AUBURN ME, A talk about the Maine Butterfly Survey will be presented Monday, January 5th, at the monthly meeting of the Stanton Bird Club. The presentation will be by Dr. Phillip deMaynadier, a wildlife biologist for Maine’s Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. He will discuss “The Maine Butterfly Atlas: Keeping Track of Scaled Jewels”. The Maine Butterfly Survey, will mark its third season in 2009, and hopes to document the distribution and status of the state’s butterfly fauna. The goal is to improve the understanding of butterflies and thereby help conserve those species most vulnerable to decline
Dr. deMaynadier received his doctorate in Wildlife Ecology from the University of Maine in 1996 where he studied the effects of forest management practices on amphibians.
The Stanton meeting and Dr. deMaynadier’s talk will take place at 7pm at the Auburn Public Library, 49 Spring St. The meeting is free and open to the public.
The Maine Butterfly Survey (MBS) is a 5-year, statewide, volunteer survey effort. Following in the tradition of previously state-sponsored wildlife atlasing projects -- including most recently the Maine Damselfly and Dragonfly Survey -- data generated from the MBS will come primarily from citizen scientists. The survey will help fill information gaps on distribution, flight seasons, and habitat relationships for one of the state’s most popular insect groups. Training workshops for new MBS volunteers are currently being scheduled for 2009; check the MBS website for further details (http://mbs.umf.maine.edu) or contact Dr. Herb Wilson, at whwilson@colby.edu (207-859-5739). Funding for this work comes from the state's Nongame and Endangered Wildlife Fund, supported from sales of the Loon Conservation License Plate and contributions to the Chickadee Check-off.
The Stanton Bird Club is a conservation organization offering monthly free natural history programs and field trips throughout the state. The organization welcomes new members whose dues help to provide land stewardship at three sanctuaries, owned and managed by the club, in Lewiston and Monmouth. For more information, call 782-5238, visit the Web site at www.stantonbirdclub.org or email questions to StantonPR@yahoo.com