Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow

North America’s smallest raptor, the American Kestrel, lands to rest her wings mid-hunt. The wind of her beating feathers startles a flutter of rare Fender’s Blue Butterflies, sending them scattering from their moss-laden branch. Their own small wingbeats set the tendrils of lichen swirling and swaying in gentle motion as they flee. This fleeting moment passes in a shimmering breeze as both butterfly and bird fly off into the distance, soaring in what’s left of their ever-dwindling ancestral home.

The Fender’s Blue butterfly is a rare conservation success story. Once thought to be extinct, the Fender’s Blue was recently rediscovered on a small patch of land in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. Thanks to careful restoration of oak prairie habitat and the native lupine flowers the butterfly relies on, their population is now on the rise and has been delisted from endangered to threatened.

The American Kestrel population, although not technically listed as endangered, is on the decline because of habitat loss and diminished or poisoned food sources. These small, personable, and plucky little raptors are highly adaptable and can be found everywhere from forest to farmland, yet are still not immune to the far-reaching effects of human activity.

Here today, gone tomorrow. These species are both reminders that our planet exits in a delicate balance. Humanity’s disconnection from this great truth has stolen so many tomorrows from so many lives. Yet it is also humanity who has struggled to conserve, protect, and rehabilitate threatened species and their landbase, helping ensure the world we depend on is here for future generations.

The choice is ours: take only today, or mindfully cultivate a world of endless tomorrows.

Watercolor on cotton paper. 16″x20″.