News

REQUEST FOR PROFESSIONAL TRAINING SCHOLARSHIP APPLICATIONS

The Florida Museum of Natural History/McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity at the University of Florida and the Butterfly Conservation Initiative are requesting scholarship applications for a new professional training program funded in part by an Institute of Museum and Library Service�s 21st Century Museum Professionals grant designed to strengthen the capacity of institutions and their staff to play a strategic role in imperiled butterfly recovery.

Imperiled Butterfly Conservation and Management (IBCM) is designed for professionals from natural history museums, zoos, aquariums, botanical gardens, arboretums, nature centers, science/technology centers or similar conservation-based institutions. Successful applicants will participate in a series of five (5) intensive four-day laboratory and field training workshops over three years from 2009 to 2011. Workshops and on-going mentoring will provide structured, hands-on skills training, opportunities to share information, learn best-practices, and foster new collaborations, as well as the resources necessary to launch or enhance important butterfly-focused conservation programs.

A total of twenty-five (25) full scholarships will be available. Scholarships cover ALL participant costs including domestic airfare and ground transportation, hotel accommodations, and meal stipend. Multiple individuals from each institution may apply. Application deadline is February 23, 2009.

For an application or more information, please contact Dr. Jaret Daniels at:

jdaniels@flmnh.ufl.edu or 352-273-2022.

Restoration at the Wilds

Pollinators in Peril

Pollinators such as butterflies, moths, bees and others are essential to our environment. The ecological service they provide is important for the reproduction of nearly 75 percent of the world�s flowering plants. More recently, pollinator conservation has become a prominent topic on many fronts. In 2006, The National Academy of Science released the report, Status of Pollinators in North America, and called attention to the serious decline in both managed and wild pollinator populations. Since then, the Pollinator Protection Act was introduced to congress in 2007 by Senator Boxer and addresses both the problems with honey bees and native pollinators of North America including their health, ecology, and loss of habitat. Pollinator declines around the world are due to many factors, but the loss of quality habitat continues to be one of the main threats to healthy populations.

Encompassing almost 10,000 acres, the vast land base at the Wilds along with its key personnel, partnerships, expertise and outreach potential presents a unique opportunity for the Wilds to play a key part in pollinator conservation both on the ground and through scientific endeavor.

Creating Habitat

For the last several years, the Wilds has been working on transforming this once coal-mined landscape into a rich habitat capable of supporting a diversity of Ohio native pollinators. The original concept was developed in partnership with BFCI and Ohio Zoos in 2002 and focused primarily on native butterfly populations, but it has more recently evolved to also include other pollinators such as native bees. Essentially, the Wilds is replacing large areas of non-native grasses with a diversity of native plant species that will provide nectar, host plant larval food for native butterflies, and pollen and nest sites for bees. The concept for the creation of this refuge is simple �if you build it (the habitat) they will come�. To date over 35-acres of native meadow have been planted, 10 acres of trees have been established contiguous to 30-acres of native woodlands, and an acre of wetland has been enhanced. The habitat will continue to expand with the hope of reaching up to 200 acres in the future.

Integrating Science

As the habitat expands and improves, the Wilds is conducting concurrent population monitoring. Five years of butterfly monitoring, following guidelines given by The Ohio Lepidopterist Society, have been carried out in the habitat. Results to date have shown a 257% increase in total numbers of butterflies since the initiation of the project along with a 47% increase in species richness. These results are exciting and show tremendous promise on how habitat improvements, even on highly altered landscapes, can increase local butterfly populations in a relatively short period of time. Furthermore, research has also begun in partnership with Dr. Karen Goodell from Ohio State University to investigate the ecological factors influencing the assembly of pollinator communities on highly altered lands following restoration of high quality pollinator habitat. Karen�s efforts aim to develop techniques for improving pollinator habitat to maximize pollinator diversity and abundance communities in the local and surrounding regions.

Native Plant and Butterfly Propagation

The Wilds is now in the beginning phases of creating a unique, on-site Native Plant Propagation Facility that will provide both seed and mature transplants in order to continue these large-scale ecological restoration projects. A pollinator rearing area is also planned to augment existing insect populations, especially butterflies, as well as serve as an additional source of pollinators to further support the critical plant-pollinator relationship. We hope to begin building this year. Stay tuned�

The Wilds, short for the International Center for the Preservation of Wild Animals, cares for dozens of endangered species from around the world. They partner with BFCI member Columbus Zoo and Aquarium.

To learn more about habitat restoration and other conservation efforts at the Wilds, please visit www.thewilds.org.

BFCI Moves to University of Florida!

The office of BFCI completed its move from the Association of Zoos and Aquariums in Baltimore to the McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity at the Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida in May, 2007.

BFCI now operates as a program of the Florida Biodiversity Foundation Inc. The Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit charitable organization incorporated in the State of Florida. Its mission is to study, preserve, conserve and restore Lepidoptera, biodiversity and the environment, and includes the support of research, educational exhibits and literature appropriate to these topics. It works closely with the McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity, the Florida Museum of Natural History and the University of Florida.

The McGuire Center is a part of the Florida Museum of Natural History, Florida�s official natural history museum. Dedicated to understanding, preserving and interpreting biological diversity and cultural heritage, the Florida Museum is a world-class institution, ranking among the five largest natural history museums in the U.S. Its collections, more than 26 million specimens and artifacts, are some of the most comprehensive and widely utilized in the world.

Like the Florida Museum, the McGuire Center serves both research and public education functions. Opened in July 2004, the McGuire Center itself houses one of the largest collections of Lepidoptera in the world.

The Center includes 50,000-square-feet of collection, office and exhibit space. The Butterfly Rainforest is a 6,400-square-foot, 65-foot tall, steel and screen exhibit open year-round. The 460 species of plants housed amongst the curves of the rainforest trail and five waterfalls support 1,500 � 2,000 living butterflies with about 60 different species displayed at any one time.

Research space includes laboratories focusing on molecular genetics, scanning electron microscopy, image analysis and optical microscopy, conservation and captive propagation of endangered species, physiology, morphology and specimen preparation.

Current research projects underway at the Center include: Conservation of the Homerus Swallowtail, Conservation of the Miami Blue, Conservation of the Schaus Swallowtail, St. Augustine Hairstreak and Coastal Development, and Captive Propagation and Life Histories of Satyrids.

As its first host activity, McGuire Center staff and graduate students spent two days with staff from the BFCI member institution: Chicago Academy of Sciences/Notebaert Nature Museum sharing and comparing captive breeding and butterfly conservatory operation techniques, protocols and methodologies. BFCI wants to encourage and hopefully facilitate similar exchanges between BFCI�s partner, member and contributing organizations.

The McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity is proud to provide a permanent home for BFCI and effective collaboration in achieving the joint objectives of the conservation of threatened, endangered, and vulnerable North American butterflies and the habitats that sustain them, with a focus on recovery, research and public education.

Newsletters

BFCI Background

Please read these articles in AZA's member magazine, Communiqué for an overview of the BFCI's history and programs:

Create It and They Will Come (120KB pdf): Connect December, 2007; BFCI member the Wilds tells the story of creating butterfly habitat and monitoring management impacts in southeast Ohio.
Passing Through Instars: Butterfly Conservation Grows Through Experience (124KB pdf): Communiq� September, 2005; BFCI members' butterfly conservation efforts are expanding to include more vulnerable species and more facilities.
Linking Up for Lepidoptera (788KB pdf): Communiq� December, 2002; Describes BFCI's efforts on behalf of the Karner blue butterfly.
Butterfly Conservation Initiative: Communiq� June, 2003; This issue focuses upon the work of the BFCI and its members and partners.
Northwest Butterfly Conservation and Recovery Workshop (208KB pdf): Communiq� April, 2004; BFCI members in Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia met to discuss progress and share information.