Compassion For The Uncharismatic Microfauna

Monarch nectaring on Salvia azurea - Apalachicola National Forest

A diminutive dusted skipper on Spanish needles (Bidens alba)
The conservation movement is largely fueled by the species known as "charismatic megafauna" - the elephants, lions, giraffes and the like that we can identify with somehow. It is not so much fueled by an equal love and tenderness towards the innocuous and the drab; definitely not by the ugly. As a species, we humans have a very serious problem putting human characteristics to nonhuman life and taking on emotion for some species at the expense of others. That wouldn't be so bad in a world where our actions had little to no impact on the rest of the earth's life forms, but it has serious consequences as our world population hurtles towards 10 billion and there is hardly a corner left where our impact is not being felt.
As I watched monarchs yesterday in my backyard lay eggs on the milkweeds I've planted for them, I wondered if monarchs really were any more endangered in this new world of ours than any other of the hundreds of species native to Florida. The news is rife with the plight of the monarch. They are one of the charismatic megafauna of the butterfly world. They are large and attractive. They have an interesting life history. Even their chrysalides are flecked in gold. If ever there was a poster species for the conservation of "bugs", it would be the monarch.
To be truthful, I love watching the monarchs that now share my yard, but I get just as excited to document other species - and it's the other species I worry most about because I see monarchs nearly everywhere I go in Florida and I know a great many dozens of well-meaning gardeners that are planting milkweeds for them, but I don't know anyone who is documenting the status of skipper butterflies like the dusted skipper and I don't know anyone who is purposely planting their host plants in order to "save" them.
The relentless march of urbanization that is gobbling up Florida like a pig at a trough is consuming the habitat of EVERY living creature that has some semblance of habitat specificity - and all butterflies are in the mold. Most rely on one or just a very few host plants to raise their young and these are native plants rarely used in developed landscapes except by the most dedicated butterfly gardeners. We plant milkweeds for monarchs, but we rarely replace the host plants lost by development to the uncharismatic species.
I have tried very hard here in my new landscape to include as many species as possible to my table. I don't have the proper growing conditions for some nor am I in the right general habitat region for others, but I have thought seriously about the tiny creatures as well as the larger ones. If we are to have an impact for the positive, we need to shed this obsession for the big and beautiful and simply agree that all life is beautiful in its own right and worthy of our conservation efforts.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Ethics of Collecting Seed

Image
I've been writing lately about seeds and using them to create what is often called a pollinator meadow. A great many of the plants in my new landscape were grown from seed. Frankly, I have always loved sowing seeds and watching them sprout. I started in early childhood and I've been doing it since. It's rewarding and the anticipation of waiting for seeds to sprout is difficult to match unless you play the lottery. I rarely purchase seeds. I collect them. When I can, I purchase a few plants of a species I wish to add to my landscape and I then collect their seed after they bloom. If a plant doesn't prosper sufficiently to set seed for me, it is not a plant I wish to continue to grow. Over the years, I've tried a great many plants that I've failed to adequately provide for. Today in my landscape, I'm trying a few that I've never tried before. The exceptions come from plants that are not available in the trade. To grow these from seed, I need to collect
Read more

Wildflower Meadows - The Importance of Grasses

Image
A Natural Wildflower "Meadow" - Apalachicola National Forest I grew up in the prairie Midwest and was fortunate to have been caught up in the prairie restoration movement that blazed brightly in the last few decades of this past century. Very little of our original prairie ecosystems remain as the rich prairie soils were quickly converted to agricultural uses as European settlers swarmed their way over the continent.  These ecosystems are extremely diverse, regardless of where they occur. From the tall-grass prairies of the Midwest to the rockland prairies of the Mid-South and the true dry prairie systems here in Florida where I now reside, there are several universal characteristics - they are some of the most species diverse systems in the world and they are dominated by grasses. Grasses, in all their many shapes and forms, are what form the foundation of any "meadow." That must also be true for all the "wildflower meadows" I see extolled on s
Read more

A Pollinator Garden is More than Wildflowers

Image
A natural grass-dominated meadow in the shade Splitbeard bluestem - Andropogon ternarius Lopsided Indiangrass - Sorghastrum secundum Sites on social media that are promoting pollinator gardens are rife with posts about wildflowers. Folks seeking to make their landscapes pollinator friendly seem to be almost-universally focused on wildflowers. What these well-meaning people seem to not understand is the importance of native grasses. Meadows, prairies, and other wildflower-dominated systems are mostly grass. Grasses form the backbone of every one of these plant communities. It isn't the wildflowers. They simply provide most of the color - but a living landscape is not about color, it's about creating habitat, and this habitat requires us to incorporate native grasses. It is true that the vast majority of grasses, and their graminoid relatives, are wind pollinated. They do not provide nectar and pollen for the most part, but despite that they are significant. More s
Read more