August-September 2022 • Nebraskaland 27
A Labor of Love
The women keep to an intense schedule: From mid-April to
mid-October, they visit Lauritzen Gardens once a week and
Fontenelle Forest twice a week, following the same routes
every time. It's a team eff ort: One person looks to the right,
the other to the left, calling out what species they see so the
other can verify. Joanne also snaps pictures of the butterfl ies,
which she shares with Creighton University professor Ted
Burk when she could use a second opinion.
After six years of surveying, Joanne and Holly still get excited
at seeing the fi rst butterfl y of the day after a slow morning,
or when the sun comes out on a cloudy day, potentially
attracting more butterfl ies. One morning, their faces lit up
when they spotted a viceroy, a relatively uncommon butterfl y
to see along their route at Fontenelle Forest, and they paused
for several minutes to enjoy the sight.
Surveying isn't easy work. Joanne and Holly are 72 and
71 years old, respectively, and their hikes at each location
are hours long; Joanne aff ectionally calls a part of the trek
at Fontenelle Forest "the rollercoaster" for its steep inclines.
The two-hour walk through Lauritzen Garden's 100-acre
After a day of surveying for butterfl ies at Lauritzen Gardens, Joanne Langabee and Holly Hofreiter show the notebook they
use to record species. The two women count and identify over 14,000 butterfl ies in Omaha each year.
