Twelve years ago, the North American Butterfly Association broke ground for what has now become the largest native plant botanical garden in the United States. This 100-acre preserve is home to Spike (who thinks he is a butterfly) and the greatest volume and variety of wild, free-flying butterflies in the nation. In fact, USA Today calls the National Butterfly Center, in Mission, Texas, "the butterfly capitol of the USA."
Even more remarkable is the fact that over 90% of this project has been funded by gifts from people like you! Your gifts are helping us preserve an endangered woodland, our Hackberry Trail, and convert an old onion field into formal gardens and scenic wildscapes that provide nectar and host plants for butterflies all year long. Your gifts ensure we have staff, and they have tools, and the tractor has fuel...
If this is our first introduction, we hope you will get to know us better through this short video featuring our spokes-tortoise, Spike. As Spike says, "We don't need a gazillion dollars, but we do have a goal."
For our 12th Anniversary, we'd like to raise $12,000.
These monies will advance our mission of Growing Connections, by allowing us to educate the next generation of conservationists with twelve more months of Project WILD and proprietary programming.
Please make a one-time or recurring tax-deductible gift to our 501(c)(3) organization.
Gifts totaling $50 or more will receive a Peace, Love, Butterflies bumper sticker; and gifts totaling $300 or more will receive a Swift Guide to Butterflies of North America, so you may get to know the butterflies wherever you may live or roam (or give it to someone special).
THANK YOU for your generous support, for protecting our precious natural resources and providing for our continued operation, for the love of butterflies!
Did you know nearly 150 species of North American butterflies can be seen only in the Lower Rio Grande Valley (LRGV) of Texas, or by traveling to Mexico?
In fact, more than 300 species of butterflies may be found in the LRGV, and more than 200 species have been seen at the National Butterfly Center, including a number of rarities and U.S. Records!
Incredibly, almost 40% of the 700+ butterflies that can be found in the United States can be seen in this three-county area at the southernmost tip of Texas, where the subtropical climate makes it possible to enjoy the outdoors year 'round.
