JURBIC Needs You: Help Us Grow a Bug-Loving Community

🐞 Join JURBIC & the Vermont Inverting Society!

Jericho, Underhill, Richmond, Bolton Inverting Club

Inverting for Invertebrates — Observing, Learning, Protecting

🧬 About Us

JURBIC — the Jericho, Underhill, Richmond, Bolton Inverting Club — is a growing community of individuals dedicated to observing, studying, and protecting invertebrates, especially insects, in our towns and beyond.

We’re also looking to eventually grow into a Vermont Inverting Society, promoting the joy of insect observation and the importance of biodiversity and habitat conservation across Vermont. 

🎯 Our Mission

To establish a friendly and permanent organization that fosters friendship and collaboration among people who are passionate about invertebrates — and the wild world they inhabit.

🌍 Our Strategy

• Inspire others to witness the magic of the natural world through insect observation.
• Promote public awareness about the importance of insects in healthy ecosystems.
• Support native insect species and their habitats, ensuring they thrive.
• Facilitate backyard observations and Bug Safaris to bring nature closer to home.
• Report and share biodiversity data (via iNaturalist) to aid in scientific research and conservation.
• Encourage everyone to experience, appreciate, and document nature.

🐜 What We Do   

• Bug Safari Walks & Backyard Bug Meet-ups (April–October)
• Encouraging all guests to take photos and load them onto iNaturalist
• Monthly insect biodiversity reports (by town, observers, taxa) on iNaturalist
• Example Report: August 2024
• Insect Talks & Exhibits with guest speakers and local experts
• Educational programs with schools, libraries, and nature organizations
• Inverting Newsletters, Bug Safari journals, and photo exhibitions
• Seasonal Contests — First Bumblebee, First Butterfly, and more
• Host a local mini-BioBlitz to document insects in a specific area
• Advocate for native plantings, reduced lawns, and insect-friendly yards
• Encourage friendly town-based iNaturalist challenges

🧠 Meeting Topics & Club Activities

• How to interest others in insect observation and posting onto iNaturalist
• Publishing insect-themed newsletters and articles
• Backyard insect surveys
• Creating educational experiences for kids and adults
• Photo displays & macro photography tips
• Insect species spotlights: rare, local, or simply amazing
• Field trips to places like UVM’s Thompson Zoological Collection or Montshire Museum
• "By exploring topics from innovative educational programs and accessible specimen displays to community science initiatives and frameworks for assessment, the collection demonstrates how outreach collections can turn 'bugs in drawers' into powerful vehicles for learning and community engagement."  - https://blog.pensoft.net/2025/09/12/bugs-in-drawers-entomological-outreach-collections-and-their-role-in-community-engagement/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=bugs-in-drawers-entomological-outreach-collections-and-their-role-in-community-engagement
• Repurpose insects from collections that will otherwise be discarded. Use for educational purposes. - https://nhcm.pensoft.net/article/157567/

🌱 Why Join?

We are LIFERS — Life-long Invertebrate Finders, Explorers, and Recorders.

By joining JURBIC, you’ll:

• Deepen your connection to nature
• Learn about your local insect neighbors
• Contribute to real science and conservation
• Meet like-minded people who love bugs (and the places they live)

Whether you’re a naturalist, photographer, educator, parent, or just curious — we welcome you.

✨ Get Involved

JURBIC is growing, and we need passionate volunteers! 
Join us to help run programs, organize events, and promote insect conservation in your community. 
Let’s develop a bug-loving network together!

To: Community Members, Educators, Nature Enthusiasts, Parents

We’re starting a new community club — JURBIC (Jericho, Underhill, Richmond, Bolton Inverting Club) — to explore, study, and protect our local insect life through fun and educational programs like Bug Safaris, backyard observations, insect talks, and more.
We’re looking for volunteers, co-organizers, naturalists, enthusiasts, visionaries, and educators to help us build something meaningful and lasting. Whether you have time to help lead an event, organize behind the scenes, or just lend your support — we’d love to hear from you!

Why get involved?

Help connect kids and families with the natural world

Support local biodiversity and habitat preservation

Build community through shared learning and exploration

Be part of a growing movement to protect the tiny creatures that keep our ecosystems thriving

📬 Interested? Contact Bernie at:

📧 Bernie.paquette@yahoo.com

 The Roosevelt adage was 'Speak softly and carry a big stick'.  

 Bernie's stick is not aggression; it is passion. 

This club is not organized for profit, and no part of its earnings, if any, shall inure to the benefit of any member or individual. The net profits, if any, shall be used solely for carrying out the foregoing purposes. Any certificates of membership in this club that may be issued shall be used solely as evidence of the privilege of voting on club matters.

Want to make a real impact in nature education and conservation?

🐞 Volunteer with JURBIC and lead backyard safaris, educational programs, and more!  

Join JURBIC and Help Bring Insect Exploration to Life

The first step toward caring, as is so often the case in conservation, is getting to know our wild neighbors.

75 Monarchs in 48 Hours: A Butterfly Bloom at Mobbs Farm Valley Trails

75 Monarchs in 48 Hours: A Butterfly Bloom at Mobbs Farm Valley Trails in Jericho, Vermont

Mobbs Farm Valley Trails stretch for miles, offering a perfect mix of open fields and wooded paths ideal for walking the dog, mountain biking, horseback riding, or simply wandering with intention. Whether you're trail running or meandering, this place invites both movement and stillness.

The trails loop through pasture-like fields, brimming this time of year with Joe-pye weed, goldenrod, asters, and other wildflowers. These plants don’t just fill the fields with color—they hum with life.

You know it's quiet when you start to hear your own footsteps brushing along the mowed paths. You know you’re really listening when your thoughts go quiet, too. And you know you’re truly present when you can distinguish individual crickets in the chorus. That’s the art of inverting—not just flipping your perspective, but observing the world of invertebrates in its full, subtle wonder.

Inverting is the practice of watching insects closely, and it rewards patience. I wandered through the waving green under a wide, blue, nearly cloudless sky—those first warm days of September—moving slowly enough to become nearly invisible to the creatures I was hoping to observe.

While I have a general fascination with all insects, my focus during this visit was butterflies—specifically Monarchs—for the Vermont Butterfly Atlas. This project, coordinated by the Vermont Center for Ecostudies, runs every 20 years and relies on community scientists to help document butterfly species throughout the state.

Earlier visits to Mobbs had offered sightings of several butterfly species, but only a handful of Monarchs. That changed on September 9th and 10th. On those two days, the fields were alive with them—a migratory feeding frenzy, a kaleidoscope in motion. On the second day, there were so many that it felt like they might lift me off the ground. I imagined letting them carry me home, but worried they’d overshoot Vermont and drop me somewhere in central Mexico.

After photographing and counting 75 individual Monarchs in just two days, I find myself even more invested in their survival. These gentle creatures—so often symbols of transformation—remind us of the fragile beauty in our world, and how important it is to pay attention, to participate, and to care.

View my Monarch photos taken at Mobbs over the two days. 

Read about the 2nd Vermont Butterfly Atlas and how you can participate.

Sabina asked: Nice, Bernie!  What was your counting method?

Sabina, I counted (on 9/10 - 9/11) the ones I was able to photograph (based on the number of iNat postings). Viewed many more, though like birds they fly, so now there's no way to determine a sure individual count. The most I viewed at one time was six.

On Sept 11, I viewed six and photographed four Monarchs.

-bugeyedbernie

This year, the journal Science released a study that found steep declines in U.S. butterfly populations — some 22 percent across 554 species. Over the past 20 years, notes the study, “the prevalence of declines throughout all regions in the United States highlights an urgent need to protect butterflies from further losses.” - From NYTIMES Essay, How to Count Butterflies, 9/15/2025.