Mission Creek Correctional Facility is giving a select handful of female prisoners the opportunity of a lifetime to help scientists revive an endangered species.
Just a two-hour drive from Seattle, seven women in the system are participating in a yearlong program to revive Taylor's checkerspot — endangered native butterflies of the Pacific Northwest — by harvesting butterfly eggs and raising the larvae to release into the wild. According to The Guardian, these women are responsible for gathering and recording every single detail about the eggs and larvae seven days a week.
The 10-year program run by the Washington State Department of Corrections in collaboration with a team of scientists released over 67,000 larvae in 2024, per The Guardian, and is on track to break the record this year. The hope is that it will help these women transition back into society more smoothly once they serve their sentences.
Many incarcerated women are filled with shame and guilt for what they've done. The program builds their confidence, helping them make positive contributions to the world and giving them something to be proud of with a new outlook on life. It also demands a sense of order and discipline, as the data is entirely on these women's shoulders.
"The big thing for me is being part of an effort to save an endangered species," Trista Egli, a 36-year-old inmate in the program, told The Guardian.
Egli, a mother of three young children, is serving a nine-year sentence for a drunken hit-and-run in 2020 that left a woman with permanent brain damage.
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"I am paying the price for that every day," Egli said. "I can never go back and undo what happened. But I can try to make sure the rest of life is about making the world a better place."
According to The Guardian, Egli said the program changed who she was as a person. Now sober for four years, she is determined to work hard in order to buy her own house and possibly go back to college.
Lynn Cheroff, 42, now has something exciting to talk about when she calls her mother or when her two young children come to visit, according to The Guardian.
Unfortunately, Mission Creek is set to close in the fall due to budget cuts.
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Do you think America does a good job of protecting its natural beauty? Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. |
Definitely 👍 The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service declared Taylor's checkerspot as endangered in 2013. Known to gravitate toward grasslands and prairies, these open spaces have diminished over the years due to development and the relocation of Indigenous tribes. Butterflies are pollinators and a crucial part of the food chain. Their presence is also a strong indicator of a healthy environment, and they are a favorite study among entomologists. The more butterflies, the better it is for all of us and the planet.
In another instance of grassroots conservation efforts proving to be successful, a man in San Francisco single-handedly repopulated the California pipevine swallowtail butterfly in his own backyard. Adding milkweed to your garden can also help endangered monarch butterflies. We can all do our part in helping revive butterfly populations. Every little bit helps.
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