The Butterfly Gardeners Association Vision & Goals

Do You Want to Find .....Peace, Contentment, Joy . . .while helping to save gorgeous butterfly species from extinction by creating butterfly gardens right in your own community or backyard? If so, you should know about the Butterfly Gardeners Association headquartered in the Berkeley, Ca. It's a new group on the ecological gardening scene.

Moved by the visible decline of butterfly populations worldwide, members plant butterfly gardens and promote education and action to help regenerate these gorgeous creatures.

Because of their astounding transformation from egg to caterpillar to chrysalis (pupa) to the incredible color spangled elegance of the butterfly, they can be the mascot of humankind's own unfolding to more caring beings.

Stewardship of butterflies is becoming linked to more serious issues, such as the containment of habitat destruction and the fostering of both cultural and bio-diversity. It is with hope and giddy anticipation that this new group sails forth to discover what together we can do to make a difference.

We may ". . . come to see them as embodying all the beauty and complexity of nature itself.
It is said that a butterfly can, with a flap of its wings, change the world . . .
. . that the ripple it sends out can spawn a hurricane."
"Rarely if ever do we get a chance to restore to nature even a tiny part of what we have taken away."
National Geographic Magazine Dec 93.

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." Margaret Mead (Quote from origination of Earth Day in 1969)

Statement of Purpose

The Butterfly Gardeners Association and affilate centers seeks to foster an appreciation of butterflies, hummingbirds, dragonflies, and other lifeforms. We emphasize the need for conservation of natural habitats in our communities and around the world. Our programs promote the installation of butterfly gardens, children's environmental education, reading, and nonviolence programs.

We link the stewardship of butterflies with serious issues such as the misuse and overuse of pesticides, global warming, ozone depletion, habitat and rainforest destruction, threats posed by genetic engineered crops that threaten butterflies and human health, and the fostering of cultural and biodiversity. Since butterflies are loved by all and serve as environmental indicators, they are excellent ambassadors for raising environmental consciousness.

Our Project Chrysalis will bring performers, musicians, dancers, artists, clowns, story tellers, puppeteers, and mimes into hospitals, hospices, schools, juvenile youth facilities, senior centers and other institutions that can use joy and healing entertainment for adults as well as children. We also plan to use other therapies such as horticulture, drumming, healing touch and massage, comedy, and theater as well. We believe that love and caring can be powerful therapeutic tools. Our presenters and volunteers offer this through performance arts and other means.

Our centers will carry out these goals and work for world peace and a sustainable planet by encouraging public service and the building of vibrant local communities.

Just Some of our Many Activities

TO EDUCATE OURSELVES AND THE PUBLIC ON:

The life cycle of butterflies.
What we can do to reverse butterfly decline.
How to attract butterflies, hummingbirds & other wildlife to gardens.
To link the interest in butterflies to the larger issues of habitat loss, cultural and biodiversity.

TO ORGANIZE VOLUNTEERS TO:

Plant butterfly gardens at homes, schools, parks, and institutions.
Provide programs for schools, clubs, nursing homes, the physically handicapped, and other institutions.
Work with media to spread the word.
Coordinate activities with Nature Centers, and at regional, state and national parks.
Assist in fund raising to carry out programs.

HELP THE COMMUNITY AT LARGE TO:

Rejuvenate species that are rare, threatened, endangered, or locally extinct by protecting and reestablishing their natural habitat.
Provide plant & source lists for establishing home or public butterfly gardens using native (preferable) or cultivated varieties.
Staff a speakers bureau with experts in the field.
Promote the construction and operation of a butterfly house and farm in the region.
Teach children to plant butterfly gardens at their schools and other programs.

ENJOY THE INCREDIBLE BEAUTY OF THESE EXQUISITE CREATURES AND . . .
PROMOTE ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP, CULTURAL AND BIODIVERSITY, AND WORLD PEACE TOO!

Some of the Existing Butterfly Centers in the USA

Cincinnati Zoo
Day Butterfly Center, Pine Mtn, GA (a part of Callaway Gardens)
Butterfly Emporium in Dollywood, Tenn.
The Butterfly Place, 120 Tyngsboro Road, Westford, MA 01886, (978) 392-0955, bflybut@aol.com
Butterfly World, Fort Lauderdale, FL
Butterfly Habitat, Marine World, Vallejo, CA
House of Butterflies, Osage Beach, MO (573) 348-0088
Kalamazoo Nature Center, Kalamazoo, MI
Mackinac Island Butterfly House, MI
Mussers Butterfly Farm in Sidney, OH
Papillon Park, Westford, MA
Rocky Mountain Butterfly Emporium
San Diego Wild Animal Park
Wings Over Hawaii @ Kilohana Plantation Lihuv, Kauai, HI (888) 288-7354

Regional Chapters Welcome: The Butterfly Gardeners Association encourages each bio-region to develop their own chapter. For a nominal fee a bundle of information can be obtained by writing to us at: Butterfly Gardeners Association, 1563 Solano Ave. #477, Berkeley, Ca 94707.

Butterfly Gardeners Association Goals

The Butterfly Gardener's Association seeks to foster an appreciation of hummingbirds, butterflies and other invertebrates, and to promote the establishment and conservation of habitats in urban communities and natural areas across the country. The organization consists of community and religious leaders, politicians, educators, authors, entomologists, naturalists, gardeners, environmentalists, students, and others who have an interest in conserving the biodiversity, cultural diversity, and habitability of planet earth. We are also researching and exploring the mystery of the butterfly's spiritual, therapeutic, and cultural effect on mankind. This "butterfly effect" has been been accredited in many books and articles as being a model and catalyst for the Conscious Evolution of the planet.

Our goals are:

1) To educate the public on the life cycle of butterflies, and what can be done to reverse their decline.

2) To educate the pubic on what can be done to attract butterflies to home gardens throughout the area.

3) To educate and get the support of city planners, parks manager landscapers, nurseries, designers, builders, etc. to promote landscape designs and plantings, in new, reclaimed, or existing sites, that will attract butterflies and provide the necessary
habitat conditions for their reproduction.

4) To link the interest in butterflies with the larger issue of habitat loss and destruction.

5) To organize a group of butterfly volunteers to:
a) plant butterfly gardens at their homes,
b) encourage their neighbors to do the same,
c) support other activities that will promote butterfly gardens,
d) plant butterfly gardens in park locations and other areas,
e) introduce programs for children and teens in schools and clubs, including special studies.
f) help the elderly and physically handicapped to have butterfly gardens,
g) investigate theraphetic programs for those who are chronically ill, or physically or mentally disadvantaged,
h) work with the media on educating the public,
i) promote a non-violence program for schools using butterflies,
j) coordinate environmental education projects involving naturalists at state parks and other facilities,
k) assist in fund raising to carry out programs.

6) Rentroduce native butterflies to regions where they have disappeared.

7) To make available plant lists and reference suggestion for establishing butterfly gardens using both native and/or cultivated plant varieties.

8) To sponsor speakers and programs on butterfly gardens.

9) To establish and promote the propagation of plants to be used in butterfly gardens and make available butterfly garden kits

10) To establish a foundation to fund projects and research for butterflies and other invertebrates, and to conserve open spaces. The foundation could also set up an award program to recognize those who have demonstrated excellence in the areas of conservation, education, or research.

11) To promote all the above for hummingbirds, bees, bats, and other pollinators.

12) To plan, promote, and help finance construction of a regional butterfly house, a live butterfly exhibit, with other interested groups.

13) To have fun, meet and work with our neighbors, beautify our environments, enjoy the wonderful beauty of these exquisite creatures, promote environmental stewardship, biodiversity, cultural diversity, and world peace

14) To assist the scientific community in an inventory of invertebrates, including lepidoptera.

The power to enrich a patch of Earth with beautiful butterflies, no matter how humble the plot or simple the effort, is awesome. Butterflies have had some hard times lately. Whatever we can do as individuals to help stanch the wounds a careless society inflicts on the land, we must do. Butterfly gardening is such an act. It will never replace the setting aside of nature reserves for the preservation of natural diversity, but it can help. Perhaps most importantly, it keeps people in touch with nature on an everyday basis, and that in itself can only lead to better, more sensitive Earth stewardship on the part of people as a whole.

The decline of not only endangered species, but of local butterfly populations in areas inhabited by man is an "extinction of experience." Suppose a creature dies out within your 'radius of each' - the area to which you have easy access. In some respects, it might have well be done altogether, because you will not be able to see it as you could before. Such extinction of experience makes people more isolated from and less caring of nature. The retention of wildlife in the cities and suburbs goes a long way toward maintaining the essential bond between people and nature that breeds a sense of stewardship and responsibility for the land and its life far beyond city limits.

Quote by Robert Michael Pyle in The Butterfly Garden by Mathew Tekulsky, Harvard Common Press.

Butterfly Gardeners Letter

Only once or twice in a lifetime does a vision come our way that is so compelling, so right for the times that we stop right away to reflect on how we may capture that vision and make it a part of our lives.

AFLUTTER WITH LEPIDOPTERA, an enclosed brochure, describes such a vision about butterflies and moths. The butterfly initiative touches the heart, is very achievable, and may come to symbolize the physical and spiritual changes we need to make to alter our path from global degradation to global sustainability; and from individual isolation and despair to one of hope and empowerment. Its many aspects have great appeal. The intention is to help save butterflies whose habitat and numbers have dwindled worldwide along with thousands of other species.

A national group, headquartered in Berkeley, Ca, with professional advisors from around the country has formed to be a catalyst for far-ranging inter-regional and local programs to help people enjoy the exquisite elegance of butterflies, moths and hummingbirds while demonstrating the principles of ecological regeneration. Hummingbirds were included because they thrive in similar habitats as butterflies.

The Butterfly Gardeners Association program is intended to:
foster the installation of butterfly gardens
reintroduce butterfly species that may be locally, extinct, rare or threatened.
provide models for the regeneration process
facilitate the young-at-heart of all ages to revel in the joy, and beauty of these gorgeous creatures and the fragrant flowers they 'nectar' from.

Appropriately the group's name is the Butterfly Gardeners Association. Founding members have created the organization to foster appreciation of butterflies and other creatures to emphasize the need for conservation of natural habitats in our communities and around the world. This statement of purpose leads to a wide range of programs and activities listed in the accompanying material.

An ex-Allentown PA man, Alan Moore, a biologist and lanscaper, first evolved the concept by brainstorming his butterfly vision with literally hundreds of individuals and groups from around the continent. The excited and enthusiastic response to these evolving concepts indicates the time is exactly perfect to offer the butterfly focus to the country and the "globe of villages."

The National Geographic's December 1993 issue featured an article on threatened rain forest butterflies. It ends with these stirringwords: We may " . . . come to see (butterflies) as embodying all the beauty and complexity of nature itself. It is said that a butterfly can, with the flap of its wings, change the world . . . that the ripple it sends out can spawn a hurricane . . . Rarely if ever do we get a chance to restore to nature even a tiny part of what we have taken away."

The butterfly initiative is a wondrous and rare adventure, because it is practical, uplifting and inspiring. Butterfly gardening can be a catalyst to a whole range of positive multiplier activities. This includes projects from environmental education to violence prevention in schools; from beautification of our backyards to habitat preservation in our neighborhoods and parks; and from rehabilitation programs for handicapped children to horticulture therapy programs for prison inmate populations.

In addition to supporting home and institutional gardens, we envision a butterfly farm and education center that includes gardens, flightroom, meeting space and giftshop staffed by professionals with support from community volunteers dedicated to inspiring and informing the general public about the region's butterfly stewardship.

Achieving all this and more requires the participation of many individuals and organizations who give what they can to support this inspired vision. A site acquisition and building fund is being set up. Sites are being considered. Your ideas regarding any and all aspects of the initiative are needed and most welcome. This is a "look like America," grassroots effort.

Inevitably when re-creating habitat for butterflies that effort becomes linked to the larger issues of abatement of habitat destruction and fostering of cultural and bio-diversity in general. We are building an organizational structure to handle the large volume of activity that our probing indicates will be required to keep up with the excitement generated by this demand.

Judith Levicoff, author of environmental curricula, recently completed a detailed workbook for K through 12 students on the life cycle of the Monarch butterfly, to demonstrate the inter-connectedness of all things in nature. She reports that when butterflies are propagated in the classroom they clearly indicate the quality of air in that environment. In some classrooms butterfly chrysali grew into grotesque misshapen forms. It was found that the spraying of pesticides routinely done in the classroom was responsible for maiming and killing the butterflies. Most likely, it was also damaging to student health.

We hope that you too will want to become a member of the BUTTERFLY GARDENERS ASSOCIATION, which offers a wide range of activities to participate in. You may select any one of the many aspects to engage in personally or to support them financially. Many outstanding citizens have indicated their support by becoming members of the Coordinating or Advisory Councils. If you would also like to serve on the coordinating council please contact Alan Moore at 510-528-7730.

We have assembled a large variety of butterfly materials for sale from books, to seed collections, from pins and butterfly 'T' shirts to jewelry and bumper stickers. A catalogue is in the works. Our intent is to open an outlet and office where all this material can be offered to the public.

Our plate is full and we are loving the fare! We feel great about how much is falling into place in so short a time. With so much to achieve we are moving with all deliberate speed to implement. We look forward to your participation and comments. Please be as generous as you can, when making out your check.

Basic memberships are $25, but other categories of giving are available as shown on the response card.
I hope you are as AFLUTTER ABOUT LEPIDOPTERA as I am. By helping to save butterflies we may be helping to save ourselves.

Sincerely,
ALAN MOORE
Initiator and General Coordinator

What Butterflies Can Do for You & Your Region

Butterflies offer a new ambience to any location. They can enliven and actually transform what was once an area of dwindling industrial activity to one creatively looking for upbeat ways to make ours a sustainable society.

More Butterfly Benefits:

Everybody loves butterflies.

Butterfly gardens, a visitors center, and farm can help boost regional tourism. In Pacific Grove, Ca., as well as other sites, monarch butterflies have become the central organizing theme ecotourism.

A place where butterflies flourish is a good place for people to be.

The butterfly initiative is drawing major media attention. Consequently, butterflies potentially offer an inexpensive and constructive way for a business organization to foster good public relations with their community. Both the organizations involved and the community are direct benefactors.

In the process of attracting and reintroducing butterflies into the community, we will beautify and improve the quality of life in our communities.

A focus on butterflies offers an ideal way to interest children of all ages in the interdependence between species and habitat, between health and the environment and the need to preserve contiguous "habitat corridors" and many other ecological principles.

The burgeoning trend is to establish environmental education centers at every school in every region. It appears that butterfly gardens will be an integral part of them. An early butterfly focus can offer regional and countrywide leadership.

Butterfly focus can demonstrate how communities network with clubs, schools, parks, garden clubs and block watches. For example, helping with bird and butterfly population counts will allow assessment of the trends.

Butterfly focus can help bring beauty, joy, and serenity to nursing homes, recuperation centers, and hospitals. "Horticultural therapy" has been shown to help reclaim juvenile offenders and benefit cancer patients (Gilda's Clubs endorse this approach).

Perhaps, most importantly, butterfly focus can demonstrate that we care about butterflies for their own sakes. It is our intent to act as catalyst in activating a desire in others to participate in the stewardship of this especially delightful aspect of nature. Hopefully, this desire to live in harmony and reverence of nature will extend to the rest of creation.

YOU CAN MAKE THE BUTTERFLY INITIATIVE BENEFIT YOU, and your workplace by planting a butterfly garden with which the Butterfly Gardeners Association is available to help. Also make the most generous possible gift to the general fund, or any particular aspect of the project. Please complete the enclosed response card while you are AFLUTTER WITH LEPIDOPTERA!

Our goal is to be a resource center that also continually fosters the development of other similar resource centers.

A foundation would be established to fund projects and research for butterflies and other wildlife, and to conserve open spaces. The foundation could also set up an award program to recognize those who demonstrate excellence in the areas of conservation, education, or research.

EACH RESOURCE CENTER SOLICITS FUNDS TO PROVIDE VOLUNTEERS AND RESOURCES TO:

Plan, promote, and finance construction of butterfly resources centers with butterfly houses that have live butterfly exhibits.

Sponsor speakers and programs to educate the public on the life cycle of butterflies, what can be done to reverse their decline, how to breed them, and how to attract the butterfly to their home gardens, neighborhoods and local parks through planting butterfly gardens. All programs could be adapted to give in-service credit to teachers.

Sponsor programs that would educate the public through mass media and creative merchandising.

Develop programs and educational materials, including picture books, for children and teens. These programs and material would then be introduced into schools, children's organizations and clubs. Included would be the development of a for-children anti-violence program utilizing butterflies.

Establish educational programs that will promote butterfly gardens and therapeutic programs for seniors, prisoners and those who are chronically ill, or physically or mentally disadvantaged.

Coordinate environmental education projects involving naturalists at state/national parks.

Make reference materials and plant lists widely available which utilized both native and/or cultivated plant varieties.

Promote the propagation of plants to be used in butterfly gardens and make butterfly garden kits widely available.

Foster the support of city planners, architects, park managers, landscapers, nurseries, contractors, etc. to promote landscape designs and plantings, in new reclaimed, or existing sites, that will attract butterflies and provide the necessary habitat conditions for their reproduction.

Link the butterfly conservation focus to the larger issue of habitat destruction by fostering bio and cultural diversity, including indigenous native cultures. Link focus to specific other wildlife such as hummingbirds and endangered species

Assist the scientific community in an inventory of Lepidoptera and biodiversity of wildlife.

Have fun, meet and foster teamwork with our neighbors, beautify our environment, enjoy the wonderful beauty of these exquisite creatures, promote environmental stewardship.

"The power to enrich a patch of Earth with beautiful butterflies, no matter how humble the plot or simple the effort, is awesome. Butterflies have had some hard times lately. Whatever we can do as individuals to help stanch the wounds a careless society inflicts on the land, we must do. Butterfly gardening is such an act. It will never replace the setting aside of nature reserves for the preservation of natural diversity, but it can help. Perhaps most importantly, it keeps people in touch with nature on an everyday basis, and that in itself can only lead to better, more sensitive Earth stewardship on the part of people as a whole.

The decline of not only endangered species, but of local butterfly populations in areas inhabited by man is an "extinction of experience." Suppose a creature dies out within you 'radius of reach', the area to which you have easy access. In some respects, it might have well be gone altogether, because you will not be able to see it as you could before. Such extinction of experience makes people more isolated from and less caring of nature. The retention of wildlife in the cities and suburbs goes a long way toward maintaining the essential bond between people and nature that breeds a sense of stewardship and responsibility for the land and its life far beyond city limits."

Quote by Robert Michael Pyle in The Butterfly Garden by Matthew Tekulsky, Harvard Common Press

YES, I WANT TO BE A CHARTER MEMBER OF THE BUTTERFLY GARDENERS ASSOCIATION

Join the enchanted flight . . .of the butterfly.
Break free of your chrysalis limitations.
Follow her in discovery of life's wondrous mystery.
Believe with all your heart the world can be healed, born anew,
And soon, . . . the love which seeded that belief
Will create a miracle come true.

Shirl A. Steward