[leps-talk] Re:Glassberg

[Clay Taylor]

All -

    Just because collecting is prohibited on an organization's field trips
doesn't make that organization anti-collecting.   Alex G.'s recent praise of
the Connecticut Butterfly Association's diverse membership and open-minded
policies made my morning (I was the CBAs founding president).   However, I
would be remiss if I failed to note that the CBA doesn't allow collecting on
its field trips, either.

    The reasons for this are simple - we never know who may attend any of
our field trips, and out of respect for the landowners we visit (including
Conn. State Parks where collecting may only be done by permit) and these new
and potentially new members, we refrain from collecting.   All of our
collector members know this, and many still attend the trips.

    HOWEVER, most of our leaders do use nets on these trips, as a learning
tool for the beginners.  Let's face it, a novice butterflyer usually has a
lousy binocular and no ID skills - a few hours of "experts" identifying
skippers with Swarovski ELs is enough to discourage lots of potential
members.  When I lead a CBA field trip, my policy is this - the first time
we encounter a new species for the day, it is netted and placed into a CD
case so all the participants can study it closely, often side-by-side with
the field guide.  It is than released, and all subsequent sightings of that
species are done on the fly.   The system works quite well.

Clay Taylor
Moodus, CT
ctaylor at att.net
----- Original Message -----
From: "Paul Cherubini" <monarch at saber.net>
To: <leps-l at lists.yale.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, January 23, 2002 3:09 PM
Subject: Re: [leps-talk] Re:Glassberg


> Hank  Brodkin wrote:
>
> > While it is true most members of NABA come from bird watching groups
> > (and I can only speak about our chapter, SEABA) most of our folks
> > certainly do NOT seek to
>
> Other NABA chapters, such as the Eugene-Springfield Oregon one
> certainly do discourage or disparage collecting:
>
> "All field trip leaders are expected to follow the NABA-ES field trip
guidelines:"
> http://www.naba.org/chapters/nabaes/images/Field_Trip_Guidelines.PDF
>
> "Capturing butterflies with nets should be minimized and used only for
educational
> or identification purposes. Collecting is not allowed on NABA
Eugene-Springfield
> trips.  As much as possible, rely on identifying butterflies with
binoculars and
> photographs."
>
> Paul Cherubini
>
>
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