Bicycling with Butterflies by Sara Dykman
Field biologist Sara Dykman follows the monarch butterfly migration from Mexico to Canada and back on her bicycle. Clocking 10,210-miles, it’s an extraordinary pilgrimage of science, nature, and endurance.
Sara’s goal is to champion the monarch butterfly, witness the destruction of breeding habitat, and fight for the migration’s survival.
With a daily goal of 60 miles to pedal and a scattered geography of school and university presentations along the way, Sara is free to follow serendipity. Her route is influenced by the kindness of strangers, the promise of ice cream, and by the terrain and migration itself.
“Until the benefits of conservation outweigh the benefits of extracting resources, the forest will continue to take the brunt of human need.”
Topics covered include the Monarch Watch waystation program, the diminishing American prairie, neurotoxic insecticides, the dangers of tropical milkweed, the parasite Ophryocystis elektroscirrha, monarch tagging, farmed butterflies, and how butterflies navigate.
Does that sound daunting? Don’t stop pedalling! The way Sara weaves the science into the physical adventure is the strength of the book. She makes the science extraordinary and palatable. I marvelled at the horror of how ice crystals forming on the outside of a monarch can expand into the butterfly through their breathing spiracles in a deadly process called inoculative freezing.
“One day we will look back in shock at our relationship with other living things.”
There’s plenty of emotion too. Sara loses her cool. She shows her anger at the destroyed wilderness, at the bad decisions, at an industrial mower cutting down vegetation despite the presence of monarch eggs. And why not? Why shouldn’t she use passion to power her point?
“I was angry that the unwritten rule was that composed apathy and status quo were dignified, while speaking the truth and calling people out for their complacency was unbecoming.”
While the butterflies scroll across the skies, Sara labours on the road. She faces the nightly challenge of water and shelter. She camps in roadside culverts and hidden shadows. She is hosted by strangers, not all nice. She catches peanuts tossed from passing motorists, declines marriage, eats wild huckleberries, relocates a queen honeybee and her swarm, rescues caterpillars, rages at the corn monoscapes of Iowa, and always keeps her eyes out for the bloom of milkweed and the flutter of orange wings above.
Here’s what she wants you to know: monarchs require milkweed. It’s the sole food source of the monarch caterpillar, and there are just not enough milkweed pit-stops for the multi-generational, multinational migration. Plant it in your garden.
Habitat loss, pesticides, and herbicides are among the biggest threats to the migration, with 6,000 acres of monarch habitat being converted to human uses every day in the United States.
“Most miles, most days, I struggled to forgive those destroying the prairie, erasing great migrations, and acknowledging neither.” (216)
This is a heartfelt memoir combining road adventure with natural science, and while the writing of the roadtrip sometimes runs to diary, the science is fascinating and the message loud and clear.
“ Most animals cannot fight back with drama, all they can do is leave us with heartbreaking silence.”
Bicycling with Butterflies: My 10,201-Mile Journey Following the Monarch Migration by Sara Dykman will be published by Timber Press, Inc. in April 2021.
Many thanks to Sara Dykman, Timber Press Inc., and NetGalley for my advanced reading copy.
