Read the full story in the Chicago Tribune.
About a decade ago, the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore had one of the country’s largest populations of the Karner blue butterfly. The nickel-size insects feasted on the national park’s bountiful wild lupine and relied on northwest Indiana’s heavy snowfall to protect its eggs in winter for spring hatching.
But the butterfly’s population has declined in recent years, and some researchers are pointing to, among other things, warmer winters, less snowfall and other weather-related changes threatening the wild lupine.
The Karner blue’s predicament is one of many listed in a report released last month naming the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore among 25 national parks in the United States endangered by climate change.
