Prisoners Work To Save Endangered Butterfly

Most people hear the word prisoner and assume the worst, after all, that person is in jail because they did something wrong for which society has said they should be punished. One prison is proving, however, that there may be hope yet for those who have found themselves behind bars. The inmates at Mission Creek Corrections Center for Women in Belfair, Washington, have embraced a movement to save the endangered Taylor’s checkerspot butterfly (Euphydryas editha taylori). Working with guards and graduate students, a select group of prisoners are actively breeding the beautiful insects for release back into the wild. In a greenhouse just outside of the prison, the team works to not only continue raising the butterflies' numbers through breeding but have also conducted studies to determine which flowers it prefers to lay eggs on in the hopes that planting more such flowers will help the species bounce back from the brink.

This is all part of an initiative by the Sustainability in Prisons Project (SPP), a group that is working to utilize an untapped resource in the form of prisoners who want to help make amends and make the world a better place. The SPP treats the inmates as collaborators instead of manual labor. The inmates apply for  positions on the teams and receive training, education and a small wage. Together with the SPP, they have helped to conserve endangered butterflies, frogs, flowering plants and moss. So far 800 butterflies have been reintroduced to the wild with 3,600 more being prepped for next year.

Efforts to determine which plant the butterflies prefer show that they tend toward the golden paintbrush, a native plant of Washington, but with that plant also being threatened, the butterflies had been laying their eggs on plantain plants which are an introduced species. With this knowledge, the SPP hopes to increase efforts to save both the butterflies and the golden paintbrush.

The SPP projects also extend to other prisons where inmates are working to save prairie plants and spotted frogs.