Congratulations and thanks are in order for the Taylor's checkerspot butterfly technicians and staff at Mission Creek Corrections Center for Women (MCCCW), and everyone else who supports the program at Evergreen, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW), the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), and the Oregon Zoo. To recap, last season we produced 3624 eggs, which was 180% of our target, then the caterpillars that hatched from those eggs reached summer diapause with 96.6% survivorship. For eight months they have been sleeping in small insect cups beneath overturned terra cotta pots, but now they are awake again and the numbers are in: 98.9% diapause survival.
After spending the summer being pampered by the inmate technicians at Mission Creek, the bulk of our caterpillars were transported to the established diapause facility at the Oregon Zoo. Five hundred were left behind as a trial group since it was our first season and we wanted to test the over-winter conditions at the greenhouse before risking a whole cohort. Of those five hundred, 100% survived! As always, our success is a credit to the meticulous, dedicated, and compassionate care provided by the inmate technicians. Every step of the way they have gone the extra mile, checking every detail twice as often as required, keeping records that no one ever asked them to take, and proving with every stage's success that the faith placed in their abilities by our partners was well warranted.
About 3400 of our federally threatened caterpillars are now munching leaves on the prairies at Glacial Heritage Preserve and Scatter Creek Wildlife Area, raising the total number of animals released the butterfly program at MCCCW from 701 to over 4000! Our biggest release of the year is just a week after diapause wake-up, so we had a wild week at MCCCW trying to feed breakfast to so many animals. Our supply of food plants was dwindling rapidly, but relief was in sight: sunny weather was forecast for Monday, March 4. We filled up seven coolers with caterpillar cups and sent them out to the prairie. Once there, a team of about ten biologists, students, and volunteers spent the day crawling backwards from host plant to host plant depositing 2-5 caterpillars on each one. It's a painstaking process, but it's important to make sure that the animals have enough host plant material to give them a good chance of making it to pupation, sometime in April.
Just 185 caterpillars remain in the captive colony at MCCCW. These are considered our "backup breeders". We will raise them to adulthood so that we can rely on them for eggs if anomalous weather or some other unforeseen event causes wild populations to crash. Every year we aim to produce a new generation from wild-caught females, but the colony of backup breeders is arranged to maintain maximum possible genetic diversity for as long as possible just in case. The butterfly technicians at MCCCW are out there every day taking care of those 185 special recruits, giving them fresh leaves and raising them up like athletes in case they have to pitch in to help save their species.
WDFW Research Scientist Dr. Marc Hayes recently brought visiting scientist Dr J. Michael Conlon to visit the Oregon spotted frog operation at Cedar Creek Corrections Center (CCCC). Dr. Conlon is a Professor of Biochemistry at Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar, and is an internationally known biochemist whose research interests are focused on the purification and characterization of naturally occurring, biologically active peptides. He has worked on skin peptides for more than 40 years and with frog skin peptides for more than 10 years.
Dr. Conlon is interested in studying the skin peptides of the Oregon spotted frog (OSF) because they are very high in anti-bacteria and anti-fungal properties. The OSF also show a resistance to the amphibian chytrid fungus, known to be decimating amphibian populations worldwide. The answer to why OSF are resistant to chytrid might be found in their skin peptides.
To better understand this, purified skin secretions need to tested for their activity against several strains of chytrid, requiring three steps: 1) obtain the skin secretions; 2) purify the individual peptides from those secretions; and 3) test each individual peptide from the skin secretions on several strains of the amphibian chytrid fungus.
SPP helped facilitate step 1, and steps 2 and 3 will be done in the UAE and at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN. SPP and the frog interns at CCCC were pleased to be involved with this research as it will contribute significantly to the scientific knowledge of why OSFs are resistant to chytrid.
The first painted lady butterfly to eclose in the SPP lab at Evergreen.
At long last, the wait is over. After almost a year of preparation, the butterflies have finally arrived! Inmate technicians at Mission Creek Corrections Center for Women (MCCCW) have been caring for painted lady larva for almost three weeks now, and over the weekend they got to watch their first butterflies emerge from their chrysalid.
The painted ladies are being reared as a training surrogate for the endangered Taylor's checkerspot, which inmates will begin to work with next February. These training butterflies were chosen for their relative hardiness and fast life cycle, which will allow the inmates to go through several complete revolutions before graduating to the much more delicate Taylor's checkerspot. So far the inmates involved have surpassed expectations in every way.
As the final phases of greenhouse construction were being completed, the student intern on the project, Dennis Aubrey, began rearing painted ladies at the Sustainable Prisons Project (SPP) lab on The Evergreen State College (TESC) campus. This was done to work out the fine details of adapting the Taylor's checkerspot rearing protocol for use with the painted ladies, and to prepare for training the inmates at the facility. Following this, 200 painted lady eggs were ordered and delivered to MCCCW, where eager inmate technicians began learning how to care for these delicate insects. Working with butterflies in the SPP lab approximately two weeks ahead of the ones at MCCCW was incomparably helpful in training the inmates effectively.
From the time they began, the inmates have been taking very detailed carefully drawn notes, and have been tending to their charges with the patient meticulous care that makes all the difference in rearing projects such as this. At SPP's frog project at Cedar Creek Corrections Center, the large amount of time inmates dedicate to caring for the endangered Oregon spotted frogs has led to the largest specimens raised at any institution. Last week, when Dennis visited Mission Creek to check on the inmates' progress, he couldn't help but notice that the painted lady chrysalids were significantly larger than he was able to produce in the SPP lab. Whether that's a factor of the light and beneficial conditions in the greenhouse, or is directly attributable to the increased daily care, it's hard to say. Either way, it's a great sign of things to come for the future success of the project.
Congratulations to SPP Director Dr. Carri LeRoy, and SPP Research Associate Carl Elliot on their recent publications in the Northwest Science Journal!
Together with Dr. Dylan Fischer of Evergreen State College they co-authored Germination of Three Native Lupinus Species in Response to Temperature. Experiments to determine the effects of pre-germination treatment and germination temperature conditions on the proportional germination of three species of Lupinus are discussed. The results could lead to better understanding of germination requirements of native species, an important component of restoration in south Puget Lowland prairies.
Dr. LeRoy was also co-author of a paper on Responses of Prairie Vegetation to Fire, Herbicide, and Invasive Species Legacy. Native and exotic plant community diversity and composition were measured across areas that differed in burning history and grass-specific herbicide application in an effort to evaluate prairie plant community variation in a matrix of restoration treatments in the south Puget Lowland prairies.
The Sustainable Prisons Project (SPP) recently celebrated another year with our many wonderful partners. The event, held on a cool summer evening at the Olympia Farmer's Market, featured a wide range of guest speakers representing various aspects of the Sustainable Prisons Project. Speakers from Department of Corrections, Joint Base Lewis McChord, The Evergreen State College (TESC), Center for Natural Land Management, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, and a prison volunteer each spoke about the significance of SPP from their perspective.
The event was also an opportunity to honor out-going Co-Director and Co-Founder of the SPP, Dr. Nalini Nadkarni. Nalini has accepted a position at University of Utah as the Director of the Center for Science and Math Education. She will remain involved with SPP as Senior Advisor. Nalini is also continuing work to share SPP with other states, including at her new location in Utah.
We also welcomed new SPP Co-Director Dr. Carri LeRoy. Carri began working with the SPP team in April and she officially began her new role as SPP Co-Director July 1st. She is a stream ecologist and a member of the Masters of Environmental Studies faculty at Evergreen. Carri is an excellent addition to the team and we look forward to continuing the Project with her leadership.
After a year filled with declining budgets we are extremely grateful to our partners, students, TESC staff, foundations, and grant funding sources that helped keep this project going. We are excited to see what the next year brings!
To donate to the SPP and help bring conservation into Washington prisons, click here.
Surrounded by acres of Douglas-fir forest and behind razor wire security fences, a garden tended by the offenders at Stafford Creek Corrections Center is flourishing. Their efforts to cultivate food and flowers has altered the landscape and nourished the spirit of those involved. These men asked me to provide a documentation of the garden for their families on the outside. I thought that this service alone was worth providing, but I also feel others outside the prison fence should have the opportunity to see and hear about the garden.
The spring weather on the coast of Washington this year was unusually cool and cool nights persist through July. Night temperatures have rarely stayed above 50° F. The cool weather caused heat loving plants like tomatoes, peppers, and squash to languish. However, crops such as broccoli, cabbage, peas, and carrots have exploded with growth. The offenders are gathering buckets full of carrots and peas to share with the prison kitchen.
All of the flower gardens were designed by the offenders. They paid special attention to creating habitat for insect pollinators. The plant families they cultivated in the pollinator garden were from the pink or catchfly family, the sunflower family, the pea family, and the mallow family. These plants provide nectar, pollen, and insect prey for beneficial insects. This is important because the garden is surrounded by concrete which provides poor pollinator habitat.
The other flower gardens include a cutting garden and a native prairie garden. The flowers from the cutting garden are used to beautify the visitor room in the summer. This allows friends and family to see the fruits of the men's labors and make for a beautiful reception for visitors. The native prairie plant garden overflows with species from the conservation nursery. By seeing the plants they are cultivating for restoration, the men can begin to learn plant families and plant community associations found on the prairies.
The whole garden sits amidst a sea of concrete. Originally, it was a turf covered turn-around for delivery trucks. Staff grounds keeper, Jon Rydman, took the initiative to open up the space for the men to garden there two years ago. After a great amount of initial effort to cut the sod, lay the irrigation, and form the beds, the garden was started. Soil fertility has been improved by compost generated from prison kitchen waste. This unique in-vessel composting system is a pilot project coordinated by plant manager, Chris Idso. Creating a flourishing garden in a Correction Center requires cooperation and coordination among staff. The garden produces more than vegetables and flowers; it is also a place for education and change.
To donate to the SPP programs at Stafford Creek Corrections Center, click here.
The Sustainable Prisons Project (SPP) and the Mission Creek Corrections Center for Women (MCCCW) are preparing to launch a brand new conservation program. In addition to prairie plants and Oregon spotted frogs, we will be partnering on a new captive rearing program to raise Taylor's checkerspot butterflies (Euphydryas editha taylori) for release on South Sound prairies. The Taylor's checkerspot is listed as a state-endangered species in Washington and is a candidate for listing under the federal Endangered Species Act. These butterflies once flourished on glacial outwash prairies, low elevation grassy balds and coastal grassland sites from southern British Columbia to central Oregon, but in recent decades habitat loss and degradation have reduced it to a few small, isolated populations.
Staff at MCCCW are currently hard at work constructing a custom greenhouse at the prison which will house the program, The UV light transmission of the glass structure will provide the checkerspots with ideal growing conditions, and its interior partition will create two separate climate controlled rooms. The building is expected to be complete by the end of the month, and the first release of larva onto South Sound prairies will occur in April 2012. Currently the Oregon Zoo is the only facility rearing Taylor's checkerspots. The new structure at the prison will provide a second rearing program to assist with butterfly recovery efforts. The project is generously funded by the Army Compatible Use Buffer (ACUB) program, US Fish and Wildlife Service, and The Nature Conservancy. Other collaborating partners include Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Washington Department of Corrections, the Evergreen State College, the Oregon Zoo, and Joint Base Lewis McChord. Even though the new rearing facility is not yet complete, SPP graduate student intern Dennis Aubrey has been busy preparing for the new program. Dennis is receiving training from staff at the Oregon Zoo as they raise checkerspots, as well as assisting with field activities. He recently helped release 1036 prediapause checkerspot larva at the Scatter Creek Prairie restoration plots. Along with staff at MCCCW, he also helped conduct interviews and hire inmates for the rearing technician position. Dennis will continue to play an active role in training incarcerated women to become butterfly rearing technicians.
Our partners at MCCCW have been enthusiastic participants in all phases of the planning and implementation of this project. All involved are optimistic that this is the beginning of a successful long-term undertaking to recover endangered butterflies and bring science education to incarcerated women. This program promises to be an integral part of a growing culture of sustainability and conservation at the facility.
To donate to the SPP Taylor's Checkerspot Program and help conserve biodiversity in Washington, click here.