PhD Student: Jaeson Clayborn

Major Advisors: Dr. Suzanne Koptur and Dr. George O’Brien

FIU Global Civic Engagement Funding ProgramCenter for Leadership & ServiceCivic Grant

Backyard Biodiversity Project (Technical Report)

Background

Gateway Environmental K-8 Learning Center is located in Homestead, Floridawithin a landscape mosaic of agricultural, residential, and natural areaspresenting an opportunity to construct a large butterfly garden that attracts common and rare butterflies. Species of special concern include the atala, bartram’s hairstreak, dina yellow, Florida leafwing, and Florida white butterfly, which occupy remnant habitats around Gateway. Urbanization in Homestead degradedlarge tracts of viable habitats into smaller patches and increased the distance between habitats. As a result, rare and endemic species have precipitously declined to very low numbers. Enhancing urban areas such as schools and community centers by planting native plants, removing invasive plants, and minimizing pesticide application can provide suitable habitats that shelter rare and endemic butterflies and other species (especially arthropods) from urbanization (Ricketts, 2001). Teachers can use the school’s surroundings as a framework to which students can build their own learning and increase the biodiversity of organisms (Lieberman & Hoody, 1998).

Teachers can integrate a myriad of scientific and mathematical components presented in the butterfly garden to their lesson plans (modules) that follow the Next Generation Sunshine State Standards (NGSSS). Ongoing exposure to the school gardens through maintenance and class assignments can help students achieve academically, become socially aware about environmental quality, and build social capital where students work for the collective good of their community.

Resolution Methods

Day One (8/21/13), Education - Students were informed about imperiled butterflies of south Florida because of habitat loss. The interactive lecture showcased the Schaus’ swallowtail, Atala (Figure 1), bartram’s hairstreak, dina yellow, Florida leafwing, and Florida white butterfly as species of special concernin south Florida. Students were presented a conceptual map displaying the Schaus’ Swallowtail Habitat Enhancement Project to demonstrate potential application to Gateway.

Students also learned basic butterfly information and gardening from the interactive lecture. Visual aids were used displaying host plants with caterpillars. The map game used a map of the historic/current Schaus’ swallowtail range, where blindfolded students attempted to locate the Schaus’ swallowtail current range (using a magnetic butterfly) with the help of their classmates (classmates could only communicate by using instruments, verbal communication was prohibited). The overall goal was to promote butterfly gardening to restore habitats through the reduction of lawn space (the matrix). Teachers tied information about butterflies and habitats to their Science lesson plans.

Figure 1

Day Two (8/22/13), Construction - Teachers designated two areas on the schoolgrounds with plenty of sun to construct the butterfly gardens. Students were responsible for planting, weeding, and mulching each plant in the butterfly garden. Teachers demonstrated how to plant specific plants in the soil before actual planting occurred; fourth graders dug holes followed by first graders planting each plant in the ground. Collectively, fourth and first graders added soil, mulch, and watered the plants.

Day Three (8/27/13), Construction cont’d – Students continued to plant more plants in the garden.

Day Four (8/28/13), Construction cont’d – Students planted the remaining trees out in the field and mulched the area. They also placed milkweed near classrooms where doors opened to the outside. Finally, a butterfly survey (Figure 2) was conducted to track which species already occupied the schoolgrounds and as a reference to track recruitment of new species and species abundance.

Results

Plant mortality was 0% during and after butterfly garden construction (Figure 3). Several plants began to flower a few days later and a couple more borefruit several weeks later. Monarch and queen butterflies appeared within a few days to oviposit on the leaves of milkweed, which is beneficial to their population since monarchs are declining in the Eastern portion of the United States(Figure 4) (Brower et al., 2011).Students were able to distinguish between host and nectar plants, habitat loss and restoration, and identify other species at the gardens such as toads, ants, dragonflies, anoles, and paper wasps.

Gateway Butterfly Survey (8/28/13)

Butterflies / # Observed
Orange-Barred Sulphur / 2
Large Orange Sulphur / 10
Gulf Fritillary / 1
Monarch / 3
Queen / 2
White Peacock / 5
Common Buckeye / 2
Phaon Crescent / 1
Cassius Blue / 6
Ceraunus Blue / 5
Monk Skipper / 3
Total Species = 11 / Total # Observed = 40

Figure 2

Number of host and nectar plants planted at Gateway

Host Plant / Butterfly species that depend on the plant
Wild Lime (x2) / Giant Swallowtail
Coontie (x28) / Atala
Limber Caper (x4) / Florida White and Great Southern White
Milkweed (x18) / Monarch, Queen, and Soldier
Passionvine (x8) / Zebra Longwing, Gulf Fritillary and Julia
Rue (x3) / Giant and Black Swallowtail
Pineland Croton (x9) / Bartram’s Scrub Hairstreak and Florida Leafwing
Mexican Alvaradoa (x5) / Dina Yellow
Blackbead (x2) / Large Orange Sulphur and Cassius Blue
Pineland Trumpet Flower (x6) / Oleander Moth
Fiddlewood (x4) / Fiddlewood Leafroller Moth
Strangler Fig (x1) / Ruddy Daggerwing
Nectar Plant
Butterfly Sage (x2)
Total Plants = 48 / Total Species = 18

Figure 3

Figure 4

Conclusions

Gateway K-8 Learning Center is an ideal school to construct a butterfly garden because teachers are committed to exploratory science and service-learning projects. The garden is maintained by teachers, students, and parent volunteers; their weekly responsibilities include weeding, watering, and hedging. The gardenserves to enhance academic achievement, social capital, and environmental quality. Gateway and the Homestead community are adjacent to habitats still harboring imperiled butterflies; therefore, students have the ability to help species overcome habitat loss. Their butterfly garden goes beyond butterflies as many other species of animals are attracted to the garden. Students also develop an appreciation for preservation at their school butterfly garden becoming more protective of the very plants they nurtured into the ground. Teachers can use the butterfly garden to model the butterfly life cycle, south Florida habitats, habitat restoration, and conservation.

South Florida and the Keys are ideal locations for human habitation at the expense of native wildlife. Through education for the willing, butterflies can be used as flagship species. Most people like butterflies, so they provide attractive models for conservation. In order to view butterflies, people have to provide nectar and host plants for them, which can be visually aesthetic to any yard. Education leads to understanding that leads to empowerment which leads to change; hopefully it can create a paradigm shift where the remaining organisms in south Florida and the Keys will not continue to decline, but thrive and coexist with humans.

Key messages from the overall experience: Protect – Enhance – Provide – If you build it, they will come

Works Cited

Brower, L.P., Taylor, O.R., Williams, E.H., Slayback, D.A., Zubieta, R.R., & Ramirez, M.I. 2011. Decline of monarch butterflies overwintering in Mexico: is the migratory phenomenon at risk? Insect Conservation and Diversity, 5(2): 95-100.

Lieberman, G.A. & Hoody, L.L. 1998. Closing the Achievement Gap: Using the Environment as an Integrating Context for Learning. San Deigo, CA: State Environment and Education Roundtable.

Ricketts, T. 2001. The matrix matters: effective isolation in fragmented landscapes. TheAmerican Naturalist, 158, 87–99.