A grant for $3.8 million was awarded by the U.S, Fish and Wildlife Service to protect two local, endangered butterfly species —the Mission Blue, left, and the San Bruno Elfin.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is targeting $3.8 million for recovery efforts for two local, endangered butterfly species — the San Bruno Elfin Butterfly and the Mission Blue Butterfly.
Partners like the National Parks Service, county agencies and local nonprofits will be able to apply for the funding as it becomes available to put towards recovery actions like habitat restoration, annual surveys of the butterflies and their food plants, managing invasive plants, increasing food plant numbers and species research, USFWS Public Affairs Specialist Meghan Snow said via email.
The funds are part of a $20 million investment into species recovery implementation efforts, designated from the Inflation Reduction Act to support four species groups — Hawaiian and Pacific Island plants, butterflies and moths, freshwater mussels and southwest desert fish, according to an Aug. 16 press release from the USFWS.
It’s an exciting opportunity to build on already-existing recovery work of the butterfly species, both of which have their highest populations on San Bruno Mountain, said San Bruno Mountain Watch Executive Director Ariel Cherbowsky Corkidi.
“I think it’s great that there’s this support for species that really make people proud,” he said. “It’s one of many things that is special about the Bay Area, the beautiful parks around us and the amazing communities around us, but also these unique species that are really emblematic of how unique and special this part of the earth is.”
San Bruno Mountain Watch, a local nonprofit organization founded through grassroots organizers dedicated to protecting and conserving San Bruno Mountain and its biological diversity, has worked on restoration of both butterfly populations — designated as endangered in 1976 — for years. The nonprofit hopes to apply for the funding as soon as it becomes available.
“Both butterflies are really relevant to San Bruno Mountain,” Cherbowsky Corkidi said.
The Mission Blue butterfly has a slightly larger habitat range and can also be found in Marin County and San Francisco County at locations like Twin Peaks. It lives in coastal scrublands and grasslands, feeding on lupin as a caterpillar and nectaring on wildflowers as an adult.
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Decades of restoration work has been done for the species, including locally, where San Bruno Mountain Watch has helped to remove invasive species and helping the community grow native food plants that the Mission Blue enjoys, like lupin and wildflower.
The nonprofit also has a nursery named after the Mission Blue butterfly, where it grows native plants for purchase and restoration purposes.
The San Bruno Elfin Butterfly is lesser-known and has an even smaller habitat range, residing in the higher-elevation coastal shrubs, Cherbowsky Corkidi said.
San Bruno Mountain Watch began an advocacy and recovery program of its own for the butterfly, named Elevate the Elfin. The nonprofit leads walks up the mountain to see Elfin caterpillars and propagates and grows the plants on which it feeds. It also promotes education on the butterfly’s life cycle to the community.
“We really wanted to raise more awareness for this butterfly and educate people about its amazing story,” he said.
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