
A man repopulated a rare butterfly species in his backyard (2016) - rococode
https://www.vox.com/2016/7/6/12098122/california-pipevine-swallowtail-butterfly-population
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pvaldes
Is interesting that there are two species repopulated here, not one, but the
most interesting of both is disregarded.

Aristolochia is easy to culture, even if it grows like a climbing tangled
mess. If you want to do something similar in your garden do it, will be a
rewarding activity, but remember that this plant should not be touched with
bare hands frequently.

Neither be drank. Is claimed by chinese medecine as having some properties as
herbal tea but in fact it contains Aristolochic acids, that are known as
carcinogenic and nephrotoxic substances. Renal failure is perfectly possible.

Enjoying this strange mottled creature with your eyes is perfectly safe. For
the rest, use garden gloves.

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jankotek
I searched a bit. This species is not endangered, it is spread over CA, just
very very rare in SF. (Also there might be a subspecies, not really sure).

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battus_philenor_hirsuta](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battus_philenor_hirsuta)

[https://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/species/Battus-
philenor](https://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/species/Battus-philenor)

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_carl_jung
Fantastic. Makes me want to see what I can do to benefit the Scottish
ecosystem just a little. I've heard planting a patch of wildflowers in your
garden is a good start.

~~~
JulianMorrison
Plant natives that are suited to your soil type and support bees. Wildflowers
might not be good because they generally need less-fertile soil than a tended
garden. Also put out bee houses and bird nesting sites, and leave autumn leaf
fall in situ overwinter as a place for critters to hibernate.

~~~
stinos
_and support bees_

And all other pollinating species as well, there's way more than just bees :)
But good adivce about native plants: around here there's a bit of a hype in
certain circles and people are all over what they call 'bee plants' but forget
that non-native plants which happen to have pretty flowers usually do not
provide anything but nectar for a couple of generalist species, so not all
native ones, plus don't take part in the reproduction cycle because they
aren't wanted food for the caterpillars.

To get native plants, which support the most biodiversity, essentially the
best thing you can do in a lot of situations is: not too much. Leave your lawn
grow, current herbs (if any) will develop and other will fly in as seeds. Then
for instance mow once in spring and once at the end of the summer (hard to
tell eaxctly, depends on what grows currently and soil type). Remove what you
mow: otherwise the nutrients make it back into the soil so the fast-growing
plants which thrive on nitrogen (grass, nettles) get a jumpstart while the
slower growing ones (most flowering ones) don't get a chance and won't get
enough space and light. Don't mow everything at once, you'd take away shelter
and housing for may fauna. Likewise be sure to leave pathches uncut during
winter in order to e.g. not get rid of the eggs of butterflies. After one or
more years you should see transition into a native meadow i.e. also flowering
herbs instead of just grass.

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_carl_jung
Do you have any further reading?

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stinos
Not in Egnlish unfortunately. But what I wrote is pretty much the generic way
in which 'good' meadows etc are being preserved and developed and that's not
going to be different from grassland management done by nature organizations
your area, so your best bet is to contact them and ask recommendations.

And/or join for volunteering; thing is: removing all cuttings is key, and
quite some work, so in places where it cannot be done with machines (most of
them, meadows don't like to be ran over with heavy machines because it
compacts the soil on dry terrain or ruins it on wet terrain) people will be
very happy with some extra hands and in return you'll learn all these things
firsthand. At least that's how it worked for me.

~~~
JulianMorrison
Cuttings can be repurposed as compost for the food-forest part of your garden,
which exists alongside the wildflower-meadow part. (Grow flowering perennials,
and this will help with supporting pollinators.)

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vectorEQ
i am happy theres alteast some people concerned and working for our
environment instead of passing stupid laws and doing fk all.

it's not hard to make your yard or environment more friendly for the local
wildlife, and its super important to do so with current conditions.

for example in my country, even in 'protected' areas, insect populations are
down by as much as 85%!. Thats just because people are a bit lazy and put
pavement in their backyards instead of some simple grass and flowers.

take time for your environment, not for yourself, but for the next generation
of people to be able to enjoy life.

don't expect government or politics to resolve such an issue, they are only
out for money and forever hampered by budget issues and childish disagreements
between politicians.

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slics
We have come to a realization that in order for one to be considered of
importance, one must own and get paid a large amount of wealth and income.
Question is, why can’t the value of giving be considered of same importance?
Giving can be any services, time, materials or more importantly your
experience and your honest to god effort to provide help.

~~~
gchamonlive
Because of control.

Wealth and income are easier to control than what you describe. So the society
is built around worshiping and paying certain figures so everyone else gets
caught up in this loop in hopes of getting where these mediatic figures are.

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anotheryou
If there was no catastrophic population collapse, how do more butterflies in
the wild help to reintroduce the species?

I'd think they'd eat all of the last of those plants and that's it.

And if it was catastrophic collapse it should be able to bounce back from the
few remaining or from surrounding populations, no?

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crispinb
What a splendid story. Good on him.

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cjslep
Clearly a waste of time if he wasn't getting paid for it. Imagine all the
other wasted efforts of time and money that other people would do if we as a
society paid them well enough to have excess time and money to do these sorts
of pointless non-entrepreneurial adventures. What if he put all this effort in
and makes the world a better place for nothing?

(Heavy satire / sarcasm)

~~~
kmjg88nvf8
Sadly, most people would just watch Netflix.

~~~
madez
We are not used to be free. Economic restraints force us to do things we don't
want to do instead of watching Netflix. So most don't understand what "just
watching Netflix" means. If you set out to "just watch Netflix" as your main
activity, you would very very quickly get fed up and depressed, and thus stop
watching Netflix.

Those fortunate ones with enough wealth to have the option to just watch
Netflix for a year and don't do much else, don't do that and are happy with
it. And neither would the less fortunate once after an initial learning phase.
Humans must learn to be free, but they can. We want to take part, show our
contribution, feel proud. As soon as we have found a pleasant way to
contribute, we do.

Yes, conditionless basic income would change work ethics. People who fill up
supermarkets displays or serve food to unfriendly customers at unhealthy hours
would maybe just stop going to work. I would be happy for them, and I hope it
would happen today.

There is a lot of work that is needlessly tiring, badly paid, and in which you
are badly treated, but people just stay in the status quo because they see no
way out. Once there is a way out, the jobs will have to change, and that
rapidly. That would be progress for society I still hope to see in my
lifetime.

~~~
tsmarsh
We have been free. We were free for millennia.

But... if you look at the most free animals in nature: cats, after
domesticating humans and getting guaranteed safety, shelter and food. They
have independently decided to sleep and murder their lives away. Their
contributions to the art world via social media (a task they’ve mostly trained
their humans to do) is probably the nost significant and vacuous the world has
every seen. Their obsession with small mammal terminating is probably better
for the biosphere.

