Reprint from the Progress Times - April 13, 2007
©Progress Times 2007 - All Rights Reserved

Butterfly Park Gala Will Start Campaign

By Kathy Olivarez

A gala, Wings Across the Border, will kick off the public phase of the North American Butterfly Association International Butterfly Park’s capital campaign for this unique park.

The park is dedicated to providing habitats to give butterflies the food and shelter they need to survive. It is a one-of-a-kind facility found nowhere else in the country.

The gala, which is set for May 5 at The Club at Cimarron, marks the start of the final phase of the capital campaign.

Although an estimated $1.8 million will be needed to complete the park when funds reach $500,000 to $600,000, the construction will begin. Tickets for the gala are $50 per person.

Texas First Lady Anita Perry is serving as honorary chairwoman of the event. Gala co-chairs are Yvonne Salinas, Luisa Ruiz and Nora Shah. Honorary co-chairs are Congressman Kika de la Garza and his wife, Lucille.

Funds raised will go to expansion of the park, which now occupies just two acres of the land allotted to the butterfly park. The park has received a $750,000 challenge from Dr. Judith Wible of Sugarland, Texas, but matching funds must be raised to leverage the gift. Expansion will include a visitor’s center, special gardens and planting of the special habitats needed by butterflies and other Valley wildlife.

In an effort to build a habitat suitable for the more than 300 species of butterflies that live in or come through the Valley each year, the North American Butterfly Association is involved in a habitat restoration at its facility just east of the World Birding Center headquarters in Mission. Former farmland is being reverted to natural plant communities that contain host plants needed by the butterflies.

The park is on 100 acres between Old Military Road and the Rio Grande. At the turn of the last century much of the land that supported butterfly migrations was cleared to be used for farmland. Today the need for habitat to support the dwindling numbers of butterflies has resulted in creation of this ambitious project.

Six different habitats are planned for the park. They were rated as (G1) vulnerable, (G2) imperiled or (G3) critically imperiled.

The first is the Texas Ebony Resaca Forest, rated G1. It is a critical plant community found at the edge of resacas in Cameron and Hidalgo counties. Most of it was lost when the area was cleared for agriculture.

When the first Spanish explorers came to the Rio Grande they noted a Sabal Palm Forest habitat that extended 80 miles inland from the mouth of the river. Today this habitat is quite limited and is rated G2.

Barreta is a G3 plant group found only in Hidalgo, Starr and Zapata counties. Barreta, Cenizo and Texas Ebony plants grow on dry, calcareous soil such as caliche.

The Honey Mesquite –Waltheria Woodland habitat is rated G3. This woodland occurs on sandy soils in several counties of South Texas.

Cenizo-Redbush Lippia Shrubland, rated G2, is found mostly in Hidalgo and Starr counties and in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas. This small red cenizo bush is found in limited quantities but is a favored host for certain species of butterflies.

The Saladillo-Curly Mesquite Shrubland habitat is critically imperiled. It is found in Zapata, Starr and Hidalgo counties and in Tamaulipas, Mexico, in saline terraces between slopes of gravel.

In addition to these habitats there will be ponds and trails, boardwalks and signage that will identify the plants found in each of the habitats that serve as hosts or provide nectar for food. The signs will identify butterflies that live in each habitat.

A nursery will be developed so that the park can propagate its own sources of butterfly plants and have other plants to sell to visitors wishing to establish their own butterfly gardens.

Dr. Sue Sill, director of the NABA International Butterfly Park, said each of the habitats provides a critical source of food for the butterflies.

The Valley has more species of butterflies than any other place in the U.S. and assuring proper sources of food and habitat is critical to their survival. Approximately 300 of the 700 species found in the U.S. can be seen in the Valley - more than anywhere else in the country.

While butterflies can be found in the park at anytime, the peak time to see them is October and November before the cold weather starts. In the spring and fall butterflies are out at midday. In summer when temperatures are hot, they prefer early mornings.

Some grants have been received and others are sought to finance the earthwork and landscaping to create these critical habitats. Sill believes funds raised this year will be enough to start work on a major portion of the park. Local support is being sought through the May 5th fundraiser and the Capital Campaign to fulfill the goal of constructing the major first phase of a world-class butterfly facility in 2008.

Already the park is gaining national recognition. One couple, who read about the park on the Internet, came all the way from England to see it and the butterflies. They spent two weeks looking at the different species.

Sill said another couple from Canada, who were not Winter Texans, also came and spent a week viewing the butterflies.

The Butterfly Park, and butterflies of the Valley, have made national news by being featured in the Escapes Section of The New York Times on January 12, 2007, and in Southern Living magazine’s Fall 2006 issue.

People are not the only special visitors to the park. Rare butterflies, some not seen before in the U.S., are finding their way across the river to the park and its special habitats. In February a Mexican Bluewing and a Red Admiral, both found in Mexico, but not the United States, were spotted in the park. A Mexican Silverspot caterpillar also was found in the park.

As more of these critical habitats are placed in the park, visitors will see more species of butterflies and NABA International Butterfly Park will become a unique place to study these beautiful creatures.

To reach NABA International Butterfly Park take Bentsen Palm Road south to the entrance of the World Birding Center headquarters. Take the road just south of the WBC parking lot to the east about one mile to the entrance of the park.