Insects

Working within the structure of the One Tamalpais Collaborative, the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy received $400,000 in funding through the California Wildlife Conservation Board’s pollinator rescue program to invest in protection of monarch butterflies in Marin County.

Pollinators play a crucial role in national park ecosystems and beyond. In the national parks, species inventories help managers know which pollinators are present, and in what abundance, to better understand the state of park ecosystems and make decisions about how to manage them. From 2024 to 2026, 17 parks across the country will be surveyed for bees and butterflies.

Get out your earplugs—the cicadas are coming! In Spring 2024, when the ground warms up, billions, if not trillions, of periodical cicadas will be emerging in a rare dual emergence event. Learn more about periodical cicadas and this rare event.

National Park Service scientists and other researchers recently concluded an enlightening study on outdoor lighting practices in Grand Teton National Park. Turns out, humans aren’t so picky when it comes to lighting. What does this mean for parks? Switching outdoor lighting practices could help park visitors and wildlife, while also saving energy and costs.

Join Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area in celebrating our very important volunteer, VIP Bob Stoltz! Bob recently received the President’s Volunteer Service Award for completing over 2000 volunteer service hours. During his 19 years of service, Bob has also volunteered at Yellowstone National Park and Saguaro National Park. He plans to continue to volunteer at Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area for his 20th year in 2025.

When aquatic ecologist Alex Egan and a team of partners set out to learn more about freshwater rock pools at Isle Royale National Park, they expected interesting connections with the surrounding landscape. But what they found challenged them to rethink a lot of what they thought they knew—and will help park managers to protect the resilience of these systems into the future.

Leaf-cutter ants may get all the nature documentary attention, but have you ever seen a leaf-cutter bee? They are no less amazing, tidily snipping pieces of leaves or petals and using them, sometimes along with tree resin, to build their uniquely shaped burrows. The Bay Area is home to an endemic leaf-cutter bee species—the San Francisco leaf-cutter bee. But no one had recorded this special status species since 1980—until now!

Sweeney Ridge was once one of the few remaining places to support endangered Mission blue butterflies on the San Francisco Peninsula. But the quarter-sized, iridescent insects disappeared from the site after a fungal outbreak decimated their host plants in the late 1980’s. Recently, a multi-agency collaborative formed to bring mission blues back to Sweeney Ridge. Thanks to its efforts, Mission blue butterflies are now flying there again for the first time in 35 years!

From coast to coast, the NPS Inventory and Monitoring Division is helping park managers improve the health and function of forest ecosystems. From promoting resilient forests in the Northeast, to conserving whitebark pine in the West, to protecting Hawaiian forest birds from avian malaria, scientific partnerships are helping parks to share information, leverage funding sources, and work together for outcomes that extend beyond what any park could accomplish on its own.

Within the next ten years, many native Hawaiian honeycreeper species will be pushed to extinction by the uncontrolled spread of avian malaria—but it’s not too late to save them!