Story in the New times

[ParcBob at aol.com]

In a message dated 8/22/02 10:20:46 AM Eastern Daylight Time, 
susaneastman at earthlink.net writes:


> Bob,
> My story is out. You can read it online at newtimesbpb.com. I'm sure I
> didn't delve into the netless issue as deeply as you would like. But let me
> know what you think.
> Thanks,
> Susan Eastman 
> 

Hi Susan,

I like the story. It is upbeat and popularizes butterflies. It really raises 
no controversies as Ron and I were preparing for, as well as you by being a 
member of Nautre Potpourri and TILS-LEPS-TALK (with the current threads). It 
was not about the Miami Blue Butterfly Restoration Project or the bug. It was 
about the great work the Cooper's do at the Prairie (where I have worked for 
6 years on ecology) and elswhere. It is an entertaining article. 

Alana's obsession, which dominates it, is very wholesome and entertaining. 
Lyn is always good press. She is a real ornithologist and an avid beginning 
oder and lepster. She becomes expert very quickly. sooon to be an odonatist 
and lepidopterist.

Glassberg was given his do, no more and no less. I think it is wise to divide 
this subject into 3 parts. Let me explain. We need not mention any 
controversies. I actually, as I told you in 3 hours of interviewing( where 
was my name... MOI !?), have helped list at list 30 critters in my life and 
it is only for very detailed, quite precise reasons that I support the view 
of our (MBBRP) science staff (to a 90% degree) that this is not the time to 
list this species. This is profound and I and Mark Walker (Vice-Chair 
Science/MBBRP, Phyliss Baker  (Vice-Chair Support/MBBRP/ Programs 
Director/PES/IEES and Rick Mikula. PR/MBBRP and International  Buttterflies 
Breeders Association , Board Member will get PRESS RELEASES out to the wire 
services and discuss ONLY this aspect as time goes on. 

It is sad that no science was in this article. Now as the dumbing down ceases 
the observations by watchers in general will be of some significance as I 
told you at great length. These are not birders helping ornithologists! They 
are far behind on this thing that has "evolved" with great care for 30 years. 
It is like comparing butterflies with birds. The id is much more difficult 
the naming is 50x more controversial and I have not gotten into common names! 
So this is part one of three articles. the last being the Restoration of The 
Miami Blue Butterfly. With "glory" to the critter and the 1000sands who 
participate.

Now let me discuss briefly what is not included in the first (I like it, I 
like it). First the thousands of hours spent by John Calhoun, Mark Salvato 
and Jeffrey Slotten in their paper on the Miami Blue Butterfly. And John and 
Marc Mino's excellent job writing the Butterflies of Florida Through 
Binoculars . Tom Emmel's works. Marc Mino's work with and without Tom Emmel.  
John Calhoun's ongoing and past research on sibling species. Mark Salvato's 
fantastic thesis in 1999 on three disappearing butterflies. The founding of 
MBBRP by Anne Kilmer, John Calhoun and myself and the thousands of hours for 
not one penny except a hundred dollars I was reimbursed by. Needed since I am 
legally applying for disabilty with hopes of dieing with dignity (and I might 
add a PhD from Harvard who will sell those things to anybody nowadays). 

Now I know that this article is going to make a lot of yours and my peers on 
TILS-LEPS-TALK quite angry. But they need not fear. There will be follow ups. 
I have been making news happen for 35 years and I know a newshound when I 
meet one. Besides Susan you can write! The second article should go on after 
giving the back ground above and tell of Anne's Task Force, much aligned by 
her friend's and foies alike, Jose Muniz, Tom and Mia Mazza, Steve Bass, Ron 
Boender and hundreds of lesser LTs as well as boyscouts, girlscouts, 
students, arborists, landscapers, master and lower gardeners :) Neither does  
PROactive Ecology Solutions (PES) nor The International Lepidoptera Survey 
(TILS) have any workers, soldiers or peons. I believe in "all chiefs and no 
indians". That is the grassroots that Jeff Glassberg called for. Well it is 
here and it is now!

Now in the second article lets not forget the organizations in south Florida 
like the Florida Native Plant Society Chapter in Miami and Bob Kelley's 
Tropical Audubon. What about David Fine who goes every week to the keys and a 
(few secret places) with no money except for a token few hundred dollars from 
passing the hat  9this past week) and  some donations. It will pay his 
mounting gas bill. What about Mark Salvato who is caught between two warring 
factions doing his "thing" for free. How about Mark Walker our science 
Vice-Chair MBBRP, an excellent lepidopterist. A pretty good writerr also as 
you well know. He is backed up by dr. kurt Johnson, who knows more about 
blues than Nabokov. what say we include Leroy Koehn one of the most 
experienced leps guys to study moths and butterflies in Florida! Leroy "gets 
among them" he does not just talk a good show. He is a good joke recanter. 
Some are a little risque....for Alana and some people.

There is the ID brochure John Calhoun made which needs to printed in the 
ten's of thousands and given out ALL over south Florida! Now will this 
article help us do that? I am afraid not. I lot of us are reading it and 
saying great for the bugs and a few people but what about the butterflies? 
The MBBRP is only the first of many and many. Have some people switched sides 
too fast? time will tell. But we will need in the next THREE articles to  
give you some meat and potaotes. You have sold some sizzle but it goes away 
fast.  True grassroots work lasts and it builds a strong structure, when its 
foundation is true science. Journalists have an opportUNITY to do that! Some 
people REact we PROact! 

I would like to discuss these issues with Lana and Jeffrey Galesburg on my 
show Ecology Today. He obviously has differences and issues when he insulted 
my people and when Alana goes to biologists one step ahead of David Fine and 
says we are "under funded and amateurs" (collectors and vile things like 
breeders and trappers and hunters!) I know because they tell david and call 
me. actually, it is a hoot and we are not preoccupied with any war as I told 
you. but he who laugs last laughs best. Anyway, God Bless them both. I 
respect them both in many ways.

Sounded like a good close. But I am not finished yet.

Anne Kilmer and I both suffered health reversals and this truly under-funded 
Project is not smoldering but aflame with interest, desire and dedication. I 
have no butterflie pin or tatto but I lkie the bugs and Ilike the science 
even more. My people are theorizing and hypotheseizing so many things we need 
to double our immediate science team to do them!. 

Now we have not the funds of this small (it is!) North American Butterfly 
Association and I want them to do great things! The mag is very good. the 
editorial policies are rather limited. The photography is improving (my field 
for 40 years, as a master photographer) Glassberg is doing good work. Not an 
artist but great photojournalistic work. The Butterfly attraction in  Texas 
is a marvelous idea. But he needs to help fund this MBBRP and stick to the 
things he has the manpower and tenacity to do. We are bulldogs. Broke but 
stubborn. I work for lunch I tell mey friends and directors. But a lot of the 
people who I have named above have been theire and done that. A lot of 
expereience. more than one man can have no matter how many degrees he has. 

Anne Kilmer is returning in October and her and Jose and the others and Dr. 
Bob Kelley and allthe friends of the blue will work side by side. Watcher, 
collector for science, collector for fun, breeder and farmer. Horticulturist, 
gardener and the landscapers and the treemen. Restore it and then decide if 
it needs listing. If we go any other way the south Florida growth extremists 
will spray-can this "one colony" and do THEIR thing! We will first determine 
if this is a re-invader as I and some of our science staff  are considering. 
I need DNA help and island experts (West Indies,...now).

In order to do the legal work against the FEDS which JG is sending his lawyer 
out in the field with hopes of later doing; one must identify the bug! 

This is something that any lepidopterist knows.

BP

PS: I Susan do the second article as i have suggested, no controversy, no 
comparisons,  this will fly and get AP coverage.

PS: 2 The third article will be the "fait compli". I promise you. ALL who 
have done any help will get the glory. but most will go mto this determined 
little blue butterfly.

PS: 3 I really do like your piece :) 

PS: 4 I will send you the 2 current PRs under separate cover. 

PS:  5 In October we will have a Press Conference at Bahia Honda  State Park 
with the entire staff and then some!

PS: 6 But right now we have to talk about DIOXIN!!!!!!

Your friend,

BP
*********************************************************************
Bob Parcelles, Jr.
Behavioral Ecologist/Biogeographer/Butterfly Watcher & Collector
RJP Associates
Reply to: ParcBob at aol.com
PHone: (727)548-9775
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