Friday Harbor, Washington: San Juan Island is home to a remarkable bounty of wildlife, from killer whales to bald eagles to foxes. But probably none of its many creatures are as revered, fawned over, and fiercely protected as its Island Marble butterflies.
The Island Marbles are delicate, wispy creatures with beautiful green mottling. They’re also extremely endangered. Once believed to be extinct, they now can only be found on San Juan Island, and really only at one locale. Seattle Times reporter Nicholas Turner and photographer Daniel Kim recently paid this location a visit and got a terrific behind-the-scenes look at the efforts to preserve the species.
As they explain, Island Marbles at one time were seen in various locations on the islands around the Salish Sea, including Vancouver Island, as well as the San Juan and Gulf Island archipelagoes. But they disappeared in the early 1900s and were pronounced extinct.
Then in 1998, they suddenly reappeared on San Juan Island and its neighbor, Lopez Island. Researchers and environmental advocates began pleading with the federal government to list the Island Marble as an endangered species, and it finally was listed as such in 2020.
An Island Marble butterfly clings to one of the mustard plants where the species likes to make its home.
The main location where they can be found now is at the national park on the island’s southern end, the 2,100-acre American Camp park, which is dominated by sweeping grasslands that also feature the mustard plants that are the favored habitat of the Island Marbles. Some 800 acres of the park are designated the butterflies’ critical habitat.
There’s also an ongoing effort by scientists to raise the butterflies in a protected facility near the park because the creatures are so fragile during their chrysalis stage. Be sure to check out Kim’s superb backstage photography of the coccoons.
It’s also important to understand why such a marginal creature, barely surviving, is important:
“Butterflies are an inherently difficult animal to study because they’re so fragile and, in this case, because they’re also so rare,” Shrum said.
During a trip into the field in 2020, she was able to determine that butterflies raised in the lab were mating and laying eggs in the wild, a new discovery.
Shrum hopes to use the grant money to develop this technique and find partners with shared interests. Even as researchers work to improve and expand their habitat, basic questions shroud the butterfly.
It’s unknown exactly how many are born in the wild each year, or whether that population is growing or shrinking. The fundamental fear is the possibility that, without the captive rearing lab, the species would disappear.
“All of this matters because we’re trying to encourage people to develop habitat on private land across the island,” Shrum said. Currently there is no harmless or flawless way to count butterflies, but she believes that could change soon. Researchers don’t necessarily know how habitats need to be spaced out, or what corridors the butterflies need to travel even short distances.
Saving endangered species isn’t about gaining anything immediately concrete, but it ultimately is about saving ourselves as a species too. If we keep removing key elements from our ecosystems, they will collapse. Humans will do no better in that scenario than any other species.
By the way, if you wish to visit American Camp to see the butterflies, you should plan on May and June. Follow the signage in the dune area where they often can be found. One of the real threats they face is from humans tromping around in their habitat. Stick to the trails and watch your step.
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Election season overtime is finally winding down, so Democratic operative Joe Sudbay joins David Nir on The Downballot as a guest-host this week to recap some of the last results that have just trickled in. At the top of the list is the race for Arizona attorney general, where Democrat Kris Mayes has a 510-vote lead with all ballots counted (a mandatory recount is unlikely to change the outcome). Also on the agenda is Arizona's successful Proposition 308, which will allow students to receive financial aid regardless of immigration status.
Over in California, Democrats just took control of the boards of supervisors in two huge counties, Riverside and Orange—in the case of the latter, for the first time since 1976. Joe and David also discuss which Democratic candidates who fell just short this year they'd like to see try again in 2024, and what the GOP's very skinny House majority means for Kevin McCarthy's prospects as speaker.
