MBBRP list

[viceroy at bellsouth.net]

My butterflying friends,
Mark Walker and I have been chatting about the MBBRP list, which was founded back in 2002 to study and restore the Miami Blue butterfly in Florida. Most of the members are also members of one or another of these lists. 

We are list owners. The list has been dormant for a while, and we are thinking that we would like to revive it, rename it, and use it as a memorial for Ron Gatrelle, who was a co-founder. 

After Hurricane Frances took out most of my trees last year, I was somewhat comforted by using all that raw sunshine to foster butterfly host and nectar plants. I was fortunate enough to know what plants and butterflies would thrive in my part of Florida. 

I'm thinking that with much of Florida and the Gulf States now in a similar denudement, after this year's storms on top of last year's, a drive involving school children, garden club members, Master Gardeners and other well-wishers might similarly comfort the victims who are looking at flattened trees and drowned lawns and shrubbery.

Some ten years ago, the Butterfly Coalition, a similar assortment of gardeners, created butterfly gardens in Florida schools. We might like to use this name for our list, and approach the disaster areas in a similar spirit. 

I think the expertise of the field entomologists would be vital here, so that we don't end up with fields of milkweeds and monarchs while the rare and endangered butterflies are lost. 

I hope that this project will please our list members and that all of you will join in.

In the next couple of days, we'll change the name of the list, and then send out an invitation to members of these lists and to other butterfly groups. 

I would be glad to hear you thoughts. 
Anne Kilmer
Mayo, Ireland 
(back to South Florida Oct. 29)


 
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