TOLEDO, OH -- A 30-year commitment to studying and protecting monarch butterflies has earned special recognition for Toledo resident Doris Stifel from the Ohio Lake Erie Commission.
Stifel, "The Butterfly Lady" to many in northern Ohio, is nationally known for her research on the monarch butterfly. She has given presentations and demonstrations to thousands of teachers, students and nature lovers in an effort to increase the public's awareness of the plight of these fascinating insects.
Her work has taken her three times to the monarch butterfly's wintering-over grounds in the highlands of central Mexico. In fact, she was instrumental in the international effort to locate those wintering-over areas, personally tagging as many as 4,500 butterflies each fall as they migrated south from Canada over Lake Erie. She estimates that she has tagged more than 100,000 butterflies in her 30 years of study.
Stifel regularly works as a consultant to major monarch rearing and tagging operations in the Lake Erie area, including the Kelleys Island Audubon Society, Maumee Bay State Park Nature Center, the Butterfly House in Whitehouse and the Toledo Naturalists' Association. The Ohio Lake Erie Commission has issued a special commendation to Stifel for her lifelong work in entomology.