Catching at forms about to slip through our fingers
Current art project: fundraising to get the Alcon Blue (Gentiaanblauwtje) to return to Wageningen. The forestry commission, farmers and locals are fundraising to buy 280hectares of farm land and bring it back to the marsh it has been since the last ice age (https://mooibinnenveld.nl). The Alcon Blue has become super rare because they depend on one particular plant, the Marsh Gentian, and a particular kind of ant. The gentian nurtures the caterpillar in their early life, and afterwards they trick ants to continue the job, before they pupate inside the ants' nest. Once they hatch they have to outrun the ants for their lives, before spreading their blue wings in search of a mate. The unique plant - ant relationship leaves little room for adaptation, hence the blue beauties are flying into oblivion, unless their habitats can be restored.
