ASUMH Project Creates Habitat for State Butterfly, Offers Nature Education

A new conservation effort at Arkansas State University-Mountain Home is bringing together volunteers and educators to support Arkansas’s state butterfly, the Diana fritillary, while expanding nature education opportunities.
The habitat, called “The Diana Patch,” is located along the James and Sally Moore Walking Trail near Dodd Creek, which runs through the ASUMH campus. Volunteers from Friends of the North Fork and White Rivers (FOR) and North Central Arkansas Master Naturalists (NCAMN) are partnering with the university to care for the site.

Organizers say the project is intended to encourage students, homeschooling families and the general public to learn more about the region’s native plants and wildlife.

Steve Blumreich, president of Friends of the Rivers, and Susan McNutt, project leader with the North Central Arkansas Master Naturalists, visited KTLO, Classic Hits and The Boot News to share details about the efforts underway on the ASUMH campus.

McNutt was asked what specifically attracts the butterfly and what people can expect to see, an actual butterfly?

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Steve Blumreich added details on the discovery of this naturally attractive environment.

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Blumreich said monarch butterflies are currently migrating south, and monarch caterpillars have been spotted on the butterfly weed in the patch – a hopeful sign that the Diana fritillary may appear.

Educational signage and materials are being developed for the trail, offering visitors information about native species and environmental stewardship, according to FOR’s Shelly Hill.

McNutt said the Diana fritillary faces threats from habitat loss and environmental change, and encouraged others across the state to create similar butterfly gardens. Other Diana Patches have been planted at a Bentonville middle school, a Springdale nature center and a Nature Conservancy site near Siloam Springs.

The Diana fritillary has been documented in Midway and Big Flat and volunteers are anxious to have the first documented sighting at The Diana Patch on the ASUMH campus.

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