Paxton Scott is a Research Assistant with the Iowa Monarch Conservation Consortium. He is originally from Lawton, Iowa, and got his Bachelor’s Degree in Environmental Science with a minor in Entomology. His interests are lepidopteran taxonomy and ecology. He recently has spent time surveying butterflies in the Peruvian Amazon and plans to pursue his PhD in lepidopteran ecology.
What did you enjoy most about growing up in Iowa? Every early fall, in late August- September, at my grandparents' acreage, their property would turn gold with goldenrod blooms. Seeing the migrating monarchs and the vast diversity of other insects visiting the short-lived blooms made me love exploring the outdoors.
Why did you choose Iowa State for college? Iowa State has phenomenal ecology programs, and I had heard great things about the entomology program, so staying in-state and having an option not too far from home made me choose Iowa State University.
What’s the most useful thing that you've learned as a student? Taking conservation biology and entomology classes with smaller classrooms of students really allowed me to learn to talk to new people in an environment where people often have similar interests, resulting in new connections and friends.
Why did you choose Environmental Science as your major? I’ve always had a deep passion for the natural world for as long as I can remember. As I grew up, my passions shifted and changed a lot, but my first year at ISU reminded me of my true love for the outdoors and butterflies.
Why are you interested in native plants and monarch butterflies? I’ve been involved with butterflies from a very early age. Rearing monarchs and painted ladies as a kid were some of my fondest memories. As I grew up, I realized the interconnectivity of butterflies and native plants and thus developed a deep love for native biodiversity and began my own native plant garden back home.
What research are you conducting this summer? This summer, Emma Donahey and I are looking at the establishment of milkweeds at different managed sites to see if seeding was successful. Simultaneously, we are surveying monarch presence and absence, bee diversity, milkweed density, and nectar plant species abundance. We are also assisting in a few side projects such as surveying bee diversity at a solar farm and ladybug diversity sampling at a couple of sites.
What are you excited to learn during this internship? I’ve always wondered how helpful native plantings in agricultural areas really are due to their proximity to large applications of pesticides. Seeing as a few of our sites are directly adjacent to farms, it’ll be exciting to see how beneficial they really are.
What skills do you hope to refine during the internship? I’ve been needing to refresh my species identification skills and other taxonomic identifiers while in the field. Being able to apply that knowledge and expand on it is something I’m looking forward to.
How can Iowans help monarch butterflies? The biggest things Iowans can do to help monarchs are to greatly reduce spraying pesticides on their yards and dedicate a space to native plants. Many pesticides are not targeted at a single insect and are generally deadly to all insects, so drastically reducing their use is an excellent way to support your local pollinators and everything that relies on them for food. Planting native plants allows these pollinators to have a space to fuel up and/or begin the next stages of their life cycle, providing them with habitat.
