According to the Winona Daily News in Minnesota, vandals have destroyed beetle cages at the Trempealeau National Wildlife Refuge in Wisconsin, causing thousands of dollars in damage and destroying an annual project in which students and volunteers devote hundreds of labor hours.

From the News:

For the past seven years, the refuge has raised Galerucella beetles, which feed exclusively on purple loosestrife, in an effort to fight the invasive plant, which covers more than 1,000 acres of the refuge’s wetlands.

Volunteers collect adult beetles and introduce them to potted loosestrife plants in room-size cages. Later, the soil, laden with bug larvae, is put into the infested wetlands.

“After all that work. That’s so sad,” said La Crescent Montessori Academy teacher Tami Holtslander, whose students spent two days this spring putting the beetles into the soil as part of a community service learning project. “What kind of jerk would do that?”

The refuge believes the vandalism occurred the night of June 19. Anyone with information should contact the Trempealeau County Sheriff’s Department at (715) 538-4351.

Tags:
wildlife refuge, Trempealeau NWR, Wisconsin