Title: Carolina’s Wild Butterflies: Identification and Monitoring

Host: Jeff Pippen, founder of the Carolinas Butterfly Monitoring Program (BMP)

Summary: This program will introduce you to North Carolina’s wild butterflies, how to identify them, and how to become a citizen-scientist butterfly monitor.  Because insect populations are declining at alarming rates, long-term monitoring of butterfly populations across the Carolinas will provide valuable data for scientists and land managers.  The Carolinas Butterfly Monitoring project is partnering with outreach and conservation programs across the Carolinas to teach the general public how to identify local butterflies and establish  fun, easy-to-conduct surveys using standardized protocols where you can go for a walk and record the butterflies you see.  Data are contributed to a national database for scientists to examine butterfly population trends across the continent.  

Logistics: The workshop is designed to be about 2 hours long, with the first 50 minutes indoors with Jeff giving a powerpoint presentation. We then head outdoors for about 45 minutes to look for butterflies and mock up how to do a field survey.  Finally we finish up back indoors with a 5-minute wrap up powerpoint about next steps.