Opinion – Saving butterflies
Opinion – Saving butterflies
The following editorial is reprinted with permission from the
Concord New Hampshire Monitor. This editorial appeared on the Opinion
page on September 1, 1989. This editorial is about a tiny plot of
land near Concord New Hampshire, where a few Karner Blues make their
home.
It may soon be time to kiss the Karner Blue goodbye. As a story in
Wednesday’s Monitor by reporter Tad Shannon pointed out, the last New
England population of the small butterflies is shrinking quickly.
The Karner Blues live in Concord’s pine barrens. They thrive on the
wild lupine that grows on the sandy soil beneath the power lines and
in parts of the industrial park on Regional Drive. According to
estimates by the New Hampshire Natural Heritage Inventory, the state
program that keeps track of endangered plants and animals, there were
2,000 to 3,000 butterflies in 1983. Last year, the number was down to
about 700.
The Karner Blue’s turf was long ago zoned for an industrial park, and
development has paved over much of its habitat. The Nature
Conservancy has negotiated conservation easements with some of the
area’s landowners. They have agreed not to develop land crucial to
the lupine and butterflies or to mow or spray it when such activities
could cause serious harm.
But the Karner Blues, though beautiful, are small and easily
forgotten. One owner of prime lupine habitat recently built on it, no
doubt forgetting about the butterflies and an agreement signed years
ago.
So like the Nature Conservancy and the Natural Heritage Inventory, we
are not sanguine about the butterfly’s survival. Originally, the
conservancy had hoped to save 100 acres of the pine barrens as a
preserve. But the flat, sandy land is eminently developable.
Now the butterfly’s protectors seek only to set aside 50 acres or so
as a preserve. With programs to encourage the proliferation of lupine
like one undertaken recently by the Hodges Development Corp., perhaps
a viable population of Karner Blues can be maintained.
We don’t know what 50 acres of pine barrens land is worth in this
market or it its owners are interested in selling. But we would
encourage Concord’s city council to consider seeking money from the
state’s land trust to buy the butterflies the breathing space they
need.
A 50-acre preserve on the Heights could be of great value in and of
itself as the city expands eastward. It is can also save the last
home of the Karner Blue as well, it would be a bargain.
Butterfly Museum in Florida
from The Ithaca Journal, Saturday, Jan. 4, ’92
Believe it or not, there really is a butterfly museum in Florida! At
least 2,000 butterflies from around the world are at home at any
given day at Butterfly World in Coconut Creek Florida.
This first butterfly center in the U.S. and the largest in the world,
it exhibits stages of butterfly development and life-usually about 14
days in a complex that includes a farm, aviary, and gardens
replicating the habitats of these fliers.
