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Butterfly Habitat Restoration

The Butterfly Habitat is continuing to flourish each year, providing critical habitat for butterflies, birds and other wildlife. Shown above: Butterfly Habitat in bloom on July, 2006. Orange Sulphur (Colias eurytheme) nectaring on Zinnia flowers.

Butterflies are critical components of many ecosystems and are in decline throughout much of the world.

The goal of this project is to create a large-scale butterfly habitat at the Wilds and use the site as a vehicle for researching habitat recovery as well as educating students and visitors about butterfly ecology. Initially, a 6-acre area was planted with short grasses and native flowering plants during the Fall of 2003 and 4- acres were planted during the Spring of 2004. Additional acreage is being added and improved each consecutive year.

In order to keep track of the species that use the habitat over time, transects have been incorporated to monitor not only for butterflies, but for dragonflies, damselflies, reptiles, amphibians, small mammals, as well as vegetation. Information gathered from this biological monitoring will help us understand over time whether the habitat is having positive impacts on butterfly populations and overall biodiversity.

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