NABA Butterfly Park in South Texas - Full Text

[Mike Quinn]

Dear Leps-L,

Here is the full text of the North American Butterfly Association's (NABA)
proposal for a world class butterfly garden to be built in the Lower Rio
Grande Valley:

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Come Join With NABA in Creating NABA Butterfly Park

a spectacular natural garden and landscape that will be of important benefit to
                                                        Butterflies
                                                 An Endangered Ecosystem
                                                          People

 The North American Butterfly Association (NABA) is creating the premier
butterfly gardens in the world, tentatively to be called NABA Butterfly
Park, to be located on approximately 100 acres of land fronting the Rio
Grande River in Mission, Texas. But, we need your help to make it a reality!

This land, just east of Bentsen-Rio Grande State Park, is being donated to
NABA by Bentsen-Palms, LLP. The land donation is contingent upon NABA
raising $500,000 to begin actualizing the project.

Your donation to NABA will be an important contribution to making our
world just a little bit better. Donors of $100, or more, will be given free
life-time admission to NABA Butterfly Park! Donors of $1000, or more, will
be recognized, by having their name permanently displayed (unless you wish
otherwise) in the Visitors' Center to be constructed at the Park.
Opportunities exist for naming structures and gardens at the Park.

The Park will be designed to ensure its attractiveness to the general
public as well as to  butterfliers and birders. NABA Butterfly Park will be
the first major outdoor butterfly garden  and habitat.

NABA Butterfly Park will quickly becomes an important destination for
                                Butterfliers
                               Ecotourists
                               Family groups searching for interesting and
educational outings
                               Residents of the Lower Rio Grande Valley

NABA Butterfly Park will include the following attractions and benefits:

Lower Rio Grande Valley woodland is one of the most endangered ecosystems
in the  United States. NABA Butterfly Park will be an important link in the
wildlife corridor  along the Rio Grande River that is being created by the
United States Fish and  Wildlife Service.

The Lower Rio Grande Valley contains the most diverse butterfly fauna in
the United  States.

The re-creation of native Lower Rio Grande Valley woodland coupled with
native flower gardens will ensure that NABA Butterfly Park is far and away
the best location in the Lower Rio Grande Valley to find butterflies.

Spectacular flower gardens will encourage vast concentrations of
butterflies, providing explosive color and movement throughout the year.
The presence of thriving populations of exotic and beautiful butterflies
that are rarely  seen in the United States will make NABA Butterfly Park
the most desired  destination for butterfliers.

An enchanting riverwalk along the Rio Grande River, meandering through the
open  flower gardens and then along the river edge of the woodlands, will
prove to be  irresistible to visitors.

The woodlands and flower gardens will also be highly attractive to birds,
and we will encourage their presence by the liberal use of feeders. We
anticipate that NABA Butterfly Park will become a must-visit location for
birders traveling to the Lower Rio Grande Valley.

An open air flight cage will ensure that visitors are able to interact
closely with butterflies.

The major North American education center about butterflies will contain
displays  and interactive exhibits that will be designed to provide
exciting and educational experiences for both the general public and more
advanced butterfliers. A special area of concentration will be children's
education.

As an important tourist attraction, NABA Butterfly Park will provide
important economic benefits to the people of the Lower Rio Grande Valley,
while providing a  wholesome and healthful educational and recreational
resource.

Plan Development

A plan will be developed that will incorporate the following elements:

Siting and design of a visitor center. In addition to providing space for
displays and interactive exhibits, this building will also house a sales
office and offices for the NABA Butterfly Park staff. It will be designed
so that expansion is easily achieved.  The initial size of the facility
will be approximately 4500 square feet.

The re-creation of Lower Rio Grande Valley woodland, especially planted on
approximately 50 acres and managed to provide habitat for scores of
butterfly  species. Special plantings throughout the woodlands will
encourage the creation of  populations of rare butterflies. As one of many
possible examples, crackers are large,  interesting, tropical butterflies
that occasionally populate the Lower Rio Grande  Valley. Since their
caterpillars feed only on plants in the genus Dalechampia, we  will plant
native Dalechampias to encourage the formation of resident populations.
Interpretive signs will we placed along trails through the woodlands and
benches will be positioned by woodland openings, especially productive
sites for butterflies.

The creation of open butterfly gardens, using native plants chosen for
their  attractiveness to adult butterflies, their usefulness as foodplants
for caterpillars, and for their aesthetic desirability to people.
Beautifully designed plant groupings will  lead visitors through the
gardens. Again, a key feature will be the presence of plants designed to
establish populations of butterflies. For example, we will plant Cassias,
beautiful ornamental plants with attractive yellow flowers. Cassias also
are the  caterpillar foodplants for a number of
sulphurs, very large, eye-catching butterflies  that are colored in vivid
oranges and yellows. We will also use more specialized  plants for
particular butterflies, such as Bernardia myricaefolia, in the hope of
establishing a population of Lacey's Scrub-Hairstreak.

The siting of paths and trailways through the garden. A special attraction
of the Park will be a riverwalk along the Rio Grande River. The riverwalk
will wend its way through beautiful flower gardens filled with clouds of
butterflies along the bank of the river. Inviting benches will be
positioned at strategic points along the riverwalk. Interpretive signs, in
English and Spanish, will allow people to identify the butterflies and
plants they see, as well as explain many facets of butterfly natural
history. Visitors will be able to see across the river and imagine the
incoming flights of exotic butterflies and birds moving northward from
Mexico.

The creation of a small wetland area, involving a pond, and perhaps a small
stream,  to create habitat for some wetland-loving plants and butterflies.

The construction of irrigation facilities, to ensure the health of the gardens
during the  worst periods of drought.

We strongly believe that increasing the public's awareness and enjoyment
of butterflies, and fostering the growth of butterflying, will directly
result in increased resources becoming available for the conservation of
important natural communities. Butterflying creates important new
constituencies that have a stake in conservation.

Please help us make NABA Butterfly Park a reality. Please send you
tax-deductible donation to:    NABA, 4 Delaware Rd., Morristown, NJ 07960.
If you include written instruction saying "please return my donation to me
if NABA Butterfly Park is not created by Dec. 31, 2000," we will honor your
request.

4 Mar 1999

http://www.naba.org/nababp.html

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Mike Quinn North American Butterfly Association - South Texas
<MQnature at hiline.net> 1708 Hunt Ave. Donna, TX 78537-2924
NABA-SOTX: http://www.naba.org/chapters/nabast/index.html