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October 12, 2004 MEETING

President Pat Thomas welcomed everyone to the first meeting of the "cool weather" season

1. Monarch News
A map showed the butterflies had migrated to Texas. A copy of Bill Calvert's trips to the monarch overwintering sanctuaries in Mexico was available. John and Pat Thomas have signed up for the Morelia trip. Gail Gilliland, unable to attend the meeting, sent a report, presented by Foster, on this summer"s monarch larval monitoring. Numbers were down in 2004 due to perhaps:

***Storms in Mexico (2002, 2004) that killed millions of overwintering monarchs

***Loss of habitat in agricultural areas and the increased use of herbicide-tolerant crops,
mostly soybeans.

***Unusually cool weather during the last part of the summer.

Monitoring on Saturdays did not increase the number of monitors so summer 2005 monitoring will be done on weekdays. Jim Sanders asked about data from other years to interpret and compare data from this summer and suggested we get a speaker to address fluctuations in insect poplations. Our chapter will read and discuss Karen Oberhauser's book The Monarch Butterfly: Biology and Conservation in an informal study group starting in January. Interested people should contact Pat Thomas. We will also read Butterflies:Ecology and Evolution Taking Flight.

2. Pat Thomas spoke of a need to have some gifts for speakers, the science fair in February and garden tours. Inexpensive butterfly books are sometimes found in catalogs or used book stores. We'd need about 8-10 items a year and we'd limit cost to an average of $5-6.00 per gift. The group agreed that it would be ok for Pat to purchase some books to be used as gifts for the coming year. If you have an item you"d like to donate for this purpose, please let Pat know.

3. The November meeting will deal with the formation of a Butterfly Conservation Committee, directed by Dave MacLean. We will talk about possible projects in our area related to butterfly conservation, ecology and habitat.

4. Next we talked about topics for future meetings. We decided to have talks on native plants for butterflies, pesticide free gardening, dragonflies, and insect populations. Pat will begin finding speakers for these topics. We decided to hold the January meeting and perhaps have a talk that would remind us of green summers filled with butterflies. The December meeting will be a "Butterfly Social". Jim Phillips suggested we share any butterfly related items that we have and love: butterfly books, art,crafts, etc, sort of like a "show and tell." Pat wondered if we might do butterfly gifts for the holidays with items that could be sold and profits used for targeted butterfly conservation projects. She passed out information on a butterfly game that can be bought and sold by naba chapters as a fundraiser. Greg Bonovetz and Gail Gilliland offered to donate butterfly cards they have made. Gail sent some of her beautiful cards with Foster for the group to see. A list was passed for people to sign up to further explore these ideas.

5. We also discussed having tee shirts, mugs and totebags decorated with our chapter's name and pictures of butterflies. Jim Phillips suggested we use the photo from our website. Karen Arthur said we could also use photos from our members or involve the photography clubs in a contest. Karen mentioned a website http://www.cafepress.com that makes up such items for non-profit groups. Marilyn Miller suggested we have some extras to sell as fundraisers. A group of people volunteered to look into this.

6. Donna Peterson reported on the progress to date of Muriel's garden. This has been a long process, but the area is now being defined and concrete poured. Both Donna and Pat agreed it has been a learning experience. Jim Sanders suggested getting others involved to handle issues other than garden design. Donna and Pat will visit the site again in October and will report back at the November meeting.

7. Our chapter is involved with some wonderful projects:
monarch larval monitoring, NABA butterfly counts, the butterfly garden for Muriel, NABA Butterfly Garden Project and our partnership with the National Forest Service to help monitor butterfly populations. However, we need more people to become involved with these efforts to help butterflies. Karen Arthur discussed ways to promote our chapter. She passed out business cards for people to take and share with others and talked about a brochure she can develop that could be placed in hotels, garden and nature centers, the Arboretum. We might also think of creating a partnership with the local Canal Park business community to promote butterflies and business. People from the Twin Cities could attend a NABA meeting, enjoy dinner with a discount and stay overnight at a hotel for a reduced rate. Jim Sanders suggested we could also include the butterfly counts and monarch larval monitoring as part of this idea. Also mentioned was the possibilty to read butterfly books to children at schools. Jim Sanders suggested we could also make copies of the butterfly game available to schools or libraries for children. Karen is willing to help us promote our work for butterflies, but we need people to volunteer to get this going. The business community meets the third Wednesday of each month and we could send a contact person to attend a meeting with Karen.

Please contact Pat Thomas at pthomas55804@yahoo.com to find out how you can get involved.

8. Our group will read the book An Obsession with Butterflies by Sharman Apt Russell with the Northern Lights Environmental Book Group. The month has not been set, but will be sometime in the spring. This is a beautifully written and informative book that would be a great holiday gift for the butterfly enthusiast. Plan on joining us for a wonderful discussion in the spring. Our meeting ended around 8:30 and people left a little after 9:00 p.m.

Respectfully submitted Pat Thomas for Doreen Hansen who could not attend the meeting