ON THE TRAIL The missing butterflies of Zinnia Land

The zinnias are in full-bloom at Rendleman Orchards in Alto Pass, and views are otherworldly, in a good way. I'm officially calling it Zinnia Land.

And this year, Zinnia Land has not one but two fields; the mutli-colored field and the new white zinnia field.

Walking down the paths through the fields evokes that scene from "The Wizard of Oz" where Dorothy and the gang are running through the poppy field. But instead of falling asleep in the field, your progress here is slowed to a crawl as you stop to take picture-after-picture.

On the day my wife and I visited, even though it was an intermittently rainy Saturday, the fields were full of '"oohs" and "ahhs" and squeals of both kids and kids at heart.

There were also hummingbirds and bumblebees everywhere, both buzzing and busy drinking nectar and collecting pollen. But noticeably scarce in the flower fields were butterflies. During our time in the fields, I saw a single tiger swallowtail, one monarch and few black swallowtails that were likely either spicebush or pipevine.

I might have chalked up the scarcity of butterflies on that visit to the weather, but I have heard reports from other people of similar observations this summer. It's becoming very clear that there's a problem.

The decline in pollinator numbers is not breaking news. Indeed, general declines have been observed for decades. And last week I wrote about the 80 percent drop in monarch numbers in the last 20 years.

One of the likely contributors to the butterfly decline appears to be a group of pesticides called neonicotinoids, or neonics. Gaining in popularity since the early 1990s, neonics are now the most widely used class of insecticides globally, found on nearly all conventionally grown U.S. corn fields.

Studies have shown that documented butterfly declines are correlated with the increase in the use of neonics. And monarch eggs on milkweed plants growing near cornfields treated with neonics have been shown to have a reduced likelihood of successfully hatching.

Studies have also linked the rising use of neonics to declines of grassland and insectivorous birds, developmental and behavioral abnormalities in deer, and of course there is growing concern about potential human health effects.

All of this suggests that we haven't learned very well from Rachel Carson's book "Silent Spring." But the good news is that most butterfly populations have the potential to bounce back quickly because they can produce several generations in a single summer.

And the European Union has already banned the use of three common neonics on all crops while Canada has proposed restricting some outdoor applications.

Let's hope that the United States can follow these leads and act to ban neonics before it's too late. Because Zinnia Land without butterflies just isn't the same.

• Mike Baltz has a doctorate in biology and writes about changing the world from his home in Carbondale.