Tag: atlas

Counting Butterflies for Conservation: The Second Vermont Butterfly Atlas

Fritillary on Bee Balm: A brown-spotted rusty and amber colored butterfly on magenta monarda with red flowers in the background.

Butterflies are in your garden, along your hiking trails, and even along the side of the road. Vermont has over a hundred butterfly species but many are declining due to growing environmental threats like pesticides.

Join Dana Williams from the Vermont Center for Ecostudies to explore how butterfly volunteers help us understand the role butterflies play in our ecosystems, how to identify your neighborhood species, how we can protect butterflies with just a smartphone and a pair of binoculars, and learn about the Butterfly Atlas.

This workshop will be followed by an optional field visit to an atlas block in Jonesville.

Max: 15 participants

Register:

Free • suggested donation $10

 

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The Second Atlas of Breeding Birds of Vermont

Guest post by Kir Talmage, Outreach and IT Coordinator for the Birds of Vermont Museum. This article also appeared in the Vermont Great Outdoor Magazine.

atlas-cover-1800The Second Atlas of Breeding Birds of Vermont is out! As you likely know, an Atlas is

a : a bound collection of maps often including 
illustrations, informative tables, or textual 
matter
b : a bound collection of tables, charts, or plates
(Merriam-Webster)

This meager definition masks the huge intention and effort that goes into the creation and revision of an Atlas. This particular Atlas is the product of a state-wide breeding birds research project that has spanned ten years, brought together some 57,000 observations, and drew on 350 volunteers. It epitomizes a successful citizen science project. The data (observations) were pulled together by Vermont Center for Ecostudies into one beautiful reference book, which was published in April of this year. The completed Atlas—with maps, individual species accounts, discussions of Vermont’s habitat and land use changes, and analyses of the data—has already helped scientists and policy makers decide how best to work and plan for avian conservation. Continue reading “The Second Atlas of Breeding Birds of Vermont”

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