I was having the best spring of my life. My conservation efforts were paying off tremendously. The Everglades was slowly reclaiming the land around my home as forested areas on my property inched closer and closer to my house.
Years ago, I removed the irrigation system from my lawn, and beautiful wildflowers slowly replaced useless grass. The neighboring beekeeper’s bees blanketed my lawn, blissfully leapfrogging from Mexican clover to Bidens alba flowers. Zebra-longwing butterflies gently floated over my shoulders while gulf fritillaries courted one another upwards in acrobatic spirals. Great southern white butterflies darted about the yard, seemingly always late for something. Birds followed, and hawks, a bobcat, a fox, raccoons, marsh rabbits, cottontail rabbits, squirrels, harmless racer snakes, wood ducks, pileated woodpeckers, ibis, cardinals, bluejays, doves, and owls. In a week of silent observation, I counted 100 different species.
And, oh, the monarch butterflies! It was pretty spectacular to see my first visitor lay eggs on milkweed. Years ago, I planted milkweed seeds but then gave up on them when they never grew plants. This beautiful monarch found the milkweed. She took my breath away, observing her.
Then, at the height of my bliss, my dog was bitten by a pit viper in my backyard. Apparently, pit vipers feed on rabbits, and where there is food, the food chain follows. The issue is more multi-faceted than that though: not far from my house, massive tracts of wilderness were laid bare for new construction. The snakes were rendered homeless and were on the move.
After multiple blood transfusions and doses of anti-venin, I wondered about humans trying to orchestrate something as wild as nature, and how I could live with nature better instead of trying to control it.
I interviewed Dr. Andy Davis, a leading ecologist and scientist at the Odum School of Ecology, to give me a data-driven perspective on the implication of well-intentioned conservation efforts. We talked about the stunning little visitor who took my breath away: the monarch butterfly.
