Bugs and other invertebrates are getting more attention and more protection in Colorado with new federal status for the silverspot butterfly, a proposed bill to study more threatened invertebrates and plants, and a landmark insect-health report. All are positive news for state bugs, but also highlight human and climate threats to often overlooked but environmentally important species.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service last week declared the silverspot butterfly of southwestern Colorado to be threatened under the Endangered Species Act, with new ecosystem rules in the butterfly’s habitat to minimize future losses. The silverspot thrives in open, wet meadows with shade up to 8,300 feet, and is threatened by habitat loss from development and drought and higher temperatures from climate change.
The long-sought protection for the silverspot, while falling short of the “endangered” status some environmental groups had sought, may help propel a new bill granting Colorado Parks and Wildlife the authority to study and conserve rare plants and invertebrates. Colorado is one of only a handful of states that do not define plants or invertebrates as wildlife to be monitored, managed and protected.
The bill, House Bill 1117, does not change that definition and stops short of granting CPW regulatory authority over endangered plants and invertebrates, but still gives conservation a boost, advocates say.
“It’s really just adding a very important tool to make sure that they have the ability to conduct investigations and surveys … to identify what conservation or management measures might be needed,” said bill co-sponsor Sen. Karen McCormick, a Democrat from Longmont. The bill’s provisions would expire in five years.
The bill comes on the heels of a study that surveyed existing knowledge about native pollinating insects, commissioned by last year’s legislature. The Colorado Native Pollinating Insects Health Study found that, although Colorado has a healthy, diverse population of insects in many parts of the state, their status is “precarious,” and threatened by development, industrial agriculture and climate change.
The pollinator study was funded by a $180,000 appropriation from the legislature in 2022. The new bill currently allocates no specific funding for future plant and invertebrate studies, but calls on the General Assembly to appropriate “sufficient money to implement” the bill, which a fiscal note by the nonpartisan legislative staff estimates at about $1 million per year.
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“This is a logical first step in our state government addressing the need for our agencies to manage and conserve insects and plants,” said Adrian Carper, a University of Colorado research associate in ecology and evolutionary biology and co-author of the pollinating insects study. “I think this bill is a good compromise that can hopefully put such programs in place and provide a foundation for future protections if warranted.”
The assembly’s Agriculture, Water and Natural Resources committee will consider the bill at a hearing Feb. 22.
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The newly protected silverspot butterfly is one of similar subspecies with 10 documented populations in Colorado, eastern Utah and northern New Mexico. The Fish and Wildlife Service said it is not mapping out critical protected habitat for the silverspot because of worries they would be further depleted by the rare butterfly trade.
WildEarth Guardians advocated for the butterfly to be classified as “endangered” to acknowledge a threat of extinction due to loss of critical range within five years.
“We believe that the science shows several of these populations have ‘low resiliency’ to climate events like droughts that will be more common in the face of climate change. This means that an entire population could be wiped out in one bad year,” WildEarth Guardians spokesperson Lindsay Larris said, in e-mailed comments. “FWS disagreed and does not believe that more than one of these populations face an imminent threat of extinction.”
The group had also asked that if the final designation was the less protective “threatened,” that the service write an accompanying rule that “did not allow summer grazing in known habitat due to the threat such grazing placed on the species and lack of enforceability of grazing regulations,” Larris said. The Fish and Wildlife Service in its final ruling “dismissed this concern stating that ‘light summer grazing’ was compatible with the species need,” though their decision was based on 1989 data, Larris said.
Still, she said, the group is “glad to see the silverspot butterfly finally receive some necessary Endangered Species Act protections now, nearly 11 years after we first petitioned for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list this species due to extinction threats.”
“We hope that the service takes its responsibility to protect the silverspot butterfly seriously and continues to monitor the species so that we do not lose another critical member of our ecosystem,” she said.
Scientists believe the bill, and the study that bolsters it, will help those kinds of monitoring and protection efforts throughout Colorado, especially for a critical category known as pollinators.
“Pollinators play a critical role in Colorado life,” Gov. Jared Polis said at a recent news conference at the Butterfly Pavilion where the study was released. Pollinating insects ensure survival of food crops and wild plants, which sustain wild and domestic animals as well as humans. “As important as pollinators are, they have been under-researched and, in many ways, underappreciated. The Colorado Native Pollinating Insects Health Study isn’t just an assessment, it’s a path forward.”
A team of researchers led by Deryn Davidson, with CSU Extension, Steve Armstead, with the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, and Carper with the University of Colorado Museum of Natural History evaluated existing data and research on insect pollinators in Colorado, consulted with state agencies and land managers, then provided dozens of recommendations that stage agencies and land managers can take to protect and enhance insect pollinators. However, there is no state agency explicitly authorized to protect insects.
Colorado’s pollinator population includes 1,000 native bee species and 300 species of butterflies, which account for more than 40% of all butterfly species in North America. In addition there are thousands of other insect pollinators including beetles, wasps, flies and moths.
While nonnative honeybees pollinate the majority of food crops, native bees play a crucial role in pollinating many crops. Peppers, tomatoes, eggplant and squash are best — and sometimes only — pollinated by native insects. Rocky Ford cantaloupes are best pollinated by native squash bees. Peach, apple, apricot and cherry trees produce more, larger fruit when pollinated by early season mason bees. Corn, Colorado’s largest food crop, is pollinated primarily by wind, not insects.
Honeybees are a threat to native bees
The study did not assess the status of nonnative honeybees, which have suffered well-documented declines due to pesticides and diseases. The study did note that honeybees are vital to Colorado agriculture but can also be competitors to native bees and can transmit diseases harmful to them.
The researchers found that Colorado has many intact and diverse communities of pollinators, especially on public lands and private lands with conservation easements. But it also is home to the endangered Uncompahgre fritillary, the threatened Pawnee montane skipper and now the silverspot butterfly and five bumblebee species being petitioned or considered for federal endangered status. Due to a lack of information on many insects, the authors believe the identified species represent a “huge underestimate of the true scope of imperiled pollinator species within the state.”
It is difficult to definitively say if and how much insect populations are declining in Colorado because few long-term studies have been done. One recent study, however, did document a decline of more than 60% since 1986 in flying insects near Crested Butte. Across the globe, there have been numerous studies documenting severe population declines. One study, which raised alarm bells around the world, documented a 76% decline in flying insects in Germany between 1989 and 2016.
In Colorado, the loss of insect pollinator habitat through the growth of cities and land devoted to intensive monoculture agriculture pose the greatest threat to insect pollinators. The study authors suggest those impacts can be lessened through more diverse crops and creation of pollinator-friendly habitats within agricultural, urban and suburban landscapes can counteract some of those negative land conversions.
Pesticides are another major threat to insect pollinators. The study authors call for better training of pesticide applicators to more efficiently and safely use pesticides with less collateral damage to pollinators. They also call for integrated pest management, which uses a variety of pest control measures before resorting to pesticides.
Insects are in dramatic decline in Colorado, 35-year study reveals
State Sen. Sonya Jaquez Lewis, a Democrat from Longmont and a prime sponsor of the bill that funded the pollinator study, lauded the study as an important first step in better protecting pollinators. She indicated she would introduce during the current legislative session a measure to allow local communities to regulate pesticides within their jurisdictions. Pesticides are currently regulated statewide with no provisions for local control.
Livestock grazing can have negative and positive impacts on pollinators depending on how intensively the animals graze and where. Nonnative plants and insects can outcompete and replace native pollinators. Climate change also threatens many insect species, especially those at higher altitudes, which will have nowhere to go as the climate warms.
The study authors identify dozens of steps that state agencies and land managers can take to protect and promote pollinating insects, from general policies that protect imperiled species and pollinator habitats to specific steps such as planting more native plants along roadsides and teaching beekeepers how to keep their hives healthy.
Brian Kurzel, Rocky Mountain regional director of the National Wildlife Federation, called the report “a great step for Colorado” and the “often forgotten part of the natural environment.” He especially lauded recommendations to promote cultivation of native plants on highways and other landscapes across the state.
Wildlife officials have no authority to manage or protect insects
One obstacle to these recommendations is that no state agency has authority to protect and manage wild insects. While the Department of Agriculture has purview over honeybees, Colorado Parks and Wildlife has no authority to manage and protect native and wild insects. According to a report in The New York Times, Colorado is one of 12 states that do not consider insects wildlife eligible for protection.
The current bill would give CPW the authority to study invertebrates and begin programs to conserve them, but not regulatory authority to prevent or compel actions to protect them. The state legislature would have to pass an additional bill to grant CPW that authority. There is currently no proposed legislation to do that.
Said Kurzel: “I do think it’s important to pursue state authority for the management of native insects, but only if it comes with dedicated staff and resources for the state to do the job right.”
Richard Reading, vice president of science and conservation at the Butterfly Pavilion and a CPW commissioner, has advocated for CPW to gain authority over insects since he joined the commission in June 2022. While there was originally resistance to the idea of CPW taking on yet another responsibility, he believes CPW staffers and commissioners may be coming around to the idea.
The new report will help.
“This is the first step in getting the state involved. That will be a game changer,” Reading said. “Insects are foundation species. They are the most important wildlife.”