Miami Blue Restoration project

[Anne Kilmer]

My very dear fellow butterfliers,
I have received this letter from Jeff Glassberg. As far as I know, the 
only Miami Blue project being carried on by the NABA Miami Blue and 
Atala Chapters is the Miami Blue Butterfly Restoration Project, which 
many of you are already involved in.
As you know, I am one of the founding members of the Atala Chapter, and 
have been an enthusiastic and active member of NABA since its earliest days.
Unless there is another project I don't know about, Jeff is therefore 
endorsing this project. So those of you who have hesitated can jump in 
without qualms.
Connie Clark has sent a CD with the text for the Gardening for 
Butterflies and Children in South Florida book to Lee, at the Mounts, 
and with  a few small changes it will be ready to print and distribute.
I won't trouble you all with these minuteae but will write those involved.
Please email me and Jose Muniz <jmuniz at amazingbutterflies.com> if you 
wish to join the Miami Blue Crew and help with this project, and we will 
be delighted to put you to work.
We will have no extra problems if the butterfly is listed as endangered, 
since the permit can be held by one of the organizations involved, and 
legal issues will be settled, as they have been for the Schaus 
Swallowtail, so that all private individuals involved will be covered.
No action may be taken in this project without specific permission from 
the Governing Body of the Miami Blue Butterfly Recovery Project.
Happy Gardening
Anne Kilmer
Task Force Director
Miami Blue Butterfly Restoration Project

4/9/2002

Dear Ms Kilmer,
Thank you for your recent message regarding Miami Blues.  The North American
Butterfly Association (NABA)has initiated efforts to save Miami Blues.  NABA
petitioned the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to list Miami Blue as an
endangered species, and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service has found that the
petition provided substantial information that listing this species may be
warranted.  Because NABA is vitally interested in the conservation of this
butterfly, we are continuing our efforts on the butterfly's behalf by
organizing activities to study and conserve it.  We encourage all
responsible individuals who are interested in this butterfly to join NABA's
efforts on its behalf.  At the local level, these efforts are being led by
the NABA-Miami Blue and NABA-Atala chapters.  Interested parties should
contact these chapters. Contact information can be found at the NABA web
site, www.naba.org
Again, thank you for your interest.
Sincerely,
Jeffrey Glassberg

-----Original Message-----
From: Anne Kilmer [mailto:viceroy at GATE.NET]
Sent: Saturday, April 06, 2002 5:58 AM
To: Jeff Glassberg
Cc: Leps List; Bob Pyle; Alana Edwards; Lana Edwards; Teresa Jabour;
Marthanne W Mitchell; Carolyn Saft; Steve Bass; Ann Weinrich
Subject: an invitation to Jeff, to join the Miami Blue Crew


A quote from American Butterflies:
"A not-so-secret message

[Dear Jeff, a reader wrote:] "Who do you think you are? I have rarely
been so disappointed, rarely felt such a loss. I am referring to your
arrogant decision to publish the exact locations of breeding populations
of rare butterflies. You have no right to give away their privacy. It is
not necessary for us to see these creatures to become intimate with
them. I am sure that not only the most ethical butterfly enthusiasts
read your magazine; you must be aware that collectors are keeping up
with all the current information, much of which you are providing the
public. For this, and other reasons, I am canceling my membership in NABA.

"Jeanne R. Tinsman, Tuckerton, NJ

"The point of the editorial was that keeping locations of rare
butterflies a secret from the general public is counterproductive. My
belief is that this strategy, longterm, is doomed to failure. As the
editorial made clear, the reason I favor releasing information about
these populations is to save them by involving the public, not to allow
people to put them on their life list. Ed.

Jeff Glassberg, in American Butterflies, Vol. 9: Number 4 Winter 2001"

Dear Jeff,
Inspired by this suggestion, we have gathered a grassroots movement
and, again,  eagerly invite you to take part in it.  Welcome to the
Miami Blue Crew.

This is what we can do for you.  Many of us have intimate relations with
the Miami Blue, having known it when it was Hemiargus thomasi
bethunebakeri. (Now, as you know, it is Cyclargus thomasi
bethunebakeri.) Some of these are collectors.
Others are professional breeders of butterflies, eager to be of service;
many of them in the state of Florida.
Our consulting scientists are the experts on this butterfly.
We are working with the Master Gardener program under the aegis of IFAS.
These are the people who formed the Butterfly Coalition with me.
Florida Nature Centers such as Gumbo Limbo and Pine Jog are continuing a
study program that will combine the efforts of school children and
butterfly watchers to record the movements of butterflies and organize
neighborhoods to create habitat.
To this, the Internation Butterfly Breeders Association is adding energy
and knowledge.
The Garden Clubs are also enthusiastic about butterfly gardening, and
will be of great help.
We have schools where children are already growing butterfly gardens and
studying butterflies, and others where the environment can be studied in
depth ... these schools could become butterfly sanctuaries where many
rare butterflies could be seeded,  under the supervision of local
breeders and butterfly gardeners.
It would be good for the children, I am sure you'll agree, to learn the
science of butterflies as well as the art. Therefore you do want the
butterflies dissected, collected and displayed. That, as you know, is
how science works.

We, the Miami Blue Crew, march under the banner of Butterflies for
Peace. So far, everybody has joined up, and I can't imagine why you
wouldn't be delighted to. It was practically your idea, after all.

http://www.risingdove.com/miamiblue/images.asp
We hope that we can somehow bring peace to the world, if we all work
together lovingly, and we choose to use the butterfly as a symbol for
that ... or perhaps the butterfly has chosen us.
Many NABA members are already on board. I am myself a member, of course,
as you know. We appreciate non-consumptive enjoyment of butterflies, but
have moved on to productive enjoyment. It's even more fun ... ask John
Shuey.  Restoring habitat is a great game.
If you'd like your NABA members to join in, just have them email Bob 
Parcelles, and tell him what
role they'd like to play in the organization. We need someone to work
with the parks department and liaise with Native Plants and IBBA, for
instance.
I'd love to see Alana Edwards leading this project; she has the contacts
and the skills. What a great PhD subject it would make.
We're all working for fun, by the way, not for funds.
But if some money drifted our way, that would be all right, too.
Peace
Anne Kilmer
Task Force Director
Miami Blue Crew
Vice-chairman
Miami Blue Butterfly Restoration Project

Please feel free to pass this invitation on to all your members, and to
anyone else interested in joining. We'd like everybody involved by Earth
Day, our special festival.







 
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