Ironic indeed

Anne Kilmer viceroy at gate.net
Tue Mar 30 13:32:59 EST 1999


Now, now ...
I can't say I disagree entirely about the NABA butterfly counts; they're
not scientific; merely rough and optimistic approximations of how many
of what sort of butterfly might be in an area ... and, of course, they
depend on the number counting, expertise of counters, and the weather
granted us on that day. 
The true reason for the count, I suspect, is that it gives us a notion
of how many people in an area care how many butterflies there are. It
gives us, also, a good feeling about butterflies, about each other, and
an opportunity to cast an eye across some good habitats and see that
they aren't being degraded needlessly.   
The chief objection to the Fourth of July butterfly release, if you'll
check back, wasn't that it would inconvenience a few counters ... they
could schedule their count before the Fourth, after all. It wasn't even
that it would screw up all Don Davis' hard work, organizing studies on
Monarch populations ... or that Lincoln Brower and Robert Pyle both
asked that the release not take place. 
	I think our principal concern was that the habit of releasing Monarch
butterflies (for instance) interferes with their natural population,
disrupts the flow of genes, may promote the spread of diseases and
parasites, and favors the Monarch population over other sorts of
butterfly. It makes the Monarch into a sort of chicken or pigeon ...
reared by people and substituting for the natural and varied
population.     
	As I recall, the USDA issued a permit for this release, provided that
the butterflies were locally produced or lab raised. But were they in
fact lab raised? I heard rumors that they had been captured in
California after all, as the lab was unable to provide such a quantity
so early in the year.
There's no point going back over all that ... I'm sure it's archived
somewhere and it was all pretty unpleasant. 
That said, may I add in defense of the counts, that the experts stay
with the neophytes and that nobody takes their sightings seriously ...
any more than one permits a bird dog to decides which birds you'll shoot
at. Beaters and native bearers; that's what they are. 
We do it for fun. Like most sorts of fun, it's fine as long as it
doesn't interfere with somebody else's fun. 
Peace
Anne Kilmer
South Florida


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