Photo By Scott Sturkol | Members of the public participate in a butterfly field day July 14, 2025, on South...... read more read more
Subscribe
Approximately 45 people over two tours from the Natural Resources Foundation (NRF) of Wisconsin visited Fort McCoy on July 14 to participate in a butterfly field day at the installation for a third straight year.
The Fort McCoy coordination for the field trip was again led by Endangered Species Biologist Jessup Weichelt with the Directorate of Public Works Environmental Division Natural Resources Branch (NRB) and supported by Natural Resources Specialist Jessica Salesman, also with the NRB.
Weichelt said the weather for the event was good, and the turnout for both the morning and afternoon tours was also good. “The mission is always to find as many butterflies as we can,” Weichelt said.
For the 2025 field day, the 45 participants matched the 2024 number of participants. Three years ago, 19 people participated in the field day.
Weichelt the participants all paid a fee to the NRF for the trip “that goes toward natural resource management in Wisconsin.”
As far as how the day went, Weichelt said the visitors were able to see some of the rare endangered butterflies that seem to thrive at Fort McCoy.
“We mostly observed various common skippers like the Dun and Tawny Edge Skipper as well as a good amount of Regal Fritillary, Gorgone Checkerspot, Eastern Tailed Blue and Spring Azure butterflies,” Weichelt said. “The weather did get a little hotter than you would like for butterfly surveys, but it didn’t completely deter butterflies from being out. We were able to see the rare Ottoe Skipper with both groups as well as Karner Blue Butterflies and the Regals, which are what I consider the big three for this tour.”
Learn more about Fort McCoy online at https://home.army.mil/mccoy, on Facebook by searching “ftmccoy,” on Flickr at https://www.flickr.com/photos/fortmccoywi, and on X (formerly Twitter) by searching “usagmccoy.”
Also try downloading the My Army Post app to your smartphone and set “Fort McCoy” or another installation as your preferred base. Fort McCoy is also part of Army’s Installation Management Command where “We Are The Army’s Home.”
| Date Taken: | 07.25.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 07.25.2025 16:24 |
| Story ID: | 543887 |
| Location: | FORT MCCOY, WISCONSIN, US |
| Web Views: | 29 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Photo Story: 2025 butterfly field day held at Fort McCoy for group dedicated to natural resources, by Scott Sturkol, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
