Science teacher Alan Fiero says the work must go on to protect the Karner blue

Thursday, July 27, 2017 - 17:14

 


 

 

GUILDERLAND — Last Thursday, local, state, and federal agencies held a press conference to announce that, at the Pine Bush Preserve, the endangered Karner blue butterfly had exceeded the federal recovery threshold.

There were fewer than 1,000 of the quarter-sized butterflies at the preserve in 2007; last year, there were 15,000. The local preserve is one of 13 federal recovery units for the butterfly that was first identified in the 1940s by novelist Vladimr Nabokov in Karner, New York.

Alan Fiero, who retired this year from teaching science at Farnsworth Middle School, has spent decades working with his students to girdle aspen trees and build fences to protect the lupine Karner blues rely on, and even to breed the now-rare butterflies.

This week, Fiero shared his philosophy on teaching science and spoke about the importance of continuing such efforts in this week's podcast.

— Melissa Hale-Spencer

Subscribe to The Enterprise on your podcast app, like iTunes(Apple), Stitcher, Google(Android), etc.

 

Tags:

More News

  • New Scotland adopts open space plan

    The plan will now be folded into the town’s 2018 comprehensive plan and “used as a reference tool in the development, management, and protection of New Scotland’s natural resources, and in making future land use decisions,” the resolution adopting the plan states.

  • ‘Devastating’: Underground Railroad Center program derailed by IMLS cuts

    Mary Liz Stewart, who founded the Underground Railroad center with her husband, Paul, in the 1990s, said the idea for the museum project came when she was looking for quotes by Black Americans for a newsletter the center regularly puts out. She came across this one by Shirley Chisolm, the first Black woman elected to Congress: “If they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring in a folding chair.”

  • BKW adopts $24.7 million budget

    The Berne-Knox-Westerlo Board of Education unanimously adopted Superintendent Bonnie Kane’s $24.7 million budget for the 2025-26 school year, which will go to a public vote on May 20. 

The Altamont Enterprise is focused on hyper-local, high-quality journalism. We produce free election guides, curate readers' opinion pieces, and engage with important local issues. Subscriptions open full access to our work and make it possible.