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by Mary Sincell McEwen
The children of the Kitzmiller Elementary School embarked on a unique quest on a bright and chilly day last month, loading onto buses and heading up the mountainside to an expanse of land where butterflies gather.
The area is the Woodhill Sanctuary, a 15-acre easement now designated as a Maryland Environmental Trust (MET) and the Allegany Highland Conservancy butterfly sanctuary. The area is a preserve for several rare, threatened, or endangered butterfly species, including the Baltimore checkerspot, the official insect of the state of Maryland, so named in 1973.
Vladamir Dupre sought the designation for the property, which was owned by him and his late wife Elizabeth for many years. Dupre said he was thrilled to be able to contribute to the preservation of the endangered butterflies.
“We consider it a privilege to be a part of the efforts of the Maryland Environmental Trust to maintain and manage natural habitats for the people of Maryland to enjoy and learn from,” Dupre said.
In that vein, he invited the children of Kitzmiller up to the property and gave them a mission — to help seed the area with flowers to which the butterflies will be drawn, and which will provide for the insects a safe haven.
While once common throughout the state of Maryland, the Baltimore checkerspot, along with numerous other species, is losing ground annually. Butterfly specialists Richard Smith and Pat Durkin, both active butterfly researchers with the MET, guided the Kitzmiller students last month in their mission the at Woodhill Sanctuary. They explained to the children that this unique area was one of only eight locations where the state butterfly colonies now survive. In fact, Woodhill has the largest concentration of the butterfly in the state, and possibly in a multi-state region, Durkin said.
The butterflies require freshwater marsh habitats, with shallow waters and a variety of flowering plants. Expansion and development throughout the state have greatly damaged such areas.
“The marsh-like conditions these butterflies need can be destroyed in a second,” Durkin said. “It doesn’t take much to ruin their habitat.”
She and Smith have researched the plight of Maryland butterflies for many years, both participating in the Maryland Rare and Endangered Butterfly Survey in 2002-2003. Their research led them to the mountainsides of Garrett County where undeveloped land helps to sustain the insects.
To help with that, the students were instructed to gather seed pods of all sorts of flowers, and put them in paper bags. The flowers to come from these seeds are vital to butterflies, who seek the nector to survive.
