Insect conservation efforts by Adjunct Professor Rodger Gwiazdowski were headlined in the Montague Reporter, describing his involvement to restore the Puritan tiger beetle to the Connecticut river.
When asked why it matters whether scientists successfully reintroduce Puritan tiger beetles to the sandy shores of the Connecticut River, professor Rodger Gwiazdowski may answer philosophically. “It’s the humility that there’s a natural world that existed before us, and exists arounds us, and we have a responsibility to allow these things to persist,” Gwiazdowski told the Reporter. “Just because we don’t know what something does, doesn’t mean it’s not important.” The Puritan tiger beetle, or Cicindela puritana, is a federally-protected species found only in the Connecticut River and Chesapeake Bay. For reasons likely having to do with decades of human development along the river, the beetle is nearly extinct.