https://hakaimagazine.com/features/the-butterfly-redemption/
"They are ravenous and roving. Newly emerged from a six-month state of
suspended animation, over a dozen larvae scale the crumpled paper towel inside
a plastic cup. One determined individual undulates past the others to the top
of the paper peak. There, it anchors its hind prolegs, raises its head and
abdomen, and begins a kind of dance. About the length of a paper clip, the
caterpillar sways its black and bristly body back and forth. It reaches toward
the light streaming in through the greenhouse glass and the face of the woman
beaming down.
“It brings out the little-kid excitement in me,” says butterfly technician
Heather, “something I haven’t felt in a long time. They want to see what’s
going on. It’s like a little snake-charmer thing.”
Heather wears her dark hair in braids. She’s also wearing a bright red sweater
marked DOC for Department of Corrections, identifying her as an inmate of
Mission Creek Corrections Center for Women, a minimum security prison located
near Belfair, Washington. Heather is not her real name. She says she feels
lucky to be participating in this work while she serves her sentence here. She
shows me around with a proud, almost parental smile. Along with eight other
incarcerated women, Heather is entrusted with the care and feeding of nearly
4,000 members of an endangered species, the Taylor’s checkerspot butterfly.
With this trust comes the privilege of working just beyond the razor-wire fence
during the day before returning to life among the general prison population
each night.
Taylor’s checkerspot butterflies are picky about where they live, requiring
bright, moist, open wildflower meadows near the shade of a forest. Although
never a wide-ranging species, they were once common from Oregon’s southern
Willamette Valley to British Columbia’s Vancouver Island. Now, only 13 wild
populations are known to exist in the United States; three more are known in
Canada. A subspecies of the more common and widespread Edith’s checkerspot
butterfly, the Taylor’s checkerspot is considered a keystone species of the
Pacific Northwest’s remaining open prairie-oak ecosystems—97 percent of which
have been lost to development, agriculture, and encroaching forests.
Recognizing the need for urgent action, the Oregon Zoo began a captive breeding
program for the species in 2003. In 2011, the zoo helped establish the breeding
program at Mission Creek as part of The Evergreen State College and Washington
State’s Sustainability in Prisons Project. Since then, the work undertaken by
these incarcerated women has become one of the last best hopes for the species’
survival."
Via
Fix the News:
<
https://fixthenews.com/goodnews-meals-brazil-rewild-denmark-mangroves-pakistan/>
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
