Lessons & Reflections from the National Butterfly Center

“There is no escape—we pay for the violence of our ancestors.”

—Frank Herbert, Dune

I did not come into this job, this role, at the National Butterfly Center, as a conservationist, per se. Believing in the mission of the organization and the vision of Dr. Glassberg, I chose to come on board to contribute my expertise in business development and communications toward the goals of making this nonprofit project a sustainable enterprise.

In my first few years, we achieved some remarkable things. We planted many seeds, literally and figuratively, and watched them grow. It has been incredibly rewarding to watch ideas germinate, relationships blossom and dreams of wild things come to fruition.

Not one to set the cruise control, ever, I prefer to put the pedal to the metal in pursuit of success. Still, I am keenly aware of the stops-and-starts, detours, speed traps and roadblocks that come with any journey…and developments of the last two years have left me feeling like we are on the highway to Hell, careening down the road toward a steep cliff.

We’re headed for a crash. Not the National Butterfly Center, alone; but all of us.

I’ve spent much of the last year interacting with legislators, academics and advocates, concerning landscape management, water and species protection, environmental quality, public policy and resiliency; and I have to say the conversations have been bleak.

Inevitably, people ask me what conclusions should be drawn from my public statements and presentations. What do I see down the line or around the bend?

Dr. Glassberg framed it thus, "Construction of the border wall will transform what is now a vibrant, but endangered ecosystem, into a biological desert." But it's more than the border wall; it's the EPA allowing the use of neonicotinoids on National Wildlife Refuges, and the dumping of nuclear waste in South Carolina's landfills; it's dead whales with stomachs full of plastic garbage, and glyphosate raining down upon us.

So, what do I see? I see disaster, drought, destruction. I see Dune. I see Earth becoming Arrakis, and human beings living in stillsuits that both protect us from the burning sun and recycle our individual waste, in a world where we have to drink our own urine and tears for sustenance.

Is this dramatic? Yes. Is it our future? Yes.

My experience battling the worst traits of people as represented by and manifest in the border wall, largely affirm my belief that we are a parasite on our planet.

Poisoning, fracking, deforesting and draining, oh, the list could go on and on! And it all ends badly.

Collectively, humanity is writing our own story, and every day it looks more like the dystopian fiction of Orwell, Wyndham, Huxley and Herbert.

Can the conservationists roll back the clock, turn the tide, right the course?

The North American Butterfly Assciation’s motto asserts, ‘If we can save the butterflies, we can save ourselves.” But will we?

Photo copyright Brandon Hunt