York/Rock Hill Butterfly Count?

[Ron Gatrelle]

Bill Burnette wrote the following official statement of police-y on behalf
of the Carolina Butterfly Society.
My comments follow his.

----- Original Message -----
From: <Burnetted at aol.com>
To: <research at hiltonpond.org>; <carolinaleps at duke.edu>
Sent: Friday, May 25, 2001 5:32 PM
Subject: Re: York/Rock Hill Butterfly Count?

SNIP
> One point that you should be aware of is that we are an organization that
> promotes butterfly watching, gardening, and education in much the same
way > that the Audubon Society does for birds. (In fact, many of us are
Audubon
> members, too.) Nets and collecting are not allowed on our counts, field
> trips, and garden walks, though we do welcome photography to help confirm
> butterfly identity. There are other excellent organizations that would be
> more appropriate for insect collecting.
>
> I will be happy to send a membership application to those interested in
> joining, or you can download one from our website. There is also a
calendar
> of trips and counts posted on our site, and you might want to look at
some of
> http://www.carolinabutterflysociety.org/
>
> Dennis Burnette
> Membership Chair
> Carolina Butterfly Society
> burnetted at aol.com


I find the above extremely offensive, bigoted, and ignorant. As a collector
I am not welcome (ALLOWED) to ride on this bus and must find my place at
the other water fountain. The Lepidopterists Society, Southern
Lepidopterists Society, Ohio, and all others are fully "integrated" with
arms wide open to all - watchers, collectors, students, professionals, etc.
etc.  The Carolina Society (does it have IRS 501 (c) 3 public status to
loose) is, in the fine southern tradition of the Klan, evidently still
fully segregated and proud of it.

If I came and brought my net are you going to have me arrested? How are you
going to not ALLOW me this legal activity and right?  Are you going to call
out the National Guard and stand on the School House steps? I would also
think that the property owner of a given area or sponsor (in this case
Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History) would have the say-so on
who, what, when, and where.

Strange. The NC DNR, US F&W, Forest Service have all paid me to collect
(voucher) specimens for them and do field surveys - but with you I  am not
ALLOWED? You all like to watch all the Appalachian Crescents (Phyciodes
batesii maconensis),  Cullasaja Fritillaries (Speyeria aphrodite
cullasaja),  Poanes aaroni minimus, Hesperia attalus nigresens, and Euphyes
bimacula arbogasti that I discovered IN THE CAROLINAS and wrote the
scientific papers on.   But I am not ALLOWED?  You all liked the New NC
state record I just added for Gorgone Checkerspot (Chlosyne gorgone), but I
am not ALLOWED?  My recent NC find of Gray Comma (Polygopnia progne),  New
SC record for Oak Hairstreak and on and on - But I am not ALLOWED.

Are you so unaware that you don't know that when you say "collectors" you
are  not just using a "term." -- you are insulting someone's mom or dad or
kid?  A real live human being with feelings and emotions and worth? I am a
Christian pastor by profession, and the foremost lepidopterist in SC, and
I'm the evil enemy and NOT ALLOWED?

Rev. Ronald Gatrelle
President, The International Lepidopterist Survey
Research Associate Florida Department of Agriculture
        and Florida State Collection of Arthropods
Former Executive Council Member, The Lepidopterists' Society
Past President Southern Lepidopterists' Society
Former Editor Southern Lepidopterists Society
Lepidopterists of 45+ years and author of numerous
           scientific papers.

PS  Shortly after signing up to the carolina-leps chat group, one of your
members emailed me and told me I bertter lay low as many in this group were
militantly anti-collecting and COLLECTORS.  I decided to not receive that
bad report and just go with the flow.  Until this post I had found everyone
to be very nice and open minded. I refuse to believe that the mind set of
the rank and file members of the Carolina Butterfly Club is as prejudiced
as that of its leadership apparently is.


 
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