A chased butterfly is never caught, but it will sit on your shoulder if you sit quietly in the grass.

Proving butterflies are more than just a metaphor for the delicate environmental balance, a group of 26 interested nature lovers recently toured natural areas at the Albemarle Corp. wildlife management site in Orangeburg, and at The Oaks.

Albemarle employee and Wildlife Habitat Council team member Arthur Sweatman acted as guide to butterfly hot spots in “Hundred Acre Woods.” The group’s members included representatives of WHC, the Environmental Education Association of South Carolina and the Carolina Butterfly Society, Midlands Chapter.

Sweatman says the purpose was to count and document different butterflies in Orangeburg County.

“We had been photographing the butterflies at the site since the latter portion of 2008,” Sweatman said. “On this day we found some 30 different species, including three species that had never before been seen and documented in Orangeburg County.

“One of those, a Gemmed Satyr, was found at Hundred Acre Woods,” he said. “Later at The Oaks, a Goatweed Leafwing and a Harvester were found.”

In all, 40 species of butterflies were found at both locations, including Tiger Swallowtails, the state butterfly, Palamedes and Black Swallowtails, Cloudless Sulfurs, Buckeyes and Eastern tailed Blues.

Albemarle’s Hundred Acre Woods is a WHC-certified Wildlife at Work and Corporate Lands for Learning site. Sweatman says Albemarle’s mission is to try and foster education about butterfly and other wildlife habitats.

“Butterflies are pollinators, which makes them very important to the environment, especially in light of the problems experienced among bees, another major pollinating insect,” Sweatman said. “The butterfly count also gives you a measure of the health of the environment. The more butterflies there are, the better the natural environment.”

Sweatman says the butterfly count also helps determine host plants that exist in the habitat. Butterflies lay their eggs on host plants, which accounts for a stronger butterfly population.

“Two that exist here are the False Purple Foxglove (Gerardia) and the other is Joe Pye Weed,” Sweatman said.

Tom Kerr, regulatory adviser and wildlife habitat team head at Albemarle, says the company makes reservations for interested groups. Hundred Acre Woods is not open to the public for security and safety reasons.

“We are trying to set up this wildlife area up for teaching and education with different groups, primarily younger kids,” Kerr said. “We hosted 80 fourth-graders from Edisto Primary last year and this year we had 30 student teachers from Claflin (University).

“Hundred Acre Woods provides another educational resource especially for local school districts that have cut back on field trips not related to their curriculum. Arthur has done a tremendous amount of categorizing not only butterflies but animals and birds, too,” he said.

For more information about The Albemarle Corp.’s Hundred Acre Woods or to schedule a group tour, call Kerr at 803-539-5404.

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