Butterfly House sets flight at Project Native

GREAT BARRINGTON – Promoting the connection between native habitats and local wildlife, Project Native has opened a Native Butterfly House open to the public at its native plant nursery on North Plain Road. An open house to unveil the new facility will be held Friday, August 16, from 5 to 6:30 p.m.

“People see a beautiful butterfly but they don’t connect it to their landscape,” Project Native Education Director Karen LeBlanc said. “With the butterfly house they will understand that caterpillars need certain plants to live and eat. If you don’t have the plants, you’re not going to get the butterfly.”

The new 35-by-55-foot structure encloses a garden of native plants grown at Project Native, all of which support the life cycle of native butterflies. Staff and visiting children have been collecting native butterflies from the Project Native property to populate the butterfly house, which is open to the public daily from 10 to 4.

“This is a great addition to Project Native,” General Manager David Ellis said. “It is a terrific educational resource and a great attraction. It will serve as the keystone for our educational programs which show the importance of native habitats in sustaining our wildlife.”

Project Native’s mission is to promote, restore and sustain native habitats in the Berkshire Taconic region. The 13-year-old non-profit organization grows native plants from seeds collected in the region and makes them available to the public with its retail/wholesale nursery, located on Route 41 in Housatonic.

Ms. LeBlanc first conceived of the butterfly house after placing caterpillars in small butterfly huts on the property. Soon she discovered that visitors and staff were fascinated by watching the life cycle as a caterpillar becomes a chrysalis and then emerges as a butterfly, and proposed building a structure large enough to contain permanent plantings and facilitate learning.

Donations from two board members and a grant from Berkshire Bank allowed Project Native to build the $20,000 structure this spring. Groups of children have gone on butterfly safaris for several weekends in search of caterpillars and butterflies to populate the enclosed garden. Two interns—Peter Slothower of Ithaca, NY, and Ellen Drews of Oak Park, IL—have helped Ms. LeBlanc put together education programs for the new garden and lead personalized tours.

“Our butterfly house is a catalyst to learn about what is going on around you with the habitat and environment,” Ms. LeBlanc said. “It’s sometimes hard to get people interested in plants, especially children, but give them something that crawls and has wings and they are a lot more interested.”

Some of the butterflies in the house now include the great spangled fritillary, monarchs, tiger  swallowtails, black swallowtails, spicebush swallowtails, as well as several moths. The early reaction from visitors has been very enthusiastic.

“We had one person who thought we had painted gold on the monarch chrysalis, but no – that’s just the way Mother Nature works,” said Ms. LeBlanc said. “It’s been so exciting to watch and learn as we do this. They’ve become like our own pets. We want to see how they are doing and the ways they are developing. It’s a wonderful thing to watch.”

Project Native is open from 9:30am – 5:00pm Monday through Saturday and 10:30am – 5:00pm Sunday, from mid-April through November. For more information, visit  www.projectnative.org  or call 413-274-3433.

Posted by Dana Drugmand on August 15, 2013. Filed under Community Events,Community News,News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry