With the economy and our pocketbooks getting tight, it is interesting
to read articles on what is happening to the exhibits.

For instance, the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago, has a butterfly
exhibit. It is like a greenhouse shaped area. There was a extra
charge to go into the exhibit that was open during the summer. This
year they scaled back to the month of July and maybe next year, the
exhibit will no longer exist. They said that they needed to have
personnel manage the exhibit and collecting the money. Now I do not
know if they had any volunteers helping them in this area, however,
volunteers are also at a premium too. So I am wondering for the
smaller exhibits that there will be some impact on them due to the
mess with the economy.

Now San Franciso has just opened California Academy of the Sciences,
a green museum. It has many exhibits inside along with a butterfly
exhibit in the Rainforest area. They used recycled demin as
insulation for the building and it has a grass roof. It just opened
this weekend and is so crowded that the line was supposedly one mile
long. The building cost $500 million. Check out their website:
http://www.calacademy.org/visit/


In Florida Chinsegut Nature Center is working on an outdoor butterfly
garden. Here is a link to an article in the news:
http://www.floridaconservation.org/whatsnew/08/southwest/News_08_SW_Ch
insegutBFly.htm


My advise is to watch your local nature centers and see if they are
offering any butterfly related events. This is particularly true for
the southern states at this time.