The Butterfly Station located at the Farnsworth Middle School has completed its fifth year of operation reaching over 2,600 people over a seven week period during July and August, 2003…60 students in grades 6-11 volunteered three to five weeks of their summer as guides at the Butterfly Station a well as rearing butterflies and maintaining native plant and butterfly gardens and seven faculty also dedicated their summer to the operation of the Butterfly Station.

In mid-August, eight students from the Butterfly Station shared their native Pine Bush plants and gardening expertise with the residents of Teresian House, helping to weed and add new plants to the Pine Bush Native Plant Demonstration Garden located on the Teresian House grounds.

The summer prescirbed burn season was the most successful to date. Between July 7 and August 31 the Commission conducted six prescribed burns: 46 acres of the Pine Bush were treated with fire, bringing the total this year to 53 acres.

The Apollo Drive restoration site exceeded earlier goals. The former parking lot was restored to Karner Blue butterfly habitat with over 50,000 flowering lupine plants and the site now supports butterflies. The US Department of Agriculture awarded the Commission $25,000 to be used for site preparation, seed, planting and follow-up management of 29.4 acres of Karner Blue habitat over the next three years. And over the summer almost 10 acres of abandoned agricultural fields in the Preserve have been prepared for planting in 2004. These areas, in adition to the 21 acres where locust tree removal has been continuing, will increase Karner Blue habitat in the Preserve by almost 30 acres over the next several years.

Volunteers Needed: November 8, 15, 22: 9AM – Noon: to cut back small black locust trees; December 11: 9AM-Noon: Trail Maintenence. Call 785-1800 x100 to sign up.