Wednesday, Jun 10

Welcome to Your Daily Dot where Dot will share tips, advice, and stories on how we can make our world better.

All Dear Dot illustrations by Elissa Turnbull.

Dear Reader,

For many years, one of Dot’s friends has organized a 12-step group in the women’s prison just outside the city where we live. My friend learns a lot from the women who attend, she tells me. About resilience. About second chances. About forgiveness, of self and other. 

It heartens Dot to know that, while paying a price for their crime, these women are learning and growing, and that when they emerge, they are more likely to build a better life, to make better choices.

So I particularly loved this story about the Sustainability in Prisons Project (SPP), working in a women’s prison in Washington State where “inside, trays of host plants line long tables,” reads a story on Reasons to Be Cheerful. “Tiny eggs cling to plantain leaves. Black, yellow-dotted larvae inch forward in slow motion. A small group of women tends to them with the precision of lab technicians and the patience of gardeners.”

The object of their fascination and their determination is the Taylor’s checkerspot butterfly, once plentiful in the Pacific Northwest, but more recently on the brink of extinction. This captive rearing of the butterfly is a last resort, something, no doubt, that the women doing the rearing understand all too well. 

“The program includes an educational component in partnership with The Evergreen State College, allowing participants to earn college credits in fields like ecology and animal husbandry,” we learn. One of the participants, whom this program has enabled to complete such coursework and lab hours, hopes (after her release) to pursue higher education and a career connected to environmental work — a far cry from selling drugs, which landed her in prison.

Dot finds it particularly poignant to think about incarcerated women dedicating their days to a fragile creature symbolic of freedom. Don’t miss the story about these Climate Champs.

This is a checkerspot butterfly that may/may not be slightly different than a Taylor's checkerspot butterfly.

Want to protect butterflies yourself? Here are some tips for attracting monarch butterflies from Bluedot’s resident gardener (and butterfly lover) Laura McLean: 

Pick the right spot. Identify areas in your garden that get a minimum of six hours of daily sunlight. Have enough space to plant milkweed in clusters surrounded by nectar plants to create food and shelter for all stages of the monarch’s life cycle and an escape from weather and predators. 

Plant plenty of milkweed. Milkweed is the only plant that female monarchs lay their eggs on and the principal food source for growing caterpillars. A waystation needs at least ten milkweed plants and ideally two different species, with priority given to native milkweed, which will naturally go dormant in the fall/winter. 

Add nectar-rich flowers. Once monarchs emerge from their chrysalises, they need ample access to food via nectar-rich flowers throughout the season. Plant flowers that will either bloom continuously from spring to late fall or plants with a staggered blooming season — a mixture of annuals and perennials will ensure that monarchs have food throughout their breeding season and migration. 

Register your waystation. Join the movement! For a small donation toward conservation efforts, you can certify your waystation by registering it with Monarch Watch. (For an additional fee, you can purchase a waterproof sign to hang in your garden to let your neighbors and garden visitors know how you’re helping.) 

Redemptively,

Dot

Turn your garden into a welcoming haven for pollinators with a Curious Critters Garden Kit filled with plants that support bees, butterflies, and other beneficial creatures. Easy to grow and full of seasonal beauty, these kits help create healthier ecosystems right in your own backyard. It’s a simple, joyful way to make a positive impact this Pollinator Month. 

Dear Dot discovered that lab-grown diamonds are better for people and the planet, and much less expensive.

For more Bluedot Climate Quick Tips, click here. 

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