Threatening ecosystems and economies: National Butterfly Center unsure when it can reopen safely

In a cluttered back office at the National Butterfly Center, Marianna Trevino Wright has a lot on her mind. The mood is of a place that’s being hurriedly evacuated, with flyers and postcards strewn on a table and old markings left on a whiteboard. A painting of a butterfly hangs on the wall, and a bumper sticker with the phrase “No Border Wall” sits on a chair. Wright, the Butterfly Center’s executive director, will be on a call with the FBI in a few hours, which seems normal these days. Before now, she would be dealing with matters like a busted sprinkler line or preparations for the annual Butterfly Festival in Mission, where the center is located. Now, everything is different.

Cyber and personal attacks fueled by right-wing conspiracy theorists have forced the center to close indefinitely. A electronic police monitor has been stationed outside, and the gates are locked. Employees who tend the grounds can’t do their work, and Wright — who has been accused baselessly of sex trafficking — comes to the center only for short periods of time and when accompanied by others. “We make do with what time we have,” Wright said. “But it’s not a lot.” About a mile from the Texas-Mexico border, the National Butterfly Center sits at the convergence of 11 ecosystems. An immense diversity of native flora and fauna lives in riparian forests and tidal wetlands that cover the center’s 100 acres in the Lower Rio Grande Valley. The center is a haven for more than 200 butterfly species, including the Western pygmy-blue and the American snout. The Butterfly Center and the World Birding Center — which has a location at the nearby Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park — attract tens of thousands of visitors a year. Environmental tourism contributes about $300 million to the Rio Grande Valley, according to an analysis by Texas A&M University. “We exist to educate the public — environmental education and conservation,” Wright said. “If we are not open to literally show and tell every day what a healthy ecosystem looks like, what native plants are out there, then there’s backsliding and more misinformation and more missteps about conservation and the environment.