Milbert's Tortoise Shell
basking in th sun
NABA Northern Crescents Meeting Minutes
Tuesday Oct 23, 2007
NABA-NCC met at the Benedictine Health Center on Tues. Oct. 23, 2007 at 6:30pm. In attendance: Pat Thomas, Gail & Foster Gilliland, Jim & Pat Sanders, Wally Matson, Marilyn Carter, Jane Wattrus, Jim Phillips, Jeanie Bruno, Wendy Grethen, & Doreen Hansen.
Jeanie reported on the work she and Donna Peterson did at Muriel’s Memorial Garden during the summer. They added more plants that would provide color in the spring and more foliage color. They also mulched the garden, watered and weeded with help from Pat Thomas. Many thanks to them for their dedication and devotion to sustaining this wonderful butterfly habitat! They also plan to label plants with rock signs in the spring to further educate visitors. They’ve had many positive comments about the gardens and the joy it brings to residents, resident’s families, and BHC staff.
Jim Phillips reported on the Butterfly counts. He reported a total of 17 people participated in 6 counts-a new record! He also reported that Jerry McCormick led a count on Laurentian Divide, which was a good workout since they climbed the Divide twice. Detailed information about the counts will be on the website. Many thanks to Jim for his continued commitment to these counts. Wally offered to lead one of the counts next year.
Gail shared the Monarch Larval Monitoring Summary. There was some discussion about why we don’t get a second crop of monarchs in our area, or whether we ever have. There was also some discussion about whether the crop of milkweed that Jim P. watered was more of an attractant to the Monarchs since it grew, was eaten down, grew again, and was eaten down again. Meanwhile, milkweed along the dirt road near Jim’s and the milkweed at the Knowlton Creek Field were eaten by monarchs just once. Perhaps the extreme drought is the answer? Juicy, watered milkweed may have been much more appealing than the untended milkweed. Many thanks to Gail for her continued dedication to keeping this important data gathering project going!
Pat Thomas stepped down as President of our chapter. We thank her very much for starting NCC and all her work and dedication! Her passion for butterflies has helped educate many of us, brought passionate butterfly lovers together and has reached a wide community with her butterfly habitat talks. She has agreed to continue on as VP of our chapter. Marilyn Carter and Pat Sanders will share leadership as co-presidents of our chapter. Secretarial duties will be shared by the membership. Doreen, our webmaster, will post the notes online.
Pat T. reported a balance of $683.42 in our account.
The group decided to have 4 meetings during the non-butterfly season. Plans for 2007-2008 season:
October 23:
Fall gathering, reports on summer activities
December 11:
Christmas potluck at Pat & John Thomas’s (Pat T. & Jane
lead)
February (TBA):
Potluck & Sharing with outreach to the public. (Marilyn, Pat &
Jim Sanders lead)
Possible outreach to the public with powerpoints of monitoring, counts
& identification. Jim Sanders will put the presentation together.
Doreen will put out flyers & online info.
April or May (TBA):
Weeding and meeting at Benedictine Health Center - potluck and
habitat education