The butterfly season starts again, and the Piedmontese Po Park is looking for volunteers to take care of the census of these fragile insects
He is about to end up run over, his mother saves himHow beautiful are butterflies, with their graceful elegance and their wings of a thousand colors that enchant everyone, adults and children, forcing us to keep our noses up? For lovers of these delicious insects, as beautiful as they are fragile (climate crisis and intensive agriculture are in fact destroying their habitats, halving their population) there is an unmissable opportunity that will allow you to get to know them better.
In fact, anyone - students, teachers, retirees, environmentalists, animal lovers or simply curious - can "enlist" as a volunteer and collaborate in the surveillance of the butterfly population along the Po river of Casale Monferrato, inside the Piedmontese Po Natural Park. No specific skills are needed, a good spirit of enterprise and a great desire to admire nature are enough.
Participants in the initiative will become part of the network Butterfly Monitoring Scheme (BMS), coordinated at the European level, which includes thousands of volunteers across the continent and which contributes to butterfly conservation projects. All members will be suitably trained and supported by expert tutors during the data collection activities, which will then be included in the BMS community database.
©ParcoPoPiemontese
But what exactly does the job consist of? In practice, it is one walk along a fixed path (about 500 meters), where the presence of numerous species of butterflies is recorded. Those who join the initiative must make themselves available not only for training but also for two monitoring trips per year with an indicative duration of two hours each.
Anyone who is interested and wants to make their contribution can send an email to viveilpopiemontese@gmail.com, communicating their personal data and attaching a short presentation. The deadline for joining is set for next 6th May. Monitoring activities will begin in June, as summer is the best season for observing butterflies.
More information on sampling methodology and butterfly monitoring is available at this link.
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Source: Parco Po Piemontese
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