Glassberg tells reporters collectors "could wipe out" the Miami Blue

[Bob Parcelles,Jr.]

--- Anne Kilmer <viceroy at GATE.NET> wrote:

> snip
> 
> I hate to support Glassberg in any of his statements, but he's
> right about the hurricanes in this instance.

If life were fair, Ron would be right, since he's right on the
> money about hurricanes. Butthe Schaus Swallowtail was indeed nearly
> wiped outby Hurricane Andrew (I think), which came along right when
the Swallowtails were vulnerable. When a butterfly is reduced to a
tiny fingerhold on a spit of land, it doesn't take much to extinguish
> it.

> If there hadn't been a stash of Schaus Swallowtails being reared in
> Gainesville, they might well be wiped out by now.
> They were being reared by collectors, let me add. :-)
> What we'll have to do for the Balloon Vine is make it a politically
> desirable and popular vine, encourage schools and parks to use it
> as a
> major part of their landscaping, train children to care for it,
> groom it
> and keep it reasonably attractive, while treasuring those
> butterfly-filled pods.
> This, of course, we cannot do if the butterfly is listed as
> endangered.
> I asked, a while ago, when I was butterfly gardening the Palm Beach
> Zoo,
> whether we might have a few Schaus Swallowtails to rear on our Wild
> Lime
> trees, of which we had quite a few. (I didn't mean right that
> minute; we
> would have done considerable preliminary work, and involved quite a
> few
> experts.)
>   The answer was no, because if the butterflies lived and thrived
> and the
> colony expanded to neighboring parks and gardens, the Feds would be
> involved in following them around and making life hell to the
> people
> graced with the presence of the butterfly.
> 
> Glassberg is also correct that a collector *could* wipe out a
> colony of
> butterflies, if it is sufficiently limited as to flight times and
> area,
> and if the collector chooses to do that.
> It is, of course, far more likely that the developer will wipe out
> the
> habitat, and that the collector is trying to save, transplant, rear
> and
> release ...
> But, assuming that indeed there are only 30 or so Miami Blues, and
> they
> are all at the site described, yup, a collector could do it. So
> could a
> little lady with a pair of clippers and an enthusiastic group of
> kids
> trying to "help" the environment.
> As I remember the Tom Kral incident, when I, too, was subscribed to
> this
> august list, he was mostly rearing butterflies raised from gravid
> butterflies he had caught. But, when the folks counted up his
> score,
> they figured it the same as if he had caught all those endangered
> butterflies.
> That struck me as unfair, but his other offenses were pretty dumb,
> in my
> opinion.
> Neil has all this on his web page, where people who wish to wander
> through all our postings may go and read it.
> It is hard to believe that this was all only six years ago. Wow. I
> feel
> so much older ...
> 
> Anyway, as you are wandering through the Keys, it might not hurt to
> gather a handful of Balloon Vine seedpods wherever you find them,
> and
> scatter them wherever they might be appreciated, Johnny Appleseed
> style.
> It would be essential, of
> course, to avoid that little colony, wherever it is, and to leave
> it
> undisturbed.
> Would it better, do you reckon, to have local nurseries rear the
> plants
> and sell the seeds, thus avoiding disturbing possible unfound
> colonies?
> It's that "helping nature" thing again, I guess.
> 
> I enjoyed watching the Atala butterfly spread, with the eager
> assistance
> of gardeners, collectors, nurseries and the Cooperative Extension
> Agents. That involved planting the coontie, a slow-growing cycad
> which
> is terribly expensive, and which the larvae may well kill.
> Seems to me that the Balloon Vine would be easier to promote.
> Y'all want to make up a recovery plan which we can apply before the
> Feds
> jump in?
> 
> We need a poster for local schools, showing the plant, its flower,
> and
> the butterfly ... large, and life-size. We need coloring books. We
> need
> a web page where sightings can be logged, host plant areas mapped,
> new
> colonies reported.
> Maybe we need cute signs with pictures of the butterfly which can
> be
> posted in "unsightly" areas where the dried vines overwinter with
> their
> precious cargo.

> Someone who can play the grant game should be able to make this
> fly.Maybe it's already happening.
> Anne Kilmer
> South Florida


Annie,

Nice to see "your dark humor" rear it head again. YOU are right on
the money. Your PROACTIVE suggestions are a good ending to this
thread but should be a beginning to "playing the game" as you state
above. 

If you are still reading your Nature Potpourri posts [we miss your
articles in our "News Paper style Newsletters and your witty, not
dark (at least on our very warm, fuzzy list...it has been some time];
you will be aware that the Bay World public Trust, Inc of which I am
a VP has as its main project (among over 30) The Clean Millennium
Movement, of which I am Chairman. Within it, this fledgling
organization with bright energetic scientists and specialists coming
aboard, has an Institute of Ecological and Environmental Studys:
which I am sure would work with on of our other 3 Directorates, the
Environmental Education Office to do just the things you mention. I
am sure NABA Chapters in South Florida would help as well as some
people on this list. We even have a person to design the cute signs. 

I have often heard the motto "he who can't do... teach. Well we know
better do we not proffs on the list :). I have sometimes included
myself in an abridgement of this rather trite saying. He who can't do
...teach...he who can't teach... write and then, surely, he can do.

This YOUR project Annie...we'll get the grants.

Well, I am going to swith gears to the co-evolutiion post. thats
where my pasions ly

Bob

=====
Bob Parcelles, Jr
Pinellas Park, FL
RJP Associates, C2M-BWPTi
rjparcelles at yahoo.com
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/naturepotpourri
"Change your thoughts and you change your world."
- Norman Vincent Peale

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