Ecotourism: why watch anything

[Clay Taylor]

All -

    Take a look at the rise in numbers of butterfly-specific festivals
across the country - Mission, TX;  Kingsville, MO; Paris, AR, etc., as well
as the butterfly talks and field trips at birding festivals like Clearwater,
FL and Sierra Vista, AZ.  There will be a number of well-organized butterfly
festivals nationwide within the next few years, giving casual butterfliers
the opportunity to travel to new locales and see lifers with a minimum of
effort.  That translates into airfares, hotel stays, restaurant and gas
station revenues, etc.  It's no coincidence that Texas (especially South
Texas) has a LOT of festivals - they have the festival formula down to a
science.

     I know the purists will be doing a slow burn over that concept, but
it's the price of progress and the growing popularity of butterflies.
Remember, all those people that ask "Did you see it well enough for me to
count it?" will be allies when you crusade to save habitat for a declining
species!

     Heck, there's even a dragonfly festival scheduled for Weslaco, TX in
May!

    The optics companies are designing better-quality binoculars that focus
closer than before (as opposed to lousy optics that focus close) because
birder / butterfliers don't want to have to switch optics while in the field
(for instance -when looking at hawks and then skippers).

    Butterfliers will not supplant birders anytime soon, but they will
definitely become a true demographic in the near future.

Clay Taylor
Moodus, CT
ctaylor at swarovskioptik.com


----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael Gochfeld" <gochfeld at EOHSI.RUTGERS.EDU>
To: <Leps-l at lists.yale.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, March 28, 2001 5:35 AM
Subject: Ecotourism: why watch anything


> It may not hit bigtime yet for butterflies, but the huge amounts of
> money that bird watchers spend on
> hotels/food/binoculars/birdseed/books/travel, has been
> estimated/quantified and has been used as an economic justification for
> habitat preservation in those areas favored by bird watching tourists.
>
> I don't know if it works as good as it sounds, but bird watching is big
> business in the United States.  Big enough business to capture community
> attention.
>
> I suspect that people who go to art museums and movies also fail on the
> "adding to science scale".
>
> Mike Gochfeld
>
>
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