When local designer, artist and teacher Melissa Koch received mail regarding protecting butterfly habitat, her creative antenna kicked in, and she envisioned bringing the concept of “A Billion Butterflies” to Whidbey Island.
As a long-time advocate of protecting the natural world, Koch proposed a butterfly awareness project centered on art for this fall.
“I received a packet in the mail from the Environmental Defense Fund,” said Koch. “I love butterflies. Monarchs are on the endangered species list. Now it’s critical that we protect them. I thought this could be a community engagement project for my teen and tween students, as well as adults.”
A billion butterflies refers to the idea that the smallest thing can cause great change.
“A Billion Butterflies: A Life in Climate and Chaos Theory,” is a book written by multi-award-winning professor of climate science Dr. Jagadish Shukla, and published in 2025. He pioneered weather prediction techniques that warn communities of impending disasters with greater accuracy. Shukla, who grew up in an Indian village subject to the whims of monsoons, found his way to MIT in the 1970s. A 2025 Washington Post article recalls: “Soon after arriving at MIT, Shukla learned about the butterfly effect,’ coined by renowned meteorologist Edward Lorenz. Lorenz observed that even the tiniest changes in initial weather conditions—something as small as butterfly flapping its wings—could make an entire system chaotic over time.”
Butterflies are among the beings in nature reflecting climate health.
The World Wildlife Fund notes: “Butterfly extinctions and declines represent climate change because these insects are sensitive indicator species whose short lifecycles, strict temperature limits, and specialized food needs make them frontline responders to shifting weather patterns, warming temperatures, and extreme droughts.”
There are about 17,500 species of butterflies worldwide, with about 750 species native to the United States, according to The Smithsonian website. Whidbey Island is home to species such as the Cabbage White, Western Tiger Swallowtail, Lorquin’s Admiral, and Mourning Cloak. Restoration of prairie habitat at the Pacific Rim Institute in Coupeville has seen an improvement in the numbers of a rare and endangered butterfly–Taylor’s checkerspot—which lays its eggs on the now-revived prairie flower called Golden paintbrush.
As one way to help restore butterfly habitat, the Environmental Defense Fund—or EDF—fostered the Monarch Butterfly Habitat Exchange, which pays farmers, ranchers and landowners to grow milkweed and other nectar plants such as goldenrod, aster and zinnia that butterflies love. A 2016 article on its website notes that the monarch “…population has declined 95 percent in the last 20 years, making the orange and black-winged insect a less frequent visitor to American backyards.”
The Washington Dept. of Fish and Wildlife notes that monarch populations are in decline within the state. Melissa Koch wants to be part of their comeback.
Melissa Koch Fine Arts Studio is housed at the South Whidbey Community Center, where Koch also teaches art classes at Create Space Langley. Founded by Peggy Taylor and her friends, Create Space provides low cost community art classes to the public.
“She’s going to be involved with the whole butterfly project in the fall,” said Taylor. “We’ll be having people make butterfly art. This is right down our alley.”
Butterflies figure in much of Melissa Koch’s art, and now she has the chance to expand what she loves by inviting the public to join her.
“Peggy thought I could offer classes about butterflies through Create Space,” Koch noted. “I also have an upcoming show at the Bayview Cash Store Hub Gallery in October. It will be sponsored by the Goosefoot Community Fund. I want to hold an exhibit focused on butterflies. We can either sell or auction the art, and take 50 percent of the proceeds and donate them to the EDF for its butterfly campaign. It’s an open call.”
Melissa Koch is a prolific artist, who lived in Europe while growing up, and has lived in the Pacific Northwest since the 1990s. She is drawn to themes of environmental and social justice, including the culture of the regions’ Salish Sea people. She is in her element when fostering young people’s love of nature through art.
Her website notes: “Melissa cofounded the program ‘Carving Cultural Connections’ with a Haida master canoe carver. Together they carved ocean going canoes teaching youth as part of the King County Arts in Education grants about working as community and helping them develop an Eco consciousness.” She’s also received a number of commissions for art in public places, has had exhibits at the Seattle Art Museum and the Seattle Design Center. Locally her nature-themed art is displayed on the wall of the Kalypso gift store—adjacent to the whale park on First Street, and at Langley’s Generations Place, a newly built apartment complex on Second Street. Her artwork has shown in the past locally at Museo and Rob Schouten galleries in Langley.
Koch’s upcoming art project aims to raise our awareness about butterflies—which have two pairs of wings, and their night-time relatives, moths, which have one pair of wings. They belong to the insect group called Lepidoptera, meaning ‘scaled wings’ in the Greek language.
Butterflies and moths are natural pollinators. The Whidbey Audubon Society—whidbeyaudubonsociety.org—hosts a link to the types of native plants attractive to butterflies and moths. Some examples include: vine and Bigleaf maple, alder, Nootka and Baldhip rose, wild strawberry varieties such as Beach and Woodland, Canada Goldenrod, native violets, and ferns—Lady, Licorice and Sword varieties.
The Xerces Society—xerces.org—also provides resources for cultivating pollinator friendly gardens.
Melissa sent an updated email today announcing the opening night at the gallery. Here it is, updating this story Sept. 9: