Butterfly Corner with Happy Tonics

Butterfly Corner
by Mary Ellen Ryall

April 20 – In honor of Earth Day, Jim VanMoorleham and I planted five native chokeberry (Aronia melanocarpa) shrubs in area three, near the Memory Tree Grove, at the Monarch Butterfly Habitat. Black chokeberry is a deciduous, cold hardy shrub useful in landscape plantings, showing white flowers in the spring, colorful red foliage, and heavy dark fruit in the fall.

Meadow fritillary copyright Mike Reese, Wisconsin Butterflies Organization

April 24 – Today I saw a white cabbage and a fritillary butterfly. The fritillary’s host plant is violet; flowers are in bloom. Butterfly sightings were posted to Wisconsin Butterfly Organization at http://wisconsinbutterflies.org/Individuals may record their butterfly sightings at this site. Kids would enjoy this activity as much as adults do. The project allows us to understand butterfly population trends.

My Name is Butterfly copyright Mary Ellen Ryall

I am happy to report that my book, “My Name is Butterfly,” is now available at Gadsden Public Library in Gadsden, AL. I am thrilled that libraries around the country are purchasing the book for children. Book postcards also went to the State Library Convention in AL where it was given exposure to other librarians.

According to ABC News, “A female Baringo giraffe calf at the Bronx Zoo was enjoying the warm New York weather over the weekend while frolicking with a butterfly that flew through her exhibit. The butterfly caught the newborn baby’s eye while she was nuzzling her mom and exploring her new home. The calf was born in March but has not yet been named, according to the Bronx Zoo. All of the zoo’s giraffes are named in memory of James and Margaret Carter, benefactors for the Carter Giraffe Building.” You can view the chase at http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/baby-giraffe-chases-butterfly-bronx-zoo-16151869

Award winning squash bread copyright Mary Ellen Ryall

April 25 – My recipe for Squash Bread was a winner at the Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwa Community College Sustainability Living Fair. The bread was chosen for Jiibaakweyang, We are Cooking Together, Flavors of Lac Courte Oreilles. I was delighted to share saved squash seed with attendees. The acorn squash grew in the Three Sisters Garden at the Monarch Butterfly Habitat in 2011. Seed sharing is all about stories of where seed comes from. At the fair, Sheldon Spratford gave me beautiful corn husks. He reported that his grandmother grew the corn until the 1980s, when she passed away. He found one husk of dried corn at her house afterwards and saved it. Sheldon, an elder, mentioned that he has been growing the sweet corn since the 1990s. He mentioned that the corn is sweet and small. Happy Tonics will offer the seed at several environmental events in May. The Visitors Center/Store will be open for the season on Memorial Weekend. We invite you to stop by for sweet corn seed.

April 26 – Journey North reported that the monarch migration moved into five new U.S. states—Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Iowa, and Minnesota this past week. The cold snap is keeping monarchs away from Shell Lake; there is no milkweed up yet in the habitat. Let us hope that a warming spell will begin soon.

Carol Hubin reported on April 28 that milkweed is up on her property in Shell Lake. Keep your eyes posted. If you spot a monarch, please let us know if it is a faded butterfly or freshly born. Knowing the difference will allow Happy Tonics to record the following: Did the butterfly fly all the way from Mexico or is this the first generation of butterfly in the U. S.? Female butterflies will need milkweed to lay their eggs on. Female butterflies only live a few weeks after depositing eggs.

In 2012, we are going to count monarch eggs at the Monarch Butterfly Habitat and mark milkweed plants that have eggs. Wire cages with tags will be used to identify which milkweed plants have eggs. If you have any old tomato cages to donate or see a monarch sighting, please call Mary Ellen at (715) 466-5349.

Ginger Wilcox smudges Mike Carpenter

April 28 – 5^th Annual Earth Day Event in Shell Lake was well attended. We are grateful to Dr. John Anderson and Ginger Wilcox for leading us in a Native American Ceremony to honor donors. Butterfly friends came to celebrate the butterfly and conservation efforts on behalf of the butterfly. Happy Tonics hosted an informal potluck afterwards at the Visitors Center/Store at 25 Fifth Avenue, Shell Lake.

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Butterfly Corner

Black swallowtail butterfly copyright Erin Pryor Pavlica

January 3, 2012 – I received an email asking for help. A black swallowtail butterfly was born in a home in Saint Paul, MN. I could hardly believe it.  How was this possible? Erin Pryor Pavlica needed to know what nectar sources to offer the butterfly. The butterfly formed a chrysalis in November and Erin brought it inside. The butterfly emerged on January 3. Normally butterflies don’t need nectar for 24-48 hours after they emerge. I suggested she try sweet fruit such as an orange and sugar water. Butterflies taste with their feet. The next day, Erin reported that the butterfly did not taste the orange. She was going to try sugar water next.

Erin posted her story on Facebook. Many people around the country answered with suggestions and some had tried similar nectar for butterflies born out of season in their own homes. All agreed that it would be impossible to move the butterfly. There is an average of 560 species of swallowtails. Many are brilliant and live in the tropics. The Monarch Butterfly Habitat in Shell Lake is home to the yellow Canadian Tiger swallowtail in season. Normally the butterfly overwinters outside in the pupal stage. Some swallowtails may spend more than a year like this. I imagine that the home, being heated, was too warm and triggered a different response. Perhaps this is why the butterfly emerged in winter. Surely the butterfly was out of its natural life cycle and habitat.

The black swallowtail is thriving. The butterfly has enjoyed sipping from a rotten old apple and an aged squashed banana. On Saturday, Erin said, “Yes, I have several cotton pads with sugar solution soaked into them. I put fresh solution out several times a day. The butterfly is usually active after eating!”

I would like to mention that Erin had a baby girl, Quinn Mae, on New Year’s Eve. She is thrilled that the black swallowtail butterfly arrived within days of the child’s birth. I invited the family to visit Shell Lake next summer. I look forward to celebrating the butterfly baby at the Native Wildflower and Butterfly Garden. Quinn Mae won’t be the first butterfly baby to be remembered at the Monarch Butterfly Habitat.

January 24 – Environmental Film Fest, 12 Noon, Lac Courte Oreilles (LCO) Ojibwa Community College, 13466 W Trepania Road, Hayward. Film: WATERBUSTER. The film is about the effects of the Gannon Dam on the Missouri River and how a family, which is one of the WATERBUSTER clan, was torn apart and their journey back to wholeness again. Susan Menzel, Tribal collage intern, stated she watched the film and drew parallels about Lac Courte Oreilles history. There was a time when the tribe was flooded to create the Chippewa Flowage in 1924 and the Winter Dam was installed. The Dam was turned over to LCO in the 1970s.  Speaker to be announced.  The event is open to the community.

Environmental Film Fest – January 24 – Northwest Wisconsin

Environmental Film Fest

January 24 – 12 Noon
Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwa Community College
13566 W Trepania Road
Hayward, WI

Film: WATERBUSTERS explores the effects of the Gannon Dam on the Missouri River and how a family, which is one of the WATERBUSTER clan, was torn apart and their journey back to wholeness again. Susan Menzel, Tribal collage intern, stated she watched the film and drew parallels about Lac Courte Oreilles history. There was a time when the tribe was flooded to create the Chippewa Flowage in 1924 and the Winter Dam was installed. The Dam was turned over to LCO in the 1970s.  Speaker to be announced.  The event is open to the public.

Importance of water stressed – MiningJournal.net | News, Sports, Jobs, Marquette Information | The Mining Journal

As many of you may have heard by now, I walked with the copper pail with water from the Gulf of Mexico last Saturday when Sandy Stein and I caught up with the Mother Earth Water Walkers between Old Post and Reserve at LCO.  Anna Merritt and I are going to Bad River Reservation tomorrow, June 10. Follow-up on this day afterwards.

Please take the time to read about the important issue of protecting water for all species and for generations to come. Water is a gift and not a resource to be plundered, contaminated, bought and sold.

Importance of water stressed – MiningJournal.net | News, Sports, Jobs, Marquette Information | The Mining Journal.

Today when you take that sip water, be sure to thank the water. She has been taken for granted and disrespected for far too long. In ancient times and with many tribal cultures of today, people remember to thank the water and honor her for the gift of life she brings.

Why is Earth Day Important?

Earth Day is Every Day although many people don’t realize that we need to protect the environment for future generations.

Reason being, Nature is being assaulted on many fronts. Xerces Society founded by in 1971 is a nonprofit

Bumblebee gathering pollen on late blooming aster

organization dedicated to conservation of invertebrates and their habitat. The reality is honey bees are declining because of colony collapse disorder. According to Xerces Society, “Native bumble bees are also at risk like many plants and animals, bumbles are suffering from loss of habitat, pesticide poisoning, changing climates, and diseases that were introduced along with non-native bees. Western bumble bee, the rusty-patched bumble bee and yellow-banded bumble bee used to be very common, but their numbers have decreased by 96 percent and their range shrunk by as much as 87 percent.” The Franklin bumble bee of Oregon and CA is thought to be extinct.

In 2010 President Obama launched the America’s Great Outdoors Initiative (AGO) with the aim of developing an agenda for 21st-century conservation and helping Americans reconnect with our nation’s lands and waters.

According to Robert Louve, author of Last Child in the Woods, children are suffering from Nature Deficit Disorder. Xeriscape Council of New Mexico, President George Radnovich states that Nature Attention Deficit applies to adults as well as children because as a whole American society is losing interest in the natural world. The natural world can live without us but we cannot live without the natural world.

Loss of habitat in three countries Canada, United States and Mexico is the main concern for monarch butterflies. World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has announced that the Monarch Butterfly Migration is at risk. According to WWF A well-preserved forest ecosystem in Mexico is critical for the survival of the Monarch butterfly wintering, which has been recognized as an endangered biological phenomenon, and the first priority in world butterfly conservation. There is also concern by Lincoln Brower, Professor Emeritus of Biology at University of Florida. Brower states in the NOVA film, “Incredible Journey of the Butterflies” that the monarch is facing an endangered migration phenomena. Monarch needs native habitat and biodiversity which are declining in the United States and Canada.

Farming which used to be run by families many of which practiced good land stewardship. Now farming is mostly run as Corporate Farms. Just like people, pollinators are poisoned by pesticides. The butterfly can’t find native nectar sources when large tracks of land are now being planted with monoculture crops.  USDA is looking at the importance of pollinators. The USDA has acknowledged that we need more biodiversity if we are to have pollinators’ to produce many vegetable crops and fruit. In 2006, a Science report documented what appears to be a major decline in bees in England and The Netherlands (possibly a 30% loss in species richness since 1980), especially among specialist bees, and a corollary decline in wild plant species that require insect-pollination.

Elaine Evans author of Befriending the Bumblebee

Elaine Evans, author of Befriending the Bumblebee, will be the speaker at Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwa Community College (LCOOCC), Hayward, WI, on April 13.  Happy Tonics, LCOOCC, Web of Learning Sustainable Living Institute and the LCOOCC Library are sponsoring the event.   

Earth Day Event 2011. Ken Parejko, author of Monarch of the Butterflies, will be the speaker. Parejko is a Professor Emeritus of Biology at Univ. of WI at Stout. He is well versed in the monarch butterfly and has pointed out that we need to protect pollinators for future generations.  Plants are dependent upon pollinators. Did you know that butterflies are the second largest group of pollinators in the world after bees?

Happy Tonics, Inc. was founded in 1999 and has been involved in conservation work on behalf of the monarch butterfly and food safety issues ever since. Visit their Web site to learn more at www.happytonics.org

LCO ENVIRONMENTAL FILM FESTIVAL SERIES

by Amber Marlow

Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwa Community College
James “Pipe” Mustache Auditorium
Wednesday, February 23, 2011

FREE EVENT PUBLIC WELCOME!

12 pm Potluck
(please bring a dish to pass and your own plate/utensils)

12:15 pm Guest Speaker: Alison Kilday
Mobility Manager, Namekagon Transit
12:3o pm – Film: “Fuel”
2.15 pm Advocacy to Action! How do we make a difference in our community?

FUEL is an entertaining and comprehensive look at energy in America: a history of where we have been, our present predicament and a solution to our dependence on foreign oil. Josh Tickell’s stirring, radical and multi-award winning FUEL may be known by some as the ‘little energy documentary,’ but in truth, it’s a powerful portrait of America’s overwhelming addiction to, and reliance on, oil. Rousing and reactionary, this film will leave you feeling hopeful and inspired.” (111 minutes)

Sponsored by Happy Tonics, Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwa Community College, Web of Learning Sustainable Living Institute and the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

Treaty Rights

by Tabitha Wolf
Former intern of Happy Tonics, Inc. Presenty a student at Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwa Communityy College, Hayward, WI

During the film festival at the Lac Courte Oreilles Community college in Wisconsin we viewed a film on treaty rights. Before and after the film began we heard from tribal council members, members of the tribe, and other members of the community about this issue.

It is an ongoing fight for rights in the treaties that many people who are not Native American and many who are, do not know about. It is something that tribes across the United States continue to work towards to better their communities. Gaining the promises provided by the treaties would be a huge help to Native communities and reservations. Learning the legal aspects of these treaties is important to all tribal members and society as a whole.

Why is this you may ask? If you are not even a tribal member it is important to know so that you may better understand the world from a Native person’s standpoint. Before the lands, and hunting grounds of Natives peoples were secured and conquered by the government, the government promised to provide for the tribes to end warfare, and/or prevent it amongst other hardships. When a people’s lands and way of life are ruined a responsible government is required to provide for them and these treaties were allegedly a way to do so. If not for the treaties warfare and chaos would be ongoing occurrence. Without the treaties these problems would continue to occur and it is through these treaties that a peaceful solution was encouraged. But, the treaties were not kept, or changed without proper authority, and/or in some cases the tribal leaders or council were tricked into signing things that were not what they were promised. This is easy to do when the treaties are not in your language.

It still even happens today you need only to see the case of the Tribble brothers. Back in early March 1974, two Wisconsin game wardens busted Mike and Fred Tribble from Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe reservation for illegally spear fishing through the ice on Chief Lake in the ceded territory of Wisconsin. Land and lakes that once belonged to the Ojibwe.

The Tribbles’ had taken a treaty history course from attorney Larry Leventhal at St. Scholastica College in Minnesota earlier that year; the Tribbles’ showed the wardens a copy of the 1837 Treaty. They were given citations any way. The Tribbles’ took their attorneys from the LCO tribe and argued in federal court that they had the right to hunt, fish, and gather in the territory ceded to the United States in treaties signed in 1837, 1842, and 1854. That territory included lands in Wisconsin, Michigan and Minnesota. The tribe’s rights were eventually upheld by the federal court system in 1983 with the US Supreme Court affirming their rights in Mille Lacs v. Minnesota in 1999. Why did they even have to go through all of this? A treaty should have been viewed and upheld without question! If you see the happenings during the Voight decision you can see how the ignorance of others concerning treaty rights had a huge affect on the public.

Twenty-five years ago, the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago affirmed that Chippewa Indian tribes retained off-reservation fishing and hunting rights in 1837 and 1842 treaties that ceded millions of acres of what is now the northern third of Wisconsin to the U.S. government. Why did it need to even be affirmed? A treaty is a treaty and should be upheld by the law, right? But still the government opted to appease the public by using a formula for sharing the fishery with hook-and-line anglers and by having the tribe annually request a total of walleyes to spear and that figure is used to set daily bag limits for anglers of two or three on those lakes. “The resumption of spear fishing prompted demonstrations by treaty-rights opponents at boat landings in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The protests sometimes escalated into incidents of racial taunts and rock-throwing. No one was seriously hurt but tensions forced dozens of law enforcement officers to guard the lakes. The protests died down after the Lac du Flambeau band filed lawsuits in federal courts against several protest leaders, alleging the demonstrations were racially motivated and violated the Indians’ civil rights (Wisconsin State Journal).”

Through all of this tribal councils today continue their struggle for the truth and the fight for rights that they were given in these legal documents and tribes struggle to receive the  promises made to them by our government. Treaties are definitely an important issue that everyone whether Native or not should be interested in learning about.

Reuse and Recycle for Christmas

Loon by Marilyn Vig

 Happy Tonics Visitors Center/Store at 25 Fifth Avenue, Shell Lake, WI, has some things to offer for free and many holiday gifts at very little cost. Look at donated art items such as the hand painted loon by Marilyn Vig, stained glass snowflakes and all kinds vintage jewelry.

 Check out women’s winter coats. This is Vintage Wear straight from Washington, DC. Is there a lady out there who has always dreamed of a cashmere coat? Maybe someone has always wanted to dress to the nines with mink trim.  If so Holly Day Saturday may be your day!  Come on in and try on coats. Sizes run from small to medium and the price is low compared to what they are selling on eBay for $99 – $179. If coats don’t sell on December 4, they will be sold in our online store for the going selling rate at http://stores.ebay.com/HAPPY-TONICS

Check out http://ns.sold4uauctions.com/sl/ in Shell Lake, WI, USA. Even auction houses are finding a new way to market reusable and recycled items such as antiques, home decor, clothing for infants and adults. The economic times have never been better for the thrifty minded individual. I went online yesterday and bid on a leather wood carrier and won the bid at $10. I will pick this item up and will not incur on shipping charge. Online auctions are a win, win for seller and buyer both.

Recyling is a global trend. Check out http://stores.ebay.co.uk/cyclerecycleUK in England where they reuse and sell bike parts. Cyclerecycle is now following Happy Tonics Tweets on Twitter. Social networking is the fastest growing selling trend. According to some experts, sales from online stores have grown by 30 percent in 2010. On November 24, CNBC stated that 43.9 percent of comsumers will go online to shop this Christmas.  When Happy Tonics is not selling on Main Street the nonprofit is often fulfilling online orders. Check out our eBay store at http://stores.ebay.com/HAPPY-TONICS

5R Processors Ltd. of Ladysmith, WI has been invited to speak at the December 1 Environmental Film Fest at Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwa Community College, 13466 Trepania Road, Hayward, WI, USA. The company is part of e-waste solutions in WI and TN.  5R has drastically reduced e-waste by reusing and recycling thus helping our country’s citizens, landfills, and environment. The company has an online store where the resell electronics also at https://www.5rprocessors.com/productcart/pc/home.asp

Vintage Raggedy Andy and Ann

 The Visitors Center/Store at 25 Fifth Avenue is open on Holly Day Saturday from 10 am – 2 pm. Kids can enjoy free Disney films while parents shop. Check out our new and gently reused items. The Andy and Annie ceramic dolls are from the 1970s and look brand new outside of the natural patina.

Happy holidays!

Environmental Film Fest Features Web Film The Story of Stuff

  Environmental Film Fest

Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwa Community College

Lac Courte Oreilles James “Pipe” Mustache Auditorium
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
FREE and Open to the Public

12:00 p.m. Potluck (please bring a dish to share & your own plate/utensils)

12:15 p.m. Guest Speaker – 5 R Processing, Inc. (invited)

12:30 p.m.  Film:  “Story of Stuff” and “George Carlin Talks about Stuff”

1:15 p.m.  Advocacy to Action! Why?

Visit Informational Booths Before and After Film

Local Foods, Recycling, and more!

The Story of Stuff Project was founded in June 2008 by Annie Leonard to leverage the remarkable success of The Story of Stuff, a 20-minute web-film that explores the often hidden environmental and social consequences of America’s love affair with its stuff. Less than two years after its release, the film had been viewed over 8.5 million times on-line and in thousands of schools, houses of worship, community centers and businesses around the world.

This event is sponsored by Happy Tonics, Inc., Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwa Community College and the Sustainable Living Institute. 

Looking at Cuba’s Organic Food Movement and More

LCO Green Team Sign Honor the Earth

November 3, 2010, The GreenTeam at Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwa Community College, in Hayward, WI, hosted the first in the series of the II Annual Environmental Film Fest. There was a good turnout of instructors in science, natural resources and ethnobotany. The event was hosted by Happy Tonics, Inc, LCOOCC and the Sustainable Living Institute.

 A film “Power of Community” showed how Cuba responded after the collapse of Russia in Cuba.  The country had to face a loss of utilities and industry. Transportation came to a grinding halt. The people went from cars to bicycles, from inported food to growing their own as they suffered a loss of income and petroleum for energy. None the less, the people have something to teach the world. They brought back healthy small agriculture that is no longer dependent upon large agricultureal machines and pesticides and herbicides.

Healthy food is now abundant in Cuba and the soil has been improved by sustainable some agricultural and family garden practices. We can learn something from Cuba. The USA and the rest of the world are now experiencing rising food prices as the global food supply is becoming more expensive and fuel prices keep surging. In Wisconsin many communities are starting to raise their own food. Families are maintaining garden plants. Our small farmers are being respected for the job that they do to bring local food to our tables. I see this movement growing in northwest Wisconsin and I feel proud to live in a community that understands that our security comes from knowing who is growing our food and where we can buy local grown produce that is free of chemicals.   

Teresa Depies, owner Springbrook Organic Dairy

Teresa Depies, owner of Springbrook Organic Dairy, was the speaker at the November 3rd event. She raised some interesting points. There are new pasture rules in relationship to how many cows can be in the pasture. It is based on waste management. Teresa raises Jersey cows. They are a smaller breed and have less of a waste management problem than other species of dairy cows. This is a Grade A farm.  Teresa and her husband have been in the business since 1990. She is having success in distributing her milk to local grocery stores. I am proud that Dahlstrom’s Grocery Store in Shell Lake sells Springbrook organic milk.

When we buy from our local farmers we are supporting our own crops, dairy, poultry and grass-fed animals. This allows us to be prepared if we where to find ourselves in a “Food Security Situation.” Preparedness is readiness. The Green Team is busy at work networking a local food system into a viable way to purchase food.

Sierra White, intern from Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe Community College

 

Welcome Sierra White, a LCOOCC student and environmental education intern of Happy Tonics, Inc. Sierra will be Happy Tonics representative at the monthly Environmental Film Fest. She will assist with marketing, advertising, and recruiting partners for a local food network. Sierra will also assist with a “Day Trip”  itinery and partners with Happy Tonics Monarch Butterfly Habitat.