The journal Science reports on a new study showing drastic declines in butterflies. The abstract states: "Numerous declines have been documented across insect groups, and the potential consequences of insect losses are dire. Butterflies are the most surveyed insect taxa, yet analyses have been limited in geographic scale or rely on data from a single monitoring program. Using records of 12.6 million individual butterflies from >76,000 surveys across 35 monitoring programs, we characterized overall and species-specific butterfly abundance trends across the contiguous United States. Between 2000 and 2020, total butterfly abundance fell by 22% across the 554 recorded species. Species-level declines were widespread, with 13 times as many species declining as increasing. The prevalence of declines throughout all regions in the United States highlights an urgent need to protect butterflies from further losses."
You are part of the solution though! Our iNaturalist community science project is helping with data collection and the pesticide-free plants we are all planting are helping the butterflies directly. Another thing we can do is buy organic food. Many of the pesticides used to grow our food are those devastating pollinator populations, like neonicotinoids and diamides. Go organic in your yard and in your kitchen!
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