August-September 2022 • Nebraskaland 31
restoration eff orts are working. While it's still too early to
see big diff erences, those butterfl ies are starting to show up,
Foss said.
At Lauritzen Gardens, Joanne and Holly's work helps
inform how the gardens are managed: what is planted,
how it's maintained, and when and if pesticides are used.
It's encouraging for the staff to see explosions of butterfl ies
when native plants are included in the landscape, and
they've made changes to help keep butterfl y numbers high,
said Jim Locklear, Lauritzen's director of conservation.
Now in their seventh year of surveying, Joanne and
Holly's reports will be used in a new way. Nebraska Game
and Parks researchers plan to include their work in a
database of Nebraska's at-risk species, as well as an update
of the Nebraska Natural Legacy Project, the blueprint for
conservation in the state.
Rachel Simpson, who manages the database, was excited
by the women's fi nds. In several cases, "we didn't even have
a record of these species in the county or a nearby county,"
she said. Work like this can help conservationists better
target their eff orts,
she said, and shows
how much a couple
of skilled volunteers
can contribute.
L e p i d o p t e r i s t
Neil Dankert, who
has conducted
butterfl y counts
in Nebraska for
over 30 years,
agrees. "It's an
awesome piece of
work," he said.
And it proves
something else,
Dankert said. "You
do not need to be a professional entomologist
to contribute to our knowledge of the fl ora and fauna of our
state."
N
orts,
ows
ple
ers
s t
ho
d
s
r
"You
be a professional entomologist
Top: Joanne and Holly wrote a guidebook, Common Butterfl ies of Eastern Nebraska, based on their surveying, research and
photographs. Bottom: While surveying, Holly discovers a monarch caterpillar at Fontenelle Forest.
