Search for the phrase “butterfly activism” on Google, and you won’t find anything at all. There isn’t even one page with the phrase “butterfly activism” on the entire Internet. Well, until right now there wasn’t, anyway.
There’s something of a conceptual mismatch between the ideas of butterflies and activists. Activists are generally thought of as striding boldly, taking broad, dramatic action against mighty foes. Butterflies, on the other hand, float on the wind, and have to struggle even against a gentle breeze to get where they want to go.
Yet, butterflies need activists. Thanks to factors like climate change, pollution and habitat destruction, many butterflies are on the brink of extinction. Over in the UK, Sir David Attenborough and many others are stepping up to take on the job, working with Butterfly Conservation to confront the factors that are leading toward butterfly extinction.
Butterfly activists are an enthusiastic and active bunch in the UK. Today there’s a lecture about trends in butterfly populations in South Dorset. On Saturday there’s a moth count at a wildlife field center. Yesterday there was a work party on butterfly habitat on Duncliffe Hill in Dorset.
Here on this side of the Atlantic, butterfly activism seems a bit more muted. Oh, there are butterfly activists, all right, like Shiela Boone of the Daniel Boone Butterfly Palace. There’s also the Butterfly Conservation Initiative, the North American Pollinator Protection Campaign, and the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation has a special program for protecting invertebrate pollinators, including butterflies.
These organizations in the USA are all doing important work. I don’t see the kind of popular involvement in practical butterfly activism in the United States, however, that I see in the UK.
This sort of activism doesn’t have to be dreary. It can be fun. We’re on the verge of spring, and now is a good time to plant seeds indoors. You can provide practical aid to the cause of butterfly conservation just by planting some flower seeds, preferably for some good old-fashioned varieties that haven’t had all the nectar bred out of them. Dig up a patch of lawn, and replace it with an organic flower or herb bed.
Don’t use herbicides or pesticides to grow these plants – these poisons kill butterflies. Just plant the flowers, and the butterflies will come.
