America's Butterflies Are Disappearing. Restoration Can Help Bring Them Back.

Butterflies are telling us something about the health of our landscapes. We need to pay attention.

Between 2000 and 2020, butterfly abundance across the contiguous United States fell by 22%, according to a nationwide study published in Science. The researchers drew on more than 76,000 surveys and records of 12.6 million butterflies from 35 monitoring programs. The Xerces Society's State of the Butterflies in the United States puts the annual rate of loss at about 1.3%. More than 40% of the species assessed fell by at least half, and roughly two dozen lost more than 90%.

Think of five butterflies you might have seen twenty years ago. On average, only about four remain.

Why butterfly decline matters

Butterflies are one visible part of a much larger insect world. Insects pollinate plants, help keep some pests in check and feed other wildlife. Caterpillars, in particular, are important food for many birds raising young. When insects disappear, the effects can move through the food web.

A decline in butterflies is also a sign that something may be wrong with the places they depend on. A landscape can look green and still lack the plants, shelter and conditions butterflies need to complete their life cycles.

Recovery is possible

The national trend is serious, but it is not the whole story. In Oregon, years of habitat conservation and restoration helped improve the status of the Fender's blue butterfly. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service downlisted it from endangered to threatened in 2023.

In Florida, the Atala butterfly has benefited from the return of coontie, the plant its caterpillars need. Planting coontie in gardens and managed landscapes has helped the butterfly establish populations in places where it had been scarce, as the Florida Museum of Natural History explains.

These examples show what thoughtful habitat work can do. They do not mean planting a few flowers will reverse a national decline. They show that butterflies can respond when we meet their specific needs and keep caring for the land.

Butterfly habitat belongs across the landscape

Protecting high-quality prairies, savannas, wetlands and other natural areas remains essential. We can also improve the land around them: roadsides, utility corridors, farms, solar sites, parks, campuses and backyards.

Those places can provide food and breeding habitat and, when planned with nearby habitat in mind, help make a fragmented landscape more usable for butterflies. A small garden cannot take the place of a prairie. But a garden with the right plants, a pesticide-conscious maintenance plan and a connection to other suitable spaces can contribute to a larger effort.

The opportunity is to ask what each site can realistically provide. A utility corridor may support a wide stretch of native vegetation. A park might add host plants alongside nectar plants. A backyard might offer a safe place for caterpillars to feed and develop.

Flowers are only the beginning

Adult butterflies need nectar. Caterpillars need food plants, and those requirements can be much more specific. Monarch caterpillars eat milkweed; Atala caterpillars depend on coontie. To support butterflies across their life cycles, we need more than a colorful bloom display.

A good planting plan includes locally appropriate native host plants, nectar sources across the growing season and places for butterflies to shelter. Management matters, too: mowing schedules, pesticide use and the timing of site work can determine whether insects have a chance to complete their life cycles.

Restoration rebuilds relationships between plants, insects and the rest of the food web. Then it gives those relationships room to persist.

The people watching butterflies matter, too

The national study could not have happened without long-term monitoring. Volunteers and other community scientists learned to identify butterflies, walked routes, recorded sightings and came back year after year. Together, their observations revealed a trend no single person could see.

If you monitor butterflies, birds or plants, collect native seed or help manage a natural area, your work matters. Observation helps us recognize what is changing. It also helps us decide whether our restoration choices are working.

At Natural Communities, we believe putting plants in the ground is a beginning. Lasting restoration takes observation, management and people willing to return to a site and learn from it. Our Stewardship Circle supports the volunteers, land stewards and community members who do that work.

Butterflies have shown us the scale of the problem. Protecting the best habitat we have, restoring degraded places, planting the right native species and caring for them over time give us a way to respond.

Further reading: Xerces Society, State of the Butterflies in the United States; Edwards et al., “Rapid butterfly declines across the United States during the 21st century,” Science (2025).