[Pollinator] The Xerces Society Announces the 2015 Joan Mosenthal DeWind Award Winners

[Candace Fallon]

The Xerces Society is thrilled to announce the two winners of the 2015 Joan
Mosenthal DeWind Awards. From among the exceptional applications we
received, the following two students were selected:



*Ania Majewska – University of Georgia, Odum School of Ecology*

*Gardening with good intentions: examining the effects of tropical milkweed
(*Asclepias curassavica*) on monarch migration and disease.*

Habitat loss is a major threat to monarchs and their spectacular migration.
Gardeners attempt to counter habitat loss by planting milkweed in their
gardens to provide host plants for monarch reproduction. Yet, the most
readily available and easiest-to-grow species, tropical milkweed (*Asclepias
curassavica*), might have negative consequences. I propose a study that
investigates the effects of exotic milkweed on migratory monarchs and a
monarch-specific protozoan parasite as well as a management technique for
the exotic milkweed. This study will provide an evidence-based
understanding of the impacts of exotic milkweed on monarchs and yield
recommendations for best practices for home gardens.



*Joseph Smokey – Washington State University Vancouver, School of
Biological Sciences*

*How do butterfly metapopulation dynamics change in response to fire?
Evaluating the impact of burning as a restoration method of remnant prairie
habitat on a federally endangered butterfly (*Plebejus icarioides fenderi
*).*

Land managers using fire to restore fragmented and degraded prairie sites
seek to understand how many sites and how frequently to burn to provide the
greatest benefit to threatened butterflies. This study will use a
mark-recapture study on U.S. Army Corps of Engineer sites in Eugene, OR, in
combination with a fire model to evaluate relative benefits of burning
entire, small but well-connected sites versus subdividing small patches for
burn management in a Fender’s blue butterfly (*Plebejus icarioides fenderi*)
metapopulation. Results will provide ecologists and managers with insight
into best practices of fire restoration for prairie butterflies.



The board and staff of the Society congratulate Ania and Joseph and thank
all the applicants for their outstanding efforts in invertebrate
conservation.



The DeWind Awards are given to individuals engaged in studies or research
leading to a university degree related to Lepidoptera research and
conservation, and working or intending to work in that field. Joan
Mosenthal DeWind was a pioneering member of the Xerces Society. A
psychiatric social worker by profession, she was also an avid butterfly
gardener and an accomplished amateur lepidopterist. Her contributions of
time, organizational expertise, and financial support were essential to the
growth and success of the Xerces Society over the past 40 years. Joan also
had a keen interest in young people, supporting what became the Young
Entomologists’ Society. In Joan’s memory, Bill DeWind established a student
research endowment fund in her name.



For more information on the DeWind Award, visit
http://www.xerces.org/joan-dewind-award/.

-- 

*Candace Fallon*

Conservation Biologist

Endangered Species Program



*The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation*

*Protecting the Life that Sustains Us*
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.sonic.net/pipermail/pollinator/attachments/20150313/4c014621/attachment-0001.html>