This photo taken in 2013 shows a male Fender's blue butterfly drinking nectar from a common camas wildflower in Eugene at the Willow Creek Natural Area, which is owned and managed by The Nature Conservancy. In 2023, the status of this Oregon native butterfly was changed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from endangered to threatened.
Cheryl Schultz/Washington State University
A new study led by researchers at Washington State University showed that butterfly populations in the U.S. shrank by more than 20% from 2000 to 2020. More than 100 butterfly species declined by more than 50% during this period, including nearly two dozen that plummeted by more than 90%. The findings are based on more than 12 million observations of hundreds of butterfly species recorded by citizen scientist volunteers and biologists during surveys conducted in the Pacific Northwest and six other regions across the continental U.S.
Cheryl Schultz is a professor of conservation biology at Washington State University and a senior author of the study. She joins us to share more details and how the public can help with butterfly conservation – including species like the Fender’s blue butterfly, which is native to Willamette Valley and was reclassified from endangered to threatened status in 2023.
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