|  Butterfly
Aviary and Native Plant Nursery
Daily butterfly presentations @ 12:30pm. Volunteers
needed.
The 1,000 sq. ft. screened aviary is home for 30 different
species of Florida butterflies and has been designed
with a brick walkway that ushers visitors from the
Museum through the butterfly aviary to the Audubon
bird aviary. It is the largest butterfly display between
Tampa and Fort Lauderdale. Caterpillars and
pupae are also on display in the Natural History Living
Museum.
"The walk-through has tiers of native plants
on both sides that nourish hundreds of butterflies
with nectar and food for their caterpillars,"
said Michael Simonik, executive director of the center.
"We're calling it the Butterfly Aviary and Native
Plant Nursery because all the plants are for sale
to help people create butterfly habitats in their
own backyards." Both butterfly larvae and
butterfly nectar plants are available. Prices
range from less than $5 for blooming nectar plants
to $23 for trees.
A visit to the Butterfly Aviary is included in regular
Nature Center admission. Everyone is invited to "adopt"
the butterflies by
purchasing a brick that will be engraved and set
back in the walkway. Bricks are available in two sizes,
one for $50 with three lines of text and the other
for $100 with six lines of text. They can be
purchased by downloading the
form or at the Museum's front desk.
Volunteers are needed in the Aviary to help
care for the butterflies and caterpillars and help
care for and sell the plants. Call 275-3435
to enroll as a volunteer.
A major gift by the late Charles Edgar Foster in tribute
to his wife, Margaret, known as the "First Plant
Lady of the nature center," helped fund the project.
Foster, a third generation area native, was known
locally as the "Caloosahatchee River Rat"
because of his eco-teaching and knowledge of the river.
Employees of The Bonita Bay Group, O'Donnell Landscapes,
and Gravina, Smith and Matte, and Barraco and Associates
helped build the screen enclosure. The team spent
two days in July creating the garden tiers with plants
and shrubs, laying the brick walkway and installing
the irrigation system. "The Bonita Bay Group
has helped many organizations with environmental and
native landscape projects, and we were very pleased
when they offered to partner in a project with us,"
Simonik said. "We both see the butterfly aviary
as a great tool for area residents to  learn
how to care for the environment."
The South Florida Water Management District contributed
$4,300 to install a well and an ultra-low volume irrigation
system to provide water to both the plants in the
aviary and to fill the center's alligator pond. Plants
will be irrigated via a micro-drip system that provides
minimal amounts of water. The Center will use the
system as a teaching tool to illustrate how people
can grow healthy plants with a fraction of the water
typically used on landscapes.
For group tours and a presentation of the Butterfly
Aviary call 275-3435.
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