https://reasonstobecheerful.world/prison-conservation-butterflies/
"On a cool spring morning in Washington state, the work of saving an endangered
species unfolds in an unlikely place: a greenhouse just outside the perimeter
of a women’s prison. Inside, trays of host plants line long tables. Tiny eggs
cling to plantain leaves. Black, yellow-dotted larvae inch forward in slow
motion. A small group of women tends to them with the precision of lab
technicians and the patience of gardeners.
This is where the Taylor’s checkerspot butterfly, once common across Pacific
Northwest prairies, is being brought back from the brink. Its future depends on
people like Margaret Taggart, who found something she did not expect to
discover in prison: a sense of purpose. “I’ve always had a love for
butterflies, for nature and plants,” she says. “But I didn’t even know
butterflies are endangered. The education was eye-opening.”
Kelli Bush, who coordinates the program for the Sustainability in Prisons
Project (SPP), describes captive rearing as a “last resort.” In this case, it’s
a response to the fact that Taylor’s checkerspot has lost 97 percent of its
native prairie-oak habitat, which has been fragmented by development,
agriculture and invasive species. Without large-scale habitat restoration, the
butterfly cannot sustain itself in the wild, and without the prison effort, it
might already have gone extinct.
What happens inside the program is therefore both rescue and rehabilitation, an
effort to restore a butterfly population while also restoring the people who
care for it."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
