Will Ricks \u201907 has a job that gives him butterflies. As a senior environmental scientist for Duke Energy\u2019s Natural Resources Group, Ricks works to make the Carolinas more hospitable to declining pollinators, especially monarch butterflies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
More than one-third of the world\u2019s crops depend on pollinators like butterflies, bees, bugs, birds and bats, but disappearing habitat has left many of these important species at risk. Numbers of the once-ubiquitous orange, black and white monarchs, for example, have plummeted 90 percent in recent years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey\u2019re the poster children for species decline,\u201d says Ricks, whose team traverses more than 100 sites a year in the Midwest, Florida and the Carolinas to document which species and vegetation are present. Their surveys underscore the consequences of pesticide use, development and climate change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His focus on monarchs is part of Duke Energy\u2019s participation in a voluntary pact involving more than 40 energy and transportation organizations that have committed to stabilizing or restoring the butterflies\u2019 populations.<\/p>\n\n\n\nPhotograph Courtesy of Duke Energy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Ricks\u2019 work at Duke has two aims: protecting critical infrastructure so power can be delivered without disruption and reducing the environmental impact of necessary maintenance and construction in compliance with regulations. Importantly, he says his surveys help front-line crews create a more hospitable habitat. That might mean removing saplings and woody plants that choke out the grasses and nectar plants that pollinators depend on or planting more of the native grasses and milkweed that monarchs adore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAs you build it, they will come,\u201d says Ricks, 39, who works from a home office in Roanoke Rapids, N.C. His family owns a loblolly pine farm, where, he says, \u201ceverything we do is for wildlife.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Everything we do is for wildlife.\u2009. . . You can make a huge \u00a0difference.<\/p><\/div><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
He\u2019s heartened by a growing interest in helping endangered pollinators. \u201cPeople ask me more times than I can count\u201d what they can do, he says, and Ricks has a ready response: Leave some brush in the yard over the winter and toss some milkweed seed in the ground. \u201cYou can make a huge difference.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false,"raw":"\n\n\n\n\n
By Carole Tanzer Miller<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Will Ricks \u201907 has a job that gives him butterflies. As a senior environmental scientist for Duke Energy\u2019s Natural Resources Group, Ricks works to make the Carolinas more hospitable to declining pollinators, especially monarch butterflies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
More than one-third of the world\u2019s crops depend on pollinators like butterflies, bees, bugs, birds and bats, but disappearing habitat has left many of these important species at risk. Numbers of the once-ubiquitous orange, black and white monarchs, for example, have plummeted 90 percent in recent years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey\u2019re the poster children for species decline,\u201d says Ricks, whose team traverses more than 100 sites a year in the Midwest, Florida and the Carolinas to document which species and vegetation are present. Their surveys underscore the consequences of pesticide use, development and climate change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His focus on monarchs is part of Duke Energy\u2019s participation in a voluntary pact involving more than 40 energy and transportation organizations that have committed to stabilizing or restoring the butterflies\u2019 populations.<\/p>\n\n\n\nPhotograph Courtesy of Duke Energy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Ricks\u2019 work at Duke has two aims: protecting critical infrastructure so power can be delivered without disruption and reducing the environmental impact of necessary maintenance and construction in compliance with regulations. Importantly, he says his surveys help front-line crews create a more hospitable habitat. That might mean removing saplings and woody plants that choke out the grasses and nectar plants that pollinators depend on or planting more of the native grasses and milkweed that monarchs adore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAs you build it, they will come,\u201d says Ricks, 39, who works from a home office in Roanoke Rapids, N.C. His family owns a loblolly pine farm, where, he says, \u201ceverything we do is for wildlife.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Everything we do is for wildlife.\u2009. . . You can make a huge \u00a0difference.<\/p><\/div><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
He\u2019s heartened by a growing interest in helping endangered pollinators. \u201cPeople ask me more times than I can count\u201d what they can do, he says, and Ricks has a ready response: Leave some brush in the yard over the winter and toss some milkweed seed in the ground. \u201cYou can make a huge difference.\u201d<\/p>\n"},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Will Ricks \u201907 works to ensure that monarch butterflies can once again thrive in the Carolinas. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5729,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"views\/single-immersive.blade.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"source":"","ncst_custom_author":"","ncst_show_custom_author":false,"ncst_dynamicHeaderBlockName":"ncst\/default-immersive-post-header","ncst_dynamicHeaderData":"{\"backgroundColor\":\"green_400\",\"caption\":\"Will Ricks \u201907 aids a sunflower in becoming a better host to North Carolina pollinators. Photograph courtesy of Duke Energy. \",\"displayCategoryID\":5,\"showAuthor\":true,\"showDate\":true,\"showFeaturedVideo\":false,\"subtitle\":\"Will Ricks \u201907 works to ensure that monarch butterflies can once again thrive in the Carolinas.\"}","ncst_content_audit_freq":"","ncst_content_audit_date":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,10,8,9],"tags":[376,1478,1477,1476],"_ncst_magazine_issue":[],"displayCategory":{"term_id":5,"name":"Best Bets","slug":"best-bets","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":5,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":49,"filter":"raw"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5728"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5728"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5728\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5821,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5728\/revisions\/5821"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5728"},{"taxonomy":"_ncst_magazine_issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/_ncst_magazine_issue?post=5728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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