World Peace Wetland Prairie one of four Fayetteville public nature sites being visited by graduate student doing species study for the Fayetteville Environmental Action Committee, reports EAC's habitat-committee chairman, Terri Lane

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Monarch butterfly caterpillars on Asclepias tuberosa on June 8, 2011,  at World Peace Wetland Prairie

As part of the Habitat Project, we are working on a "Species Watch" to begin gathering data related to the status and needs of various local species.  I will talk more about this tonight. 
(EAC meeting is set for 5:30 p.m. Thursday, June 9, 2011)

I have coordinated with a doctoral student from the UofA, Amber Tripodi, who studies native bee's.  We gave her 4 locations throughout the city that represent, more or less, North, South, East, and West, and that serve as habitat hubs already.  Those are; the Paul Noland WWTP, Woolsey Wet Prairie, Lake Fayetteville Prairie Restoration Site, and the World Peace Wetland. 
She is monitoring each site, every two weeks throughout the summer, and will be putting together a report of her findings.  She will also be our speaker series presenter on June 27th.
FYI, Below is her first unofficial report.
Terri
Terri, 
The habitat sites are fun, and I've been hitting Noland, Wet Woolsey, Lake Fayetteville and World Peace every two weeks. They are such different sites, so the bee report is across the board. Noland is my favorite for bees, so far, but Wet Woolsey and World Peace are awesome too. I have yet to find a single bumble bee at the Lake Fayetteville site, but there is little blooming there for now. I'm suspecting that they're all over at the buffet at the Botanic gardens. Still, I think it makes an interesting contrast to the other sites, and it'll be fun to see what pops up over the next couple of years! I have been IDing a few of the dynamic insects that I do find there, so you'll still have a few things to add to the species list. Last week I found a really pretty longhorn beetle I hadn't seen before: Purpuricenus humeralis. Neat! I've been keeping a list going for each site, but there's not a lot on it yet. Maybe by the end of this month.

Amber