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October 14, 2003 MEETING - Monarch Larval Monitoring Project

1. As the monarchs moved through Texas, President Pat Thomas welcomed members back and talked about our summer butterfly activities:

A. Our chapter participated in the Harvest Fest at Leif Erickson Park in September. Jim Larson and Gail Gilliland shared information on the monarch larval monitoring project conducted in the summer. They also had some caterpillars and chrysalides for the public to see. All reports indicated that it was a big success and we want to thank Jim and Gail for their hard work and dedication to monarchs.

B. Our chapter appeared in NABA's summer issue of "Butterfly Gardener" magazine.

C. We conducted several butterfly counts around the Duluth area under the leadership of Jim Phillips. One of those counts, the Muriel Shirey Memorial Count at Enger Tower, made the newspaper and television. We are hopeful this count will involve people in Duluth who might not be NABA members. Jim is always ready to count butterflies and we thank him for setting up our official counts with NABA.

D. NABA members Jim Philips and Pat Thomas traveled to Grand Marais to join Dave and Bonnie MacLean for a NABA Butterfly Count. This is the second year our chapter has taken part in this count and want to thank Dave and Bonnie for sharing the many wonderful butterflies up north and for their hospitality and good food after the count.

E. Our butterfly garden tours were filled with beauty, fun and food. Terry Hamp and Donna Peterson shared their magical gardens with us and we re-visited Greg Bonovetz and John and Pat Thomas' gardens. Greg's wonderful garden was part of the Secret Garden tour and written up in the newspaper. These gardens were so inspirational that some of us got outdoors digging and planning gardens afterwards. Thank you all for sharing.

F. Jim and Alice Larson attended a training session for the Monarch Larval Monitoring Project with the University of Minnesota. They and Gail Gilliland co-directed this project during rainstorms and eventual summer heat. All summer long, they and other members of our chapter, including Foster Gilliland, Mary Johnson, Sue McDonald, Marilyn Miller, Donna Peterson and Pat Thomas, counted eggs and caterpillars, measured milkweed and then Gail submitted our data to the university. Many thanks to all who participated and to Gail and Jim and Alice for their vision and dedication.

G. Pat Thomas started collecting information for NABA's regional brochures on butterfly gardening. St. Louis County Master gardeners and some local gardeners participated. Results will be shared with our chapter and NABA.

2. The evening's program began with Jim Phillips reporting on the counts we did in the Duluth area this summer. The number of species and individual butterflies will be part of the NABA report and will
be shared with our chapter when available. Jim is hoping to include more counts next year.

3. Our featured program "Monarch Larval Monitoring Project" was introduced by Vice-President Jim Larson who shared slides from the University of Minnesota. We were able to see various caterpillar instars and other slides of monarchs. Gail then showed her own power point presentation on the summer study. We all agreed it was a beautiful and very professional program. It was fun to see our members out in the field searching for eggs and caterpillars. We hope to see this again and thank Gail and Jim for their creative and dedicated work.

4. Before concluding our meeting, Jim Phillips and Wally Matson shared stories on the painted lady
migration. They are hoping to set up a counting station for migrating butterflies, including monarchs, next season and will keep us posted.

5. Next month NABA member Jim Sanders of the Forest Service will talk about butterfly habitat in the
Superior Forest and explain how the Forest Service works with butterflies. In December Dave MacLean will talk about species of concern in the Superior forest-both these talks should help us learn about some of the dangers butterflies face and what we might do to help. If you're interested in becoming more involved with these issues of conservation, please contact Pat Thomas. A sheet was passed out so people could be updated on this.

Submitted by Pat Thomas and Doreen Hansen