by Rich Smith
The island marble butterfly spends the majority of its life—10-12 months—in a cocoon. At this stage, it’s a living bug soup. If you touch it, it’ll move. GARY TARELTON
I'm crammed into a moss-covered hut with a handful of poets from the University of Washington's poetry and science program at Friday Harbor, and we're all going googly-eyed and sparkle-brained over biologist Jenny Shrum. She's pointing at laminated maps, fiddling with improvised scientific instruments, and projecting infectious curiosity.
Since 2014, Shrum has been working under the guidance of the island marble butterfly team to restore San Juan Island's population of the butterflies, an insect that scientists believed had gone extinct back in 1908, and which is now a candidate species for protection under the Endangered Species Act. There's only one population in the world, and they flutter about the tumble mustards and pepper plants on the island's harsh, windswept, ocean-beaten coastal prairie.