Mission blue butterfly habitat conservation

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) has a number of programs aimed at Mission blue butterfly habitat conservation, which include lands traditionally inhabited by the mission blue butterfly

Mission blue butterfly

The Mission Blue is a blue or lycaenid butterfly subspecies native to the San Francisco Bay Area of the United States. The butterfly has been declared as endangered by the US Federal Government. It is a subspecies of Boisduval's Blue .- Description :The endangered Mission Blue has a wingspan of...

, an endangered species

Endangered species

An endangered species is a population of organisms which is at risk of becoming extinct because it is either few in numbers, or threatened by changing environmental or predation parameters...

. A recovery plan, drawn up by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 1984, outlined the need to protect mission blue habitat and to repair habitat damaged by urbanization, off highway vehicle traffic, and invasion by exotic, non-native plants. An example of the type of work being done by governmental and citizen agencies can be found in the Marin Headlands at Golden Gate National Recreation Area

Golden Gate National Recreation Area

The Golden Gate National Recreation Area is a U.S. National Recreation Area administered by the National Park Service that surrounds the San Francisco Bay area. It is one of the most visited units of the National Park system in the United States, with over 13 million visitors a year...

. In addition, regular wildfires have opened new habitat conservation opportunities as well as damaging existing ones.

Marin Headlands

The program in the Marin Headlands for mission blue butterfly habitat protection aims to deal with one of the main problems facing the mission blue. The Headlands area was once owned by the U.S. Army; from 1870 on, the Army used the area for forts, such as Fort Cronkhite, coastal batteries, such as the ones which protected the San Francisco Bay

San Francisco Bay

San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining from approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean...

during WWII and missile sites, such as the 280 that occupied the area during the Cold War. While in the Marin Headlands, the army planted a lot of trees, so many that today the non-native, invasive species

Invasive species

"Invasive species", or invasive exotics, is a nomenclature term and categorization phrase used for flora and fauna, and for specific restoration-preservation processes in native habitats, with several definitions....

that occupy the headlands threaten the habitat of such species as the mission blue. The habitat protection program seeks to root out these species from selected areas of the Marin Headlands. Some of the species that have now become native to the area and threaten the habitat of the endangered mission blue include Blue Gum Eucalyptus, Monterey cypress, Monterey pine

Monterey Pine

The Monterey Pine, Pinus radiata, family Pinaceae, also known as the Insignis Pine or Radiata Pine is a species of pine native to the Central Coast of California....

and blackwood acacia. The Mission Blue Butterfly UserFee Project in the headlands will try to remove these species and revegetate the area with native coastal prairie plants.

San Bruno Mountain

Another major conservation effort is underway at San Bruno Mountain. A large area of Mission blue habitat has been protected under the auspices of the USFWS. In all, the San Bruno Mountain habitat conservation program has protected over 3500 acres (14.2 km²) of habitat since 1983. San Bruno Mountain was the site of the nation's first Habitat Conservation Plan

Habitat Conservation Plan

A Habitat conservation plan is a plan prepared under the Endangered Species Act by nonfederal parties wishing to obtain permits for incidental taking of threatened and endangered species....

(HCP), intended to protect the habitat of the mission blue. However HCPs remain controversial.

The controversy over HCPs lie in their implementation. The San Bruno HCP came about in 1982, by that year locals had created San Bruno Mountain State and County Park

San Bruno Mountain State Park

San Bruno Mountain State Park is a state park located in northern San Mateo County, California. It is adjacent to the southern boundary of San Francisco and borders the cities of Brisbane, South San Francisco, Colma and Daly City....

, which held 1950 acres (7.9 km²) of the 3,600 on the mountain, in order to protect the habitat of the mission blue butterfly. Then, the butterfly began to turn up on private land. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service formed a committee with landowners, developers, local governments, the California Department of Fish and Game

California Department of Fish and Game

The California Department of Fish and Game is a department within the government of California, falling under its parent California Natural Resources Agency. The Department of Fish and Game manages and protects the state's diverse fish, wildlife, plant resources, and native habitats...

and others. They crafted the first HCP in 1982 "to address problems caused by the presence of endangered butterflies on San Bruno Mountain." HCPs do not include any independent scientific review, thus none exists. The plan became the model for the 1983 amendment to the Endangered Species Act.

HCPs work like this. In exchange for permission to build over the tope of the prime habitat of two California endangered butterflies, the mission blue and the San Bruno elfin butterfly

San Bruno elfin butterfly

The San Bruno elfin butterfly is a U.S. Federally listed endangered subspecies which inhabits rocky outcrops and cliffs in coastal scrub on the San Francisco peninsula, endemic to this habitat in California...

, landowners agreed to measures to improve the prospects for the species' survival in other locations. This particular HCP allowed the development of 368 acres (1.5 km²) to 828 acres (3.4 km²). Property owners who located in this area were required to offer land and funds to conserve and improve habitat in other locales around San Bruno Mountain. Property holders are also assessed for a Habitat Conservation Trust Fund which pays for species monitoring, alien plant removal and other tasks on the "donated" land slated for habitat. One such area on San Bruno Mountain was along the northeast ridge. There, a residential community was built over prime mission blue habitat, a habitat that was supposed to be restored on the saddle of the mountain. However, the mountain's saddle is colder, damper and windier. On top of this, the saddle is overgrown with an invasive species, gorse, while the mission blue requires lupine as its host plant.

The environmental consulting firm, Thomas Reid Associates (TRA) crafted the plan and work to carry out the HCPs biological program and monitors the results. In addition, they have conducted the biological studies and environmental impact studies required under the HCP. TRA works with others to stop exotic plant invasions on butterfly habitat and began to undertake the daunting task of replacing the gorse infested saddle with lupine for the butterflies to relocate to. The project started in 1985. Gorse

Gorse

Gorse, furze, furse or whin is a genus of about 20 plant species of thorny evergreen shrubs in the subfamily Faboideae of the pea family Fabaceae, native to western Europe and northwest Africa, with the majority of species in Iberia.Gorse is closely related to the brooms, and like them, has green...

is a hardy plant that can reach heights of 20 feet (6.1 m) with deep root systems. TRA tried multiple methods to destroy the invasive species, including herbicides and burning. By April the unfazed gorse bloomed a bright yellow. In 2001, 16 years after the project began, 100 acre (0.404686 km²) of 330 original-acres remained covered in gorse.
The Sacramento Fish and Wildlife Office is in charge of the plats under conservation at San Bruno Mountain and Parkside Homes. Parkside Homes is the newest habitat conservation plan or agreement and involves a twenty five acre residential community in South San Francisco. The area is home to non-native and native species which include lupines, Sedum
Sedum
Sedum is a large genus of flowering plants in the family Crassulaceae, members of which are commonly known as stonecrops. It contains around 400 species of leaf succulents that are found throughout the Northern Hemisphere, varying from annual and creeping herbs to shrubs. The plants have...

, and Viola
Viola
The viola is a bowed string instrument. It is the middle voice of the violin family, between the violin and the cello.- Form :The viola is similar in material and construction to the violin. A full-size viola's body is between and longer than the body of a full-size violin , with an average...

. The permit was issued in 1996.

The original conservation permit for San Bruno Mountain was issued in 1983 and encompassed 3500 acres (14.2 km²) of mixed use land in San Mateo County. The mission blue is among other endangered species in the 1983 parcel of land. Other animals include the San Bruno elfin butterfly

San Bruno elfin butterfly

, and the San Francisco garter snake

San Francisco garter snake

The San Francisco Garter Snake is a slender multi-colored colubrid snake. Designated as an endangered species since the year 1967, it is endemic to California and resides only in San Mateo County, California, and the extreme northern part of coastal Santa Cruz County, California...

. At the end of 1985, another 203 acre (0.82151258 km²) of land came under the auspices of the Sacramento office. The area, known as "South Slope" is another mixed use area. Three other amendments to the San Bruno Mountain conservation agreement added 10, 19, and 227 acre (0.91863722 km²) in 1985, 1986 and 1990, respectively.

Fort Baker

Fort Baker is an abandoned base formerly occupied by the U.S. Army. It is near the city of Sausalito, California

Sausalito, California

Sausalito is a San Francisco Bay Area city, in Marin County, California, United States. Sausalito is south-southeast of San Rafael, at an elevation of 13 feet . The population was 7,061 as of the 2010 census. The community is situated near the northern end of the Golden Gate Bridge, and prior to...

. The military announced the post's closure in 1995. By 2001, it had been ceded to the National Park Service.

An 8¼ acre area of non-native Monterey pine and tea trees are invading part of a habitat at Fort Baker. The Fort Baker area is a "top vegetation and wildlife management priority" for the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. As part of the mission to protect Mission Blue habitat the project will seek to physically remove and/or contain those species in areas within or adjacent to the "host plant" L. albifrons. Upon completion, the area will be completely invasive-tree free.

A pitched legal battle was waged for years over the fate of some of the Fort Baker lands, the players: the city of Sausalito, California and the National Park Service (NPS). Sausalito and the National Park Service go back in legal battles several years but they also work together at times, sometimes to the benefit of one party or the other, as U.S. Department of Interior appropriations will reveal. In 1999, the Omnibus Consolidated and Emergency Supplemental Appropriations for FY 1999 made a "general provisions" dealing with the city of Sausalito and the Department of Interior. Basically stating that the NPS owned land at Fort Baker was property tax exempt and exempt from any kind of special assessment from the state of California, county of Marin, or city of Sausalito.
The legal battle ensued when the National Park Service announced plans to finally allow a development group to build a large, long-awaited hotel/conference center complex on the remains of Fort Baker. The NPS first announced their intention to develop Fort Baker in 1980's Golden Gate National Recreation Area General Management Plan which proclaimed that Fort Baker would become a conference center. The group, Fort Baker Retreat Group LLC - is an amalgam of Passport Resorts, a hotel management company; Equity Community Builders, the development manager; and Ajax Capital, a financial partner. Talk about development at the site, managed by the Park Service, first began in earnest in 1998. By 2001, the city of Sausalito had filed suit to force an injunction against the Park Service's plan to go ahead with the project. The suit lingered in court for several years. The essential quarrel was over the size of the project which looked to be approaching the maximum size of 350 rooms as adopted in the June 2000 original Fort Baker Plan. The suit alleged, however, that the NPS violated numerous environmental laws during the development of the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the project. The EIS was completed in 1999 and included the NPS' preferred alternative to the hotel/conference center. The alternative, 42 acres (169,968.1 m²) of habitat, 23 specifically for the Mission blue butterfly, to be preserved, improved or repaired. Sausalito's 2001 suit also alleged that the EIS was "deficient."

It was not until October 20, 2004 that a judgement was handed down in the case. In City of Sausalito v. O'Neill the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said that Sausalito did have standing to sue the NPS for an injunction to halt the hotel project at Fort Baker. The 2004 ruling proclaimed "standing" according to Article III of the U.S. Constitution. Article III requires that the defendant has suffered an ";injury in fact," the injury is fairly traceable and it is likely that the injury will be repaired by a decision in favor of the defendant. The court found that Sausalito had an "injury in fact" because the Fort Baker project could attract up to 2,700 visitors per day, impacting traffic, aesthetic appeal and revenue in Sausalito.

The court also found that the city had statutory standing for the injunction

Injunction

An injunction is an equitable remedy in the form of a court order that requires a party to do or refrain from doing certain acts. A party that fails to comply with an injunction faces criminal or civil penalties and may have to pay damages or accept sanctions...

suit as well. That authority came under the Coastal Zone Management Act

Coastal Zone Management Act

The Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972 is an Act of Congress passed in 1972 to encourage coastal states to develop and implement coastal zone management plans...

(CZMA), and the Marine Mammal Protection Act

Marine Mammal Protection Act

The Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 was the first article of legislation to call specifically for an ecosystem approach to natural resource management and conservation. MMPA prohibits the taking of marine mammals, and enacts a moratorium on the import, export, and sale of any marine mammal,...

(MMPA). The decision, however, was not a total victory for the city of Sausalito. The court rejected the city's claims under the NPS Organics Act and the Concessions Management Improvement Act (CMIA) and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA). The court rulings on the other statutory claims are as follows:

ESA: The law requires consulting the USFWS or National Marine Fisheries Service
National Marine Fisheries Service
The National Marine Fisheries Service is a United States federal agency. A division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Department of Commerce, NMFS is responsible for the stewardship and management of the nation's living marine resources and their habitat within the...

if federal activities might result in a taking. The 9th Circuit held that the NPS had consulted with USFWS as well as the NMFS during the evolution of the Fort Baker plan. Furthermore, the court held that the NPS had incorporated mitigation measures as recommended by the NMFS for salmonids and by the USFWS for the Mission blue butterfly into their final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). They had complied with the Endangered Species Act.

MMPA: The MMPA prohibits the taking of endangered or threatened species. The city argued that the National Park Service (NPS) failed to secure appropriate permits for takings as a result of construction activities associated with the Fort Baker plan. Since neither party had fully covered this issue in district court the 9th Circuit remanded the claim for an initial ruling on its merits.

MBTA: Under this law it is unlawful to hunt, kill, or capture a migratory bird. There is an exception to this law and it revolves around habitat destruction. Habitat destruction does not effect a taking under the MBTA. The court ruled that the NPS did not have to seek MBTA authorization. This is because birds will only be distributed through habitat modification.

CZMA: The coastal management program for the San Francisco Bay Area, federally approved, allows limited commercial recreational facilities within waterfront parks. They must be incidental to park use and not restrict public access to the bay, however. Both federal and state coastal management plans must be consistent with each other under CZMA. The "Bay Commission" determined that the NPS' Fort Baker plan was consitant with the Bay Plan. The city of Sausalito claimed that the Bay Commission's consistency determination did not satisfy the CZMA. The court concurred with the city on this point. It held that the NPS' consistency determination was based on improper ground, a general insufficient funding claim. The court remanded this claim, under the CZMA, to the district court for further proceedings.

Though the court rejected Sausalito's claims under the NPS Organic Act, the CMIA and the Omnibus Act the 9th Circuits findings for the city were a victory. Both the MMPA and CZMA claims were remanded back to district court for further inquiry. This helped lead to a settlement the next year. The entire affair was settled in 2005 when the city and the Park Service came to an agreement which resulted in the project being trimmed down to a 144-room hotel complex. The settlement actually capped the room capacity at a higher 225.

Twin Peaks

The Twin Peaks, icons of the San Francisco Bay Area, are also home to a reported population of mission blue butterflies. The enrtire area is a park managed by the San Francisco Recreation & Park Department (SFRPD). The park contains 31 acres (125,452.7 m²) of what the Park Department terms "Natural Areas." This area is most of the park minus roads, viewpoints and the City Fire Department reservoir. The natural areas contain significant resources for preservation. They include some of the largest areas of coastal scrub and prairie

Prairie

Prairies are considered part of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome by ecologists, based on similar temperate climates, moderate rainfall, and grasses, herbs, and shrubs, rather than trees, as the dominant vegetation type...

that remains within the city of San Francisco. These, being the preferred habitat of the mission blue, are areas that support and provide habitat for the butterfly. Twin Peaks receives heavy recreational use because of its picturesque view of the city. Twin Peaks supports a wide array of habitat types, from mixed forest to coastal scrub. Amongst the coastal scrub and prairies are silver bush lupine plants (L. albifrons) which support the colonies of endangered mission blues.

The mission blue was first reported in Twin Peaks in 1979; since then SFRPD staff confirmed their continued presence in 2000 and 2001. Protocols for monitoring include egg surveys on lupin

Lupin

Lupinus, commonly known as Lupins or lupines , is a genus in the legume family . The genus comprises about 280 species , with major centers of diversity in South and western North America , and the Andes and secondary centers in the Mediterranean region and Africa Lupinus, commonly known as Lupins...

e plants at regular time intervals throughout the spring. In 2000, surveys found 56 eggs on 115 plants in the southern part of Twin Peaks. May 2001 surveys reconfirmed the original finding, albeit in smaller numbers. That year 14 eggs were found on 15 silver bush lupine plants. Between 2001 and 2007, SF Parks and Rec found only two adults and two larvae. In April 2009, a reintroduction was attempted with the release of 22 butterflies from the San Bruno population.
In February 2006, the San Francisco Recreation & Parks Department released its "Significant Natural Resource Areas Management Plan." The plan outlines site specific recommendations for the more than 800 acres (3.2 km²) in over 30 San Francisco parks designated Significant Natural Resource Areas. The site specific plan for Twin Peaks covers the issue of habitat conservation for the Mission blue. The plan recommends that priority be given to "maintaining the habitat necessary for mission blue butterflies, especially the host plant (silver bush lupine)." The silver bush lupine is common in and around Twin Peaks. In addition the Management Plan recommended that the mission blue population at Twin Peaks]The Twin Peaks

Twin Peaks, San Francisco, California

The Twin Peaks are two hills with an elevation of about near the geographic center of San Francisco, California. Except for Mount Davidson, they are the highest points in the city.-Location and climate:...

be monitored and the host plant populations should be augmented whenever possible.

The mission blue is the only federally endangered animal at Twin Peaks; however, the Bay checkerspot butterfly is a federally threatened species. Aside from these, the park at Twin peaks is home to about 20 other species that are threatened or endangered at a local level. Most threatened species at Twin Peaks are of local concern only.

Fire rehabilitation

Popular thought is that the host plants, lupine

Lupine

Lupine may be one of several things:*Something that is like, or relating to, a wolf .*A variant spelling for lupin, a flowering plant.*Lu Pine Records, a record label in Detroit.*Lupine Games, a computer game company....

s, require periodic disturbances in order to successfully reproduce. Many possible natural disturbances are actively worked against by humans, such as fire and landslides because areas are designed with a dual use purpose in mind, often for recreational use.

Solstice fire

In June 2004, the Solstice Fire burned near Sausalito, California. The fire started when an errant "international visitor" had a fire mishap while camping. This fire threatened historical buildings which a public-private partnership planned to turn into a conference center. The building was spared but a stand of non-native Monterey pine

Monterey Pine

The Monterey Pine, Pinus radiata, family Pinaceae, also known as the Insignis Pine or Radiata Pine is a species of pine native to the Central Coast of California....

s was not so lucky. The Monterey pine, a pesky invasive species that has become "naturalized," is continually encroaching on the coastal grasslands that the Mission blue butterfly prefers and requires. Over 250 trees were removed from the area after the fire, burnt remnants of what they once were. The charred trees were chipped and the chips utilized in an electric generation facility as well as on site to control cape ivy

Cape ivy

Cape ivy or German ivy or Parlor ivy or Italian ivy is probably:*Delairea odorata also known as Senecio mikanioidesbut might also be:*Senecio macroglossus also known as Natal ivy or Waxvine...

, another invasive species.

The area that was cut was seeded with native plants. Among them, purple needle grass, in fall 2004 and again in fall 2005 about one pound of purple needle grass seed was sowed directly on the burn site. 400 summer lupine seedlings were also planted, most were grown in nearby nurseries while some were collected in the Marin Headlands. Still, both plants are forced to compete with non-native Italian thistle and French broom

French Broom

Genista monspessulana also known as French Broom, Cape Broom and Montpellier Broom, is a woody perennial shrub and a legume...

Lateral fire

The August 2004 "Lateral Fire" started, again, within Fort Baker, a half mile south of Sausalito, California. Besides threatening urban area, and historic buildings the fire threatened the habitat of the mission blue. The fire happened within a 17 acres (68,796.6 m²) habitat restoration project and burned areas of the butterfly's host lupine plant, Lupinus albifrons. Mission blues lay their eggs on L. albifrons each year. The fire burned about 300 plants. The U.S. federal government responded per the National Fire Plan.

Control of non-native species trying to reinvade the area was cited as a key measure in protecting the lupines, essential to mission blue survival. The non-native French broom and Italian thistle were among the culprits seeking to re-enter coastal grass and scrubland. It was French broom which required the most intensive work to prevent reemergence. Three types of treatments were implemented in the effort to control French broom:

mulching with weed free rice straw
flaming with handheld propane torch
Propane torch
A propane torch is a tool for burning the flammable gas propane . The maximum adiabatic flame temperature a propane torch can achieve with air is 2,268 kelvins...
dislodging or cutting with a hula hoe

When these techniques were applied to seedlings within two months of germination

Germination

Germination is the process in which a plant or fungus emerges from a seed or spore, respectively, and begins growth. The most common example of germination is the sprouting of a seedling from a seed of an angiosperm or gymnosperm. However the growth of a sporeling from a spore, for example the...

, they were 90% effective. French broom seed stores were vast and the treatments required multiple applications. A huge new wave of French broom seeds followed three separate flaming treatments and a massive hand pulling of the invasive plant followed up the flame activity. The propane torches proved less successful against Italian thistle which was controlled utilizing mostly a hand pulling and herbicide

Herbicide

Herbicides, also commonly known as weedkillers, are pesticides used to kill unwanted plants. Selective herbicides kill specific targets while leaving the desired crop relatively unharmed. Some of these act by interfering with the growth of the weed and are often synthetic "imitations" of plant...

combination. In an attempt to rehab the burned areas weed-free straw wattles and weed-free straw mulch to help with erosion control. Following the fire, monitoring was conducted and three findings were considered especially significant. First, about half of the area's lupines survived the fire and an increased number germinated after the fire. Interestingly enough, living Mission blue caterpillars were found on a number of burned lupine plants. According to the life cycle of the Mission blue, these eggs would have had to been laid before the fire. This would indicate that the butterflies, albeit in the early larval stages, survived the Lateral Fire.