April 26, 2004

NEWS FROM THE XERCES SOCIETY

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The Xerces Society, working with noted Oregon lepidopterist Dana Ross, has found a new population of the Taylor’s checkerspot (Euphydryas editha taylori). The Taylor’s checkerspot is a medium-sized, colorfully checkered butterfly with a wingspan of about two inches. Before its dramatic decline the Taylor’s checkerspot was documented at more than seventy sites in British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon.

Including this new finding, we now know of fourteen populations of Taylor’s checkerspots in Washington and Oregon, with a total of about 2,000 butterflies. Only two of these populations are in Oregon, yet they comprise almost three-quarters of the known butterflies.

"The discovery of these sites is highly significant," said Mace Vaughan, Staff Entomologist for the Xerces Society. "In Oregon, less than one percent of this butterfly's prairie habitat remains, so finding and protecting grasslands inhabited by Taylor's checkerspot is paramount to saving this butterfly."

The Xerces Society implemented the search for this butterfly with funding from, in part, the Oregon Zoo and Patagonia.

For more information, contact Scott Black, Executive Director, Xerces Society, 503.534.2706 or visit the following site detailing the Xerces Society's efforts to protect butterflies in the Pacific Northwest.

The Xerces Society, the Center for Biological Diversity, the Nevada Outdoor Recreation Association, and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility filed a listing petition on Friday, April 23, 2004, to protect the Sand Mountain blue butterfly (Euphilotes pallescens arenamontana). The petition calls on the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to list the butterfly as a threatened or endangered species under the Endangered Species Act.

The Sand Mountain blue depends entirely on approximately one thousand acres of Kearney buckwheat shrub habitat at Sand Mountain in the Great Basin east of Fallon, Nevada. This area is intensively impacted by off-road vehicles (ORVs), which can kill these butterflies and their host plant (the buckwheat).

Sand Mountain Recreation Area (SMRA) consists of 4,795 acres of BLM public land that is open to unrestricted off-road vehicle use.During the last decade (1993 to 2003), the BLM reported a 25 percent increase in visitor use at the recreation area. ORV use is still going up.Much of the Kearney buckwheat habitat that once thrived adjacent to the dunes has been destroyed in the past five years by ORV users, who now ride not only through the dunes but also over the shrubs themselves.

Last spring, BLM biologists recommended closing the best remaining habitat at Sand Mountain to vehicles in order to protect the butterfly, the buckwheat, and several other rare endemic species.But BLM managers decided to adopt a voluntary system only.

After nearly four months of monitoring, the BLM has concluded that these voluntary measures are not working.Educational efforts and increased signage are routinely ignored as off-roaders leave the routes, often running over posted signs and using the Kearny buckwheat as ORV jumps.

The existing measures are undoubtedly ineffective. Unless more successful measures are put in place, the Sand Mountain blue butterfly’s habitat will be completely destroyed.

"It is unfortunate that the BLM and ORV riders are unwilling to protect the last one thousand acres of habitat for the Sand Mountain blue," said Scott Hoffman Black, Executive Director of the Xerces Society, "We now have no choice but to take this to the next level and protect this butterfly and its habitat through the Endangered Species Act."

The Sand Mountain blue is an endemic species, living only in this one place. Without immediate protection from ORVs, this butterfly could go extinct.

Sixteen species endemic to Sand Mountain have been identified and others provide important habitat for these species. Important species on Sand Mountain include the mottled milkvetch (Astragalus lentiginosus var. kennedyi), Kearney buckwheat (Eriogonum nummulare), desert sunflower (Helianthus deserticola), sand cholla (Opuntia pulchella), Nevada oryctes (Oryctes nevadensis), Sand Mountain blue butterfly (Euphilotes pallescens arenamontana), Hardy’s aegialian beetle (Aegialia hardyi), Sand Mountain aphodius scarab beetle (Aphodius sp.), click beetle (Cardiophorus sp.), Sand Mountain pygmy beetle (Coenonycha pygmaea), sand-obligate beetle (Eusattus muricatus), Sand Mountain serican scarab beetle (Serica psammobunus), dune honey ant (Myrmecocystus arenarius). Numerous species of rare and endemic bees are also found at Sand Mountain: Anthidium rodecki, Anthophora affabilis, Calliopsis phaceliae, Colletes stepheni, C. tectiventris, Hespereapis sp., Perdita aridella, P. chloris, P. cleomellae, P. eucnides eucnides, P. haigi, P. hirticeps apicata, and P. vesca.

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For more information contact:

Scott Black, Executive Director, Xerces Society, 503.534.2706

Daniel R. Patterson, Desert Ecologist, Center for Biodiversity, 520.906.2159

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