Now, a broad consortium of public, private and nonprofit entities is working together to restore coastal prairies in Mendocino County while reintroducing an endangered butterfly. The effort brings up questions about the role of humans in nature: what kinds of disturbances humans have brought to the landscape, and how to create a conservation movement without further endangering a species that’s on the brink of extinction.
Anna Bride is a stewardship project manager at the Mendocino Land Trust, which just got a $1.5 million grant from the state Wildlife Conservation Board to restore 53 acres of coastal prairies by planting thousands of pollinator friendly perennials for the Behren's silverspot butterfly and other invertebrates that were once plentiful. As this effort is underway, captive-reared butterflies will be released into their restored habitat.
Bride is hoping for some knock-on conservation effects, saying, “Of course if you’re focusing on a very small animal or insect, I think that the benefits of restoring that very small animal’s habitat has greater effects for many other species, especially pollinator species.” Native plants provide nectar for adult insects and vegetation for caterpillars, which in turn feed birds. Bride noted that they also have a profound effect on the landscape, adding, “The carbon that’s sequestered in the roots of prairie plants is very high, and it’s also protected from wildfire…A lot of these herbaceous perennials have root systems that go 4-7 feet deep.”
The coastal prairies have been subject to development and agricultural disturbance. Asa Spade, a senior biologist with Wynn Coastal Planning and Biology, reflected on the balancing act that’s inherent to maintaining an ecosystem that came about due to another kind of disturbance. “Prairies require a disturbance to continue,” he said. “Before colonization of this area by Europeans, there were a lot more fires on the landscape, and those could reduce the number of trees in a prairie habitat. When we think about climate change, one of the solutions that many people recognize is planting trees. But these prairies are such a unique ecosystem that it’s a bit ironic: you can look out in some of those locations where the butterflies are. There are a number of young trees growing there, which seems like a good thing, until you realize that in maybe ten or fifteen years those trees are going to shade out many of the prairie plants.”
Clint Pogue is a botanist working out of the Arcata office of the Fish and Wildlife Service. He’s been one of the key players in efforts to restore the Behren's silverspot and the Oregon silverspot for years. He says butterfly conservation writ large is one of his main goals at the Service. He says the balancing act is weighing when the trees are encroaching on the prairies and when they’re providing benefits.
“These trees, as they encroach upon the prairie, they definitely can take over prairie components,” he acknowledged. “But also those trees serve a role in the landscape as windbreaks. Butterflies don’t tolerate wind very well. And being on the coast, sometimes it’s extremely windy. So those trees help provide those windbreaks, which also allow the temperature to get a little bit warmer in those areas, which is good for butterfly activity.”
The exact location of the project has not been disclosed. Entomologist Chris Damiani is director of the butterfly conservation program at Sequoia Park Zoo in Eureka. She’s in charge of raising the Behren's silverspot caterpillars that will be released as butterflies onto the prairies. While most people are enchanted with the tiny insects, she said they do face another peril. “Unfortunately, with the Oregon silverspot, there has been a history of poachers that, when they know where these captive reared butterflies are being released, they’ll sit outside the release sites and capture the butterflies that are nice and fresh and beautiful and sell them on the black market,” she explained. “Which is why we have to be a little bit secretive about where we’re releasing the butterflies.”
Protecting the butterflies from humans while giving people the opportunity to fall in love with them is another balancing act that Damiani and Pogue think about a lot. Pogue describes butterflies as “natural artworks,” and believes that the delight they inspire is key to their survival. “That really happens,” he said. “People are doing illegal insect trade on the black market. So right now we’re focused on preventing extinction. I think in the future, once there's a lot more Behren’s silverspots out on the landscape, people will be able to get out there and enjoy them. But in the meantime, while we’re working to help ensure the Behren's silverspot’s continuance on our planet, people can get out, get a butterfly guide, walk around, and appreciate all the other artworks fluttering around in their neighborhoods.”
Spade, whose biological surveys have been a fruitful source of information for the restoration project, is keeping an eye out for other endangered species as well. But some are plentiful, like the obscure, or fog belt bumblebee. “It was kind of heartening that in most of the locations that I looked, I did find that bumblebee,” he reported.
Pogue says conservation is also for animals that aren’t endangered yet. “It’s good to help keep common things common, while they’re there,” he urged. “Because it’s not unheard-of for common organisms to become increasingly rare.”
