Karen Chávez

kchavez@citizen-times.com

If you have a passion for chasing butterflies, the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission and the North American Butterfly Association could use your help.

The two organizations are conducting the fifth annual NABA Butterfly Count on the Sandy Mush Game Land from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. on Aug. 4

Volunteers are needed to help Commission personnel and local butterfly enthusiasts count butterflies on the 2,600-acre game land, which sits on the border of Buncombe and Madison counties. Participants will meet at the kiosk parking lot in front of Cedar Hill Baptist Church on 474 Cedar Hill Road in Alexander.

While Sandy Mush Game Land is managed for hunting as part of the Commission's Game Land Program, it is also a wildlife watcher's paradise, attracting many non-game species, such as birds and butterflies.

Commission staff manages the game land for quality early successional habitat, otherwise known as young forest (with smaller, shorter trees and more open fields) and frequently conducts prescribed burns, which help restore the native vegetation not only for game animals, but also for butterflies and other nongame animals that are part of the ecosystem.

Staff has also planted clover food plots, which are good food sources for butterflies. All this management work has made Sandy Mush a hot spot for butterfly diversity, said Doug Johnston, coordinator of the butterfly count.

"Daily species counts in previous years have exceeded 50, with 66 species seen over the last four years," Johnston said.

"We've seen very common species, such as Eastern tiger swallowtails, Horace's duskywings and Carolina satyrs, and we've also seen less common species, such as Delaware skippers, which, although common in other parts of the state, are rarely seen in the mountains of North Carolina."

The rain date for the butterfly count is Aug. 8.

The NABA was formed in 1992 to promote awareness of butterfly conservation and the benefits of butterfly gardening, observation, photography and education. Like the National Audubon Society's Great Backyard Bird Count, a four-day event where bird watchers count birds to create a real-time snapshot of bird populations, the NABA butterfly count provides data to monitor butterfly populations in the United States and parts of Mexico. Volunteers select a count area within a 15-mile diameter and conduct a one-day census of all butterflies seen within that circle.

For more information on the count, email wellsteadwest@gmail.com. For more on nongame wildlife in North Carolina, visit the Conserving page on the Commission's website at www.ncwildlife.org.