[Announce] Red Spotted Purple/White Admiral to Become State Butterfly

[andy at nycowboy.org]

[ Sidebar: I don't have a bill number for this as the bill
has yet to be introduced or at least put on LRS or ACOM
system. I'm guessing it's still at bill drafting or sitting
on some legislative staffer's desk and will be put in during
the next few days. ]

http://www.lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080108/NEWS01/801080354/1018/NEWS02

Students nominate official state butterfly winner
(Original publication: January 8, 2008)

CORTLANDT - Like any campaign professional whose candidate
didn't come out on top, Karina Franke found the positive in
the results.

Even if the race determined the potential, official state
butterfly. Even if she is 10 years old.

"This, of course, was a great opportunity for the Karner
blue (butterfly), for so many more people to know about it,"
she said yesterday after the statewide vote was tallied.

Karina's horse, rather, butterfly, in the race, fluttered a
close second to the red-spotted purple or white admiral
butterfly. The white and purple forms of this butterfly are
in the same species.

The admiral received 12,461 votes to the Karner blue's
11,489 votes. Of the three other butterfly species
considered for the honor, none garnered more than about
4,000 votes.

"If you can believe it, we had nearly 35,000 votes (from
students) around the state," said Assemblywoman Sandy Galef,
D-Ossining.

Galef and state Sen. Vincent Leibell, R-Patterson, yesterday
announced the winner of the vote among third-, fourth- and
fifth-graders. The two now will introduce legislation in
Albany to designate the red-spotted purple or white admiral
as the official state butterfly.

Karina, a fourth-grade student at Furnace Woods Elementary
School in Cortlandt, jump-started the effort in 2006 by
writing to Galef and proposing that the federally endangered
Karner blue butterfly be designated the state's official
butterfly. Galef then suggested that students across the
state select from several nominees, and Karina spent about a
year writing and calling legislators and schools. Votes
rolled in from Long Island to Rochester and were tallied
yesterday in Cortlandt Town Hall.

The effort highlighted both conservation and the legislative
process for students, Galef said.

Students chose from five butterfly species. The others were
the black swallowtail, the Milbert's tortoiseshell and the
mourning cloak. Nominees and their information were compiled
by state entomologist Tim McCabe and, Galef said, scientists
from the American Museum of Natural History and the Bronx
Zoo. Karina, who sported a T-shirt advocating the Karner
blue, had no regrets.

"It's still really great because me and my friends have
raised a lot of awareness," she said.

Andy Saunders, a professor of environmental and forest
biology at SUNY's College of Environmental Science and
Forestry in Syracuse, said the list reflected "sophisticated
choices," because it didn't fall back on monarchs and
eastern tiger swallowtails - two of the more recognizable
species. Saunders taught a butterfly education program for
11 years and has studied and written about butterflies in
the Adirondacks.

Butterflies are glittering, winged ambassadors of nature, he
said, and are recognized as "harmless and beautiful."

They are also becoming known as harbingers of climate
change, he said. A change in butterfly numbers or a shift in
a species' range could be a response to changing
temperatures or climate conditions, scientists say.

"Don't underestimate the ability of butterflies to focus
attention on environmental diversity," Saunders said. "They
represent a very powerful tool to interest people in
nature."

Once approved by the state Legislature, the red-spotted
purple or white admiral will join other official flora and
fauna, including the rose (state flower), beaver (state
mammal) and bluebird (state bird). In 2006, local students
similarly helped elevate the snapping turtle to official
state reptile.

Getting lawmakers in Albany to vote on the butterfly
measure, though, may be a more difficult step, Leibell said,
than having students nominate one.

"It will ultimately get to the floor, hopefully before you
get to college," Leibell said to Karina. "But we are much
more optimistic than that."



Thanks Andy. 

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