Border Wall Information

The surveyor's stakes marking the 150 ft “clearing zone” for Trump’s Border Fence appeared at the National Butterfly Center in Mission, TX, on Thursday, July 20, along with a work crew with chainsaws and heavy equipment.  

When Marianna Trevino Wright, executive director of the nonprofit center confronted them, the crew explained they were hired by the Department of Homeland Security Customs and Border Protection to remove trees and brush along a 1.2 mile road from the levee to the Rio Grande River; this is a private road, on private property, held by the North American Butterfly Association.  About halfway down the road lay a big, white X marking the spot where engineers had taken a core soil sample to determine the suitability of this place for construction.

‘Bugs vs. Americans. Bugs lose.’

One short-sighted commentator’s glib response to the situation summarizes part of the ignorance surrounding everything at stake here. This isn’t all about the butterflies.

No permission was requested to enter the property or begin cutting down trees. The center was not notified of any roadwork, nor given the opportunity to review, negotiate or deny the workplan.  Same goes for the core sampling of soils on the property, and the surveying and staking of a “clear zone” that will bulldoze 200,000 square feet of habitat for protected species like the Texas Tortoise and Texas Indigo, not to mention about 400 species of birds.  The federal government had decided it will do as it pleases with our property, swiftly and secretly, in spite of our property rights and right to due process under the law.

Why should you care?

1. If you own property or value your Constitutional right to due process, you should be very concerned about the government doing entering property without permission or due process. Altering it. Destroying it. Coming onto it and killing creatures that live there with reckless indifference. Your home or property could be next.
2. If you think the “Border Fence” will stop illegal immigration, you are mistaken. The fence has gates and gaps every mile or so where people can pass through; so the fence is actually a FUNNEL, designed to direct those crossing into our country to areas where Border Patrol agents may more easily monitor and intercept traffic—that is, unless people use ladders or scale the fence on their own, which they do.
3. If you pay taxes, you should understand the Border Fence is not a solution to the problem of illegal immigration. It is a waste of tax dollars.

In this 38-mile length of fence the Trump Administration seeks to build, more than 30 million square feet of vegetation may be cleared. Some of this will be private land, such as ours, but some of it will be public land, like the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge and Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park.  These are YOUR lands.

These lands hold our history as a nation; our cultural history and natural history. They are home to our natural treasures and, in many cases, the last foothold for endangered species, like the Ocelot.

For this reason, the National Butterfly Center is taking a stand. We are joining dozens of private property owners in taking legal action against the efforts of the federal government to deprive us of our property rights.  

If the federal government succeeds in tossing due process and usurping private property rights, all Americans lose.

PLEASE JOIN US!

You can stand with us by contributing to our Legal Defense Fund or by joining the National Butterfly Center, today.

The National Butterfly Center is a nonprofit environmental conservation and education project of the North American Butterfly Center.  Members receive admission to the property, discounts on purchases in our gift shop and native plant nursery, and reciprocal admission benefits to almost 300 botanical gardens across the United States through our participation in the American Horticultural Association’s RAP.  Members also receive NECTAR, our monthly e-newsletter.

Please help us preserve this land and the precious habitat and wildlife it contains!  

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Letter for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Southwestern Division

Now that we know the US Army Corps of Engineers is the agency performing the mapping, survey and sampling work in preparation for the Border Fence, we wish to let them know how we feel about their presence and purpose, here.  

We have prepared the letter posted here as a PDF for you to download, print and mail to Col. Paul Owens, commander of the USACE Southwestern Division.  You may also TWEET the the agency @USACE_SWD or call them during business hours (Monday - Friday) at 469-487-7007.

Please be respectful, so our voices may be heard, united in protest. 

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Solar power is reducing the National Butterfly Center’s carbon footprint

The National Butterfly Center is delivering on its mission of growing connections between people, plants, pollinators and the planet with a new solar array, featuring 102 solar panels. The Green Mountain Energy Sun Club donated almost $90,000 to pay for the array, which will save nearly $250,000 in energy costs through its lifetime production. In addition, the 34.17 kW solar array allows the National Butterfly Center to reduce its carbon footprint by 50%.

The Center tracks electricity usage in kilowatt hours and calculates the carbon that was offset by using solar power. The Center’s site showcases this information, allowing guests to track the figures and gain an understanding of how solar energy reduces CO2 emissions.

Each year, the Center will prevent 65,000 pounds of CO2 from being released in the air through the use of solar power. That amount of CO2 is the same as taking 2,500 cars off the road for a day, 60 households turning off their lights for a year or recycling almost 61,000 pounds of waste instead of sending it to the landfill.

Free Community Day, Saturday November 4th

The National Butterfly Center is pleased to present our inaugural adventure to Angangueo!

February 1 - 6, 2018

This 5 night/6 day guided tour includes:

• Airfare from Houston IAH
• Meals
• Airport transfers
• Hotel accommodations
• Entrance fees and
• All activities listed in the detailed itinerary for $2895 per per (double room occupancy).

This epic excursion to the overwintering grounds of the Monarch is the trip of a lifetime, and your field guide will be none other than Linda Cooper. Perhaps best known as one-half of the dynamic duo, "Buck'n'Linda", Linda and her beloved husband, spent the last 30 years chasing butterflies and birds. While their accomplishments are too numerous to mention, here are some highlights:

• Resident naturalists at Audubon/Street Nature Center in Winter Haven for 13 years, living on the grounds and running the Nature Center for Lake Region Audubon Society.
• 1998 recipients of Florida Audubon’s distinguished Allan Cruickshank Memorial Award for their conservation work.
• Recognized by the Florida Game and Freshwater Fish Commission (now FFWCC) with an award for their contribution to wildlife preservation (1998).
• 2013 recipients of Green Horizon Land Trust Blazing Star Award for their environmental education programs.
• Charter members of the North American Butterfly Association (NABA).

In Florida, Buck and Linda Cooper used to organize and lead NABA's annual 4th of July Butterfly Counts. They've also led year-long butterfly surveys of conservation properties in order to provide the properties with recorded sightings and butterfly checklists for distribution. Properties surveyed for butterflies include Disney Wilderness Preserve, Colt Creek State Park, Lake Kissimmee State Park, Lake Louisa State Park, Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park, Circle B Bar Reserve, Van Fleet and Withlacoochee State Trails, and Bok Tower Gardens. They also led butterfly field trips for wildlife festivals in Florida and for the Texas Butterfly Festival at the National Butterfly Center in Mission, Texas.

In October 2004, they were members of the Florida Sunshine Leppers, a three-member team who won the Rio Grande Prix of Butterflying with 94 species seen in a one-day period in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas.

Linda is a published author and accomplished photographer, as well as the former field editor for bird sightings for East Central Florida for Florida Ornithological Society’s publication Florida Field Naturalist for many years.

Linda is honored to host our inaugural Monarch trip and share her expertise with this select group of travelers. 

"We always talked about visiting wintering Monarch sites in Mexico to experience one of nature’s true miracles," states Linda, "However, we both had health issues arise and those took precedence. As a result, our trip never happened. Now, I am excited to make this journey in celebration of Buck's life--a life dedicated to butterflies--and happy to share our passion with trip participants."

View the full travel package, here, and register today!