About a month ago I was watering plants in our family garden when a dragonfly landed on a plant just a few feet away from me. I watched it for a bit, expecting it to fly away, but when it didn’t I began talking to it in a quiet voice. As it continued to sit there, I got the idea of offering my finger for it to walk onto, but when I made the offer there was no response, though it didn’t fly away.
My next step was to pick up a small stick and offer that to this tiny creature of the universe which seemed to have some interest in me. When it immediately stepped onto that stick I slowly raised it so that we were literally face to face, about a foot apart. I was struck by the beautiful red and green colors on its triangular face. I continued talking in a low voice for a minute or so, then slowly moved the stick back to where the dragonfly had been sitting. It stepped off and stayed there until, a couple minutes later, I left.
I’ve never had an experience like this before with an insect. Every time I think about it I am amazed that it happened. But my and my wife’s work over the last 10 or so years in support of the monarch butterfly population definitely prepared me for this. Over all those years, every summer, we do what we can to help this amazing insect species survive.
How do we do this? We do so by finding monarch eggs–and rarely a caterpillar–on the underside of milkweed leaves, of which there are many on our property. We bring them inside and, over the course of a month, raise them as they keep eating milkweed leaves that we provide them. After 10 or so days they become a beautiful yellow, black and white caterpillar, then a chrysalis and finally a butterfly, at which point we release them.
While protecting them from their natural predators, we raise them as similarly as we can to the conditions they would experience if outside. We don’t turn on the lights when it gets dark in the room where we keep them. We don’t air condition the room. We place them close to a window where they can experience natural light. And they are always released the next day once they emerge as a beautiful butterfly from their chrysalis.
We were inspired to do this by a nearby friend, Trina Paulus, who explained to us that about 90% of all monarch eggs are eaten by other insects or birds, but if brought inside and raised correctly about 90% of those eggs will become butterflies. Given the very real risk of extinction of this species, it seemed, and continues to seem, like the right thing to do.
This was not a good summer for the monarchs in our small little place in the world. Despite a lot of searching for eggs not just on our property but in areas nearby where there are milkweed plants, we ended up raising and releasing just 35 butterflies. Last year the number was 52; the year before 83; the year before 151. The most we’ve ever raised, in 2019, was 160.
We wish our situation was an aberration, but it really isn’t. An article published two weeks ago on Discover + Share, a Missouri Botanical Garden blog, reported that, “If you look at the trends in the data over the last 30 years it is pretty alarming,” says [Tad] Yankoski. “For the first 10 years the size of the overwintering monarch population [in Mexico] was measured, it averaged 21 acres. For the last 10 years the size is a bit under 7 acres, a decline of two thirds, which is cause for alarm.” The reasons include climate disruption, habitat loss and pesticide abuse.
There’s a lot to be depressed about these days in addition to this reality for the monarch population. There’s Israel’s blatantly regressive, destructive and war-loving government and the continuing, US military support of it. There’s the climate emergency and ecological devastation throughout the world, Hurricane Helene being the latest example for us in the US. There is the denial in many states of women’s fundamental right to make decisions for themselves about their bodies. And, of course, there is the reality of mass, though not majority, support of Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans.
It is significant that the MAGA forces do not have majority support on a national level, though they’re close. It provides grounds for hope that Trump and others running for office will be defeated on November 5th. That result, the election of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, will in no way mean we can all just sit back, take it easy and let their administration do what they decide to do. Indeed, given the political strength of the MAGA forces, it is clear that the broad progressive movement must hit the streets, be visible, be more united, do more outreach into the MAGA constituencies, especially white working-class men, and step up our game as we push for solutions at the scale of the problems.
Don’t mourn, organize! If ever these words were appropriate, it’s right now, this month, this year, this decade. We must draw strength from one another and from the natural world and keep at it. If we do, history shows, without question, that there is hope we really can change the world.
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