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Health & Fitness

Dr Taron Presents on Butterflies of the American Prairie this Sunday

Wild Ones West Cook will sponsor a program on Butterflies of the American Prairie on April 13, 2014 by Dr. Taron. The program takes place in Room 259 on the Priory Campus of Dominican University (7200 W. Division, at the intersection of Division and Harlem in River Forest, IL), from 2:30 to 4:30 pm. This program is free and open to the public.

The speaker, Doug Taron, is Curator of Biology at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum. As part of his duties, Dr. Taron manages Butterfly Haven, the only permanent, year-round exhibit of live butterflies in Illinois.  He is active in butterfly conservation research in the Midwest, and is currently breeding Swamp Metalmarks, Regal and Silver-bordered Fritillaries, and Baltimore Checkerspots in the lab.  He also coordinated the Illinois Butterfly Monitoring Network, a volunteer-based organization monitoring the health of butterfly populations on nature preserves throughout Illinois. 

The talk, titled Butterflies of the American Prairie, explores the butterfly species of northeastern Illinois, their life cycles, and their ecology, with special emphasis on the relationship between caterpillar food plants and habitat. Digital images showcase local species from urban environments, prairies, wetlands, and woodlands and document regional butterfly conservation efforts being undertaken at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum in Chicago. 

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West Cook Wild Ones is a local non-profit chapter of the national Wild Ones.  We are dedicated to creating a sustainable future by increasing biodiversity through using native plants and environmentally sensitive landscaping practices.   Our choices in our landscapes have huge impacts on all of us.  

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