Amid the mounting pressures of climate change and habitat loss, protected areas like national parks and monuments can be a refuge for wildlife, including the very tiniest.
Curious folks from around the region came together during the first annual Bears Ears Butterfly Count.
Organizers say these citizen science events help document diverse species and can inspire new advocates for their conservation.
On the side of the road in Bears Ears National Monument, a group of about 10 people is taking in the landscape.
“There are lovely canyons, nice vibrant red with brush all over them. They're lush green, and we have nice yellow flowers,” says Melissa De La Paz, one of the group.
“And everyone's around looking at this landscape and there's people out here with nets trying to catch butterflies, but so far failing.”
This group is trying to carefully and gracefully observe and catch butterflies.
“I'm looking for a shape that doesn't look like it belongs on the flower there,” said Robb Hannawacker, a park guide with the National Park Service and a self-described expert at spotting and catching butterflies.
“I'm like, yep, there's a weird looking triangle sitting on top of that flower. Probably a butterfly.”
In this little group, Hannawacker has the most experience with catching butterflies.
Just a few paces from where we're standing, he spots something.
It’s a Becker's white, a butterfly known from Mexico to Canada.
This one flies off, evading capture from Hannawacker's net.
This is the first annual Bears Ears Butterfly Count, a chance for citizen scientists to learn along with experts like Hannawacker.
He describes himself as a naturalist and has led these types of counts for years in Bryce Canyon, Grand Canyon, and the La Sal Mountains near Moab.
“We have a neat concept here with what's called island biogeography,” he said.
“We have these high country areas that are surrounded by arid grasslands, juniper-pinyon, and pretty stark desert. So these little high country areas are really like islands, and you'll have populations that'll fluctuate, and they're much more vulnerable to environmental change.”
So noticing what's out there now, even in an informal butterfly gathering can be important.
The Xerces Society advocates for conservation of invertebrates, and they call butterflies valuable pollinators that support the health of ecosystems.
Like many other insect species, butterflies are experiencing declines.
The Xerces Society estimates 19% of butterfly species in the U.S. are at risk of extinction, and it's not just the ones with special habitat needs.
“(Butterfly counts can) help us keep track of, like, the species that are in the area and why we're protecting the area,” said Ricky Begaye, volunteer manager with the Bears Ears Partnership.
Folks might know the organization by its old name, Friends of Cedar Mesa.
Butterflies are experiencing changes due to habitat loss, climate change, disease, pesticides, and invasive plants.
Protected areas like parks and monuments can be a refuge.
“So this is the first Bears Ears Butterfly Count that I know of,” said Begaye.
“I really want to bring the community out and show them like what life is out here and kind of showing what we're trying to protect and what species are here and what species are rare or what new species are coming into the area. I want to make sure the next generation knows what was here because they might never ever see it again.”
Begaye calls himself an introvert, but he's the curious type of introvert that loves bringing people together, especially over the natural world.
He organized this count, and he's excited, because there are people here who work for Arches, Canyonlands, Natural Bridges, and Mesa Verde National Parks, like Melissa De La Paz.
“Okay, so we have five white butterflies. And then we also have five male checkered white butterflies,” says De La Paz.
She's reviewing the list of butterfly sightings so far, and she says she's here to gain broader knowledge about this region.
At Mesa Verde, she's working on a trails crew, doing lots of whetstone work.
“And so we wet the concrete and we wet the pavement [...] and all the butterflies rush in and drink the water. There's some really nice blue ones. Some white ones as well. I'm just like, ‘wow, I wish I knew what they were.’ Yeah, we notice them especially when we're working with water,” she said.
Troy Rudy brings one to her attention.
It's the first time he's held a butterfly and he's doing it very carefully with forceps.
“It's called the variegated fritillary,” said Rudy.
“You can't see the backside of its wings, but it's like orange and yellow. It's really pretty. There were two of them pretty close to each other and [Hannawacker’s] mentioning that's kind of common. They'll hang out together, but then they'll also harass one another. So it's kind of a sibling relationship.”
Butterflies are a type of moth and they're easier to count than others because they carry out their business in the daytime, just like humans.
Hannawacker says researchers and volunteers in our region have documented 130 species of butterflies in southeast Utah alone.
They range from the common to the endemic, meaning species known only to exist here and nowhere else in the world.
“There's certainly some species that have very isolated populations. They're going extinct. There's some butterflies that are going extinct. They're more adapted to the last epoch, or even the epoch prior, which was the Pleistocene Epoch, so that's kind of like seeing a ground sloth, a giant ground sloth, to actually have those kinds of butterflies still in existence,” said Hannawacker.
He tries not to get too precious about species.
He advocates for the protection of the entire ecosystem, not just because of a few species within it.
But checking them off, it's clear that's kind of the fun of it.
As the day goes on, we gain elevation, where the plant nectar is juicier, and there's more and more butterflies – the Colorado hairstreak, the great spangled fritillary, the southwestern fritillary, Weidemeyer's admiral.
“I’ve got one white lion sphinx butterfly, which is the one that kind of looks like a hummingbird. I've got two gray hairstreaks,” lists Troy Rudy.
Observing them is one thing, but catching them is another.
“I'm still learning. I mean, butterflies are kind of not really predictable. They try to avoid big people moving, I would say,” said Begaye.
He's holding a butterfly net and showing me his technique.
“Usually butterflies like to fly upwards, not downwards or sideways. So it's pretty easy to catch them like that if they're just kind of chilling,” he said.
It's all about being patient and moving slowly, keeping your nose to the plants.
I realize on this count that getting to know butterflies is all about getting to know plants.
We learn that prince's plume and penstemons attract swallowtail butterflies.
Sand buckwheat at the right time could bring in a rare ellis' blue butterfly.
And then there's the rock goldenrod, a favorite plant for hairstreak butterflies.
And it's on a rock goldenrod that we find a very small, very colorful hairstreak.
“The siva juniper hairstreak. Our little siva subspecies here, I think, is the prettiest of all the subspecies of juniper hairstreaks,” said Hannawacker.
“Hopefully nobody in other regions gets upset with that. I think it's true. We have all kinds of variations of tans and greens. On the upper side, it's usually beautiful browns.”
The hairstreaks get their name from little hairs that extend beyond their hind wing.
“So it's thought if a bird were flying by, it would think the head is right here where the movement is. [And] the butterfly scoots on that way,” explains Hannawacker.
“It's teeny tiny, beautiful little sort of patterning, light colored silvery patterning the lines. Even though it's a little beat up on the end, you can still see the tail somehow survived,” said Hannawacker as he removes the forceps.
The teeny tiny butterfly rests on his finger, seemingly catching its bearings.
“It seems like if you handle the butterfly okay, oftentimes they go right back to what they were doing before. And that's really a good sign,” he said.
The butterfly takes flight, searching for another nectar filled plant in Bears Ears National Monument.
This story was shared via Rocky Mountain Community Radio, a network of public media stations in Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and New Mexico including Aspen Public Radio.