-threatening-many-species-but-one-is-getting-a-boost/" target="_blank">Truthout</a>.</em></p>
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A Monarch rests at the Cleveland Lakefront Nature Preserve during the Monarch migration on Sept. 11 in Cleveland, Ohio. Irma Omerhodzic
<p>Monarchs pair—bug talk for mating—over the winter in Mexico and California, and in February they begin their 2,500-mile journey north to Canada. It takes up to seven generations to get there, as each generation breeds and dies along the way.</p><p>To help them, you'll have to get passionate about milkweed.</p><p>Milkweed is a perennial wildflower. It's the only plant monarch butterflies lay eggs on, so it's needed along their entire migratory path. Its leaves are the only food source their larvae will eat. Eastern Monarch populations have plummeted 90 percent in just the last two decades because of the loss of milkweed, whose habitat has been converted to farms—herbicide-tolerant corn and soybean fields with heavy pesticide use—and roads and other development. Climate change also threatens their migration patterns.</p><p>When Brad Grimm took his fiancée to the Monarch Trail at Natural Bridges State Park in California on Valentine's Day 2013 to show her the thousands of monarchs he'd seen there 20 years earlier, they counted just five. Western monarchs, which traditionally mobbed that part of California in the winter, have declined to the point that the species will likely go extinct in the next few decades if nothing is done.</p><p>Monarchs are an indicator species telling us something is wrong with our environment. They share their habitat with birds, bats, bees and other pollinators responsible for producing a third of our food supply.</p><p>Back home in Sparks, Nevada, Grimm wanted to help the bugs make a comeback by planting milkweed but couldn't find any at his local nursery. They directed him to a nearby park.</p><p>"There are plants growing in the parks, mostly along rivers and streams, even irrigation ditches," Grimm said. "The next year, ironically, the local nursery had native narrow-leaf milkweed growing by their entrance but didn't seem know about the plant or its value to the monarchs because they cut the plants back in mid-July, when monarchs need milkweed the most."</p><p>Grimm's initial difficulty in finding seeds and plants turned into a passion. He started a seed store, Grow Milkweed Plants. In September, he sold 221 packets. He planted the Biggest Little Butterfly Garden in the World, registered by the nonprofit Monarch Watch as Monarch Waystation 8269. All of his profits go to monarch conservation. He hopes to earn enough to buy land for the monarchs.</p><p>It's not hard to make a huge difference in the life of a monarch. Here are five ways.</p><h4>Grow Milkweed</h4><p>In North America, more than 100 species of milkweed (genus <em>Asclepias</em>) grow, and the first step is finding a kind expert to your area, such as Grow Milkweed Plants or Xerces Society.</p><p>Fall and winter are the perfect time to start milkweed from seeds. In general, milkweed seeds need a 30-day cold period to germinate, so planting them outdoors in the cold weather is ideal. You'll have plants by spring.</p><p>Alternatively, you can germinate them indoors by putting them in the refrigerator between damp paper towels in a plastic bag for three to six weeks. Give them a head start before spring by planting the germinated seeds indoors in small pots, then transplant them outdoors before temperatures reach the mid-80s. Water well until the plants are established.</p><p>You can also buy potted milkweed to transplant.</p><h4>Put Milkweed in Small Spaces ...</h4><p>Small yard? No yard? Place pots of milkweed on your patio or porch where you can delight in watching the caterpillars and butterflies. Monarch butterflies need nectar from a variety of plants, so grow other flowers, too.</p><h4>... And Large Spaces</h4><p>Create Monarch Waystations at residences, businesses, parks, zoos, nature centers and along roadsides or other unused plots of land. Ten milkweed plants, representing at least two varieties, become a monarch hub, with enough milkweed for their ongoing feeding. Now you're rolling, and you're ready to launch a community effort.</p><h4>Don't Use 'Cides</h4><p>Monarchs are insects, and all 'cides—herbicides, fungicides, insecticides—are poisonous, either to insects or the plants they eat. Garden organically to keep pests away without killing beneficial insects. And do what you can to make sure your community doesn't use these chemicals.</p><h4>Get Community Cooperation</h4><p>Lobby your local representatives to support the Monarch Joint Venture, a partnership of federal agencies, nonprofit organizations, and citizens working to conserve monarch butterfly migration. Because milkweed can be toxic to livestock, many areas target it for eradication. Ask to stop roadside mowing, and ask to allow milkweed and other nectar plants to grow along monarch migratory corridors, in parks, and important monarch breeding grounds.</p><p> <em>Reposted with permission from our media associate </em><em><a href="https://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/good-money/this-is-the-only-plant-that-can-save-monarch-butterflies-20181120" target="_blank">YES! Magazine</a>.</em></p>
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The monarch butterfly has a new chance at recovery, thanks to an innovative program seeking to crowdsource funding and habitat for the beloved species at an unprecedented scale and pace.
"The Monarch Butterfly Habitat Exchange is a market-based solution for restoring and conserving high-quality monarch habitat on America's private working lands," said David Wolfe, director of conservation strategy and habitat markets at Environmental Defense Fund. "We like to call it an 'Airbnb for butterflies' because it's the only program of its kind that can open the vast untapped potential of large-scale farms and ranches to make habitat available for monarchs, fast."
<p><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320717304809" target="_blank">Studies</a> estimate that the monarch butterfly's population has declined by 95 percent since the 1980s.</p><p>"The monarch faces a June 2019 deadline for an Endangered Species Act listing decision," Wolfe said. "To change the monarch's trajectory and avoid the need for restrictive regulations that often accompany a listing, we need to restore millions of acres of native milkweed and wildflowers across the butterfly's vast migration route."</p><p>"Agricultural lands make up roughly half of the acreage required to recover the monarch," Wolfe added, "so recruiting farmers and ranchers who manage these large-scale landscapes will be a game changer."</p><p>Through the exchange, landowners are paid to create, maintain and improve habitat on their property through a variety of restoration activities.</p><p>"The exchange incorporates robust <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/science/">science</a>, close monitoring and transparent reporting to ensure that each dollar achieves the most bang for the buck, and for the butterfly," Wolfe said.</p><p>Potential investors and donors include food, chemical and seed companies, state farm bureaus, <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wildlife">wildlife</a> agencies, philanthropic organizations and concerned citizens. All funds raised through the exchange are directed to <a href="http://biodiversityworksmv.org" target="_blank">Biodiversity Works</a>, a Texas-based nonprofit responsible for administering the program.</p><p>"We anticipate a broad range of private and public funding sources from various companies, associations and individuals looking to achieve corporate <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/sustainability">sustainability</a> goals, maximize <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/conservation">conservation</a> outcomes, and ensure that the monarch butterfly stays off the <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/endangered-species">endangered species</a> list," Wolfe said.</p><p>Smithfield Foods, a global food company that is also the world's largest hog producer and pork processor, is the first food company to participate in the program, contributing $300,000 to restore key prairie habitat for monarchs in Missouri. Smithfield invested in this project because of its multiple sustainability benefits, including providing habitat for pollinators, <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/water">water</a> quality benefits, carbon sequestration and biomass for biogas revenue.</p><p>"Participating in the Monarch Butterfly Habitat Exchange is a commitment to our employees, our producers, and our customers who care about wildlife and the multiple other environmental benefits that this program will achieve," said Kraig Westerbeek, senior director of Smithfield Renewables and Hog Production Division Environmental Affairs for Smithfield Foods. "We want to do our part to make sure that monarchs continue to thrive and play their significant role in our ecosystem."</p><p>The exchange is currently focused on developing projects in Missouri, Texas and California. Projects range from full prairie restoration to supplemental planting of milkweed within marginal agricultural fields. Milkweed is vital to monarch success, since butterflies lay their eggs and caterpillars feed exclusively on the milky sap-filled plant.</p><p>Amy Greer is a sixth-generation rancher in Brady, Texas. She and her husband, George, decided to participate in the exchange to help re-establish native milkweed and wildflowers on their ranch. Amy is also a trained wildlife biologist.</p><p>"George and I both understand how important <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/biodiversity">ecological diversity</a> is for all the plants, animals, insects and birds that live here on the ranch aside from us and our cattle," Amy said. "We also understand the importance of pollinators to the larger food system, so anything we can do to improve habitat for bees and butterflies is important to us."</p><p>Landowners, <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/agribusiness">agribusiness</a> leaders, philanthropic foundations and concerned citizens can help support projects on the ground by contacting the exchange or donating through the <a href="http://www.monarchhabitatexchange.org/" target="_blank">Monarch Butterfly Habitat Exchange</a> website.</p>
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Dicamba—a drift-prone herbicide linked to millions of acres of off-target crop damage across in 17 states—destroys mostly everything in its path except the crops that are genetically engineered to resist it. It's so damaging that several states, including Arkansas, Tennessee and Missouri have introduced temporary bans on the weedkiller.
There's now another reason to worry about the controversial chemical. It's particularly harmful to milkweed, the only host plant for the iconic and already at-risk monarch buttery.
<p style="">
In a new report publisehd Thursday, researchers with the
<a href="http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/" target="_blank">Center for Biological Diversity</a> warn that the expanded use of dicamba, which is projected to increase by nearly 100-fold on cotton and soybean fields, will put more than 60 million acres of monarch habitat at risk by 2019.
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Here are some key findings from the paper:
</p><ul class="ee-ul">
<li><strong>Accelerating harm:</strong> In addition to 61 million acres of monarch habitat being directly sprayed with dicamba, an additional 9 million acres could be harmed by drift of the pesticide.</li></ul><ul class="ee-ul">
<li><strong>Deadly timing:</strong> The timing and geographical distribution of dicamba use coincides precisely with the presence of monarch eggs and larva on milkweed.</li></ul><ul class="ee-ul">
<li><strong>Double trouble:</strong> Dicamba degrades monarch habitat both by harming flowering of plants that provide nectar for adults as they travel south for the winter and by harming milkweed that provides an essential resource for reproduction.</li></ul><ul class="ee-ul">
<li><strong>Greater menace to milkweed:</strong> Research has shown that just 1 percent of the minimum dicamba application rate is sufficient to reduce the size of milkweed by 50 percent, indicating it may have a greater impact on milkweed growth than the already widely used pesticide glyphosate.</li>
</ul><p style="">
Populations of the once-common butterfly
<a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/bill-nye-on-glyphosate-we-accidentally-decimated-the-monarch-butterfly-1882073954.html" target="_blank">have plummeted</a> approximately 80 percent in just the last two decades. A major threat to the species is its loss of habitat due to the lack of availability of <a href="http://www.nwf.org/Garden-For-Wildlife/About/Native-Plants/Milkweed.aspx" target="_blank">milkweed</a> through land conversion for agriculture, removal of native plants and the use of <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/pesticides" target="_blank">pesticides</a>.
</p><p style="">
"America's monarchs are already in serious trouble, and this will push them into absolute crisis," said Nathan Donley, a senior scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity, and author of the report, <a href="http://www.menacetomonarchs.org/" target="_blank"><em>A Menace to Monarchs</em></a>.</p><p style="">
"It's appalling that the EPA approved this spraying without bothering to consider the permanent damage it will do to these butterflies and their migration routes."
</p><p style="">
The paper notes that in 2016, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's approval for expanded use of dicamba included nearly 500 pages of ecological analyses, but "glaringly omitted any mention or examination of the threat to monarchs."
</p><p style="">
For the study, the researchers examined monarch habitat and projected dicamba usage rates in the coming years, which is estimated to reach about 57 million pounds annually. They produced an
<a href="http://cbdnet.info/public/monarchs/" target="_blank">interactive map</a> showing the locations and time when monarch eggs and larva were sighted, along with the locations and timing of when cotton and soybean crops may be sprayed with dicamba.
</p><p style="">
The Center for Biological Diversity says the EPA has refused to take the necessary action to address the harms caused by the chemical.
</p><p style="">
"There's no question that use of dicamba across tens of millions of acres will deepen risks to our dangerously imperiled monarch populations," said Donley. "When dicamba's use on GE cotton and soybeans comes up for reapproval later this year, the only responsible thing for the EPA to do is allow that approval to expire."
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<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xNzM4NTY5NC9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTU5NjE0Mzk4Nn0.lM_eU3IU6YDqsp1F0Sd1qqZOgFmybmvHgGS2vKXH8i8/img.png?width=980" id="9e7c1" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="5c3ed1b56cd151763d4ff168c32e0720" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">From the study: "This indicates that dicamba will be used across the South, East and Midwest at the precise time of year when milkweed is absolutely essential to perpetuate the northern migration of monarchs."</small>
</p>
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Alan Schmierer
By John R. Platt
Don't mess with Texas butterflies. They have lawyers.
<p style="">This week attorneys representing the <a href="http://www.naba.org/" target="_blank">North American Butterfly Association</a> filed a suit against the Trump administration for its plan to build a section of the U.S.-Mexico border wall through a significant portion of the National Butterfly Center in Mission, Texas. The construction plan would cut off the organization's access "to no less than two-thirds of the Butterfly Center property" just north of the Rio Grande River, according to the lawsuit.</p><p style="">The lawsuit was officially filed Monday against the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the agencies responsible for building and patrolling the wall.</p><p style="">The <a href="http://therevelator.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/NABA-Complaint.pdf" target="_blank">filing</a>, provided to <a href="http://therevelator.org/" target="_blank">The Revelator</a> by the National Butterfly Center, also alleges that "the Agencies and their agents and contractors have entered, damaged and destroyed NABA's private property without authorization or permission"—<a href="http://therevelator.org/butterflies-border-wall/" target="_blank">details The Revelator uncovered when we originally reported on this story last July</a>. At the time Executive Director Marianna Trevino Wright said crews had chopped down "dozens, perhaps hundreds," of trees, shrubs and other plants. She captured the damage on video.</p>
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<p style="">As we reported in July, Customs and Border Protection and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers admitted entering the private property but repeatedly denied they had removed any vegetation. After nearly a week of inquiries, Customs officials admitted that the tree-removal had actually taken place.<br></p><p style="">The unexpected presence of border agents reportedly continues practically to this day. In a phone call on Tuesday, Wright said that a customs agent had been on their property in late November turning visitors away from the area near where the border wall would be built.</p><p style="">That part of their property has been unexpectedly popular lately. "All kinds of folks have been coming here, saying they want to see where the wall is going to go," Wright said. "People have said they wanted to see this place before the landscape is marred by this atrocity."</p><p style="">What comes next is unclear. Even though the lawsuit has been filed, Wright said she remains worried about how all of this will play out. She's also concerned that people will stop paying attention. "I don't know at what point this becomes old news," she said. "I think people are getting sort of tired of these crises. I mean, every day it's some new thing with Trump. People are maybe getting desensitized to all of this. But maybe I'm wrong."</p><p style=""> <em>Reposted with permission from our media associate </em><em><a href="http://therevelator.org/texas-butterflies-border-lawyers/" target="_blank">The Revelator</a>.</em></p>
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