August 4, 2003
Landowners grow wild:
Private plots restored to native prairies may help save
rare butterfly |
By Scott Maben
The Register-Guard |
When Warren and Laurie Halsey gaze out the windows of
their spacious workshop on a butte west of Monroe, they don't see a
hillside infested with exotic grasses.
They see a future home for the Fender's blue butterfly and Kincaid's
lupine, a pair of native species on the slide toward extinction.
"We'd like to do something meaningful on the hillsides that adds
to the diversity of the ranch," Warren Halsey said.
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Warren and Laurie Halsey envision a restored oak savanna
on a western slope of their property near Monroe. Once
invading grasses have been cleared, the couple will plant
native species, including lupines to attract the endangered
Fender's blue butterfly.
Photos: Brian Davies / The Register-Guard
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The couple plan to knock back the weeds and recreate
upland prairie habitat that used to cover much of the Willamette Valley
150 years ago. And they're getting help from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife
Service, the agency in charge of saving the species.
Collaborations between private landowners and public agencies to restore
habitat for rare species are raising hopes for the recovery of Willamette
Valley plants and animals that have succumbed to agriculture, development
and invasive weeds.
"We may be actually able to move these species, if not off the
endangered species list, at least into a more secure position on the
ground," said Tom Kaye, executive director of the nonprofit Institute
for Applied Ecology in Corvallis.
Most of the habitat for the butterfly and lupine has been lost or
gravely compromised over the past century and a half, placing the species
among the rarest of native wildlife in Oregon.
"Without intervention and careful management on our part, we
would certainly lose them," said Bruce Newhouse, a Eugene botanist
and president of the Native Plant Society of Oregon.
Once prevalent throughout the valley, the butterfly, lupine and other
native prairie plants have retreated to isolated pockets, including
near Eugene and at a federal wildlife refuge west of Salem.
"We have just 1 percent of this habitat left. That's pretty severe," said
Carol Schuler of the Fish & Wildlife Service.
It will take considerable work to improve the quality of native habitat
and protect those areas from future threats, said Schuler, who coordinates
work on three national wildlife refuges in the Willamette Valley.
"I always say we're losing this habitat by benign neglect," she
said.
Much of the habitat was lost as settlers cleared prairies and savannas
for crops and pastures beginning in the mid-1800s and as fire suppression
allowed Douglas fir to take over the foothills ringing the valley.
More recently, expanding housing developments, Christmas tree farms
and vineyards have taken a heavy toll.
Fragile plants and insects that rely on these vanishing native prairies
and oak savannas haven't had much of a chance.
"We've hammered them pretty hard," Newhouse said. "For
me, it's important to find these remnant ecosystems and restore them
the best we can so we can keep some of that natural identity."
Subject of suit
Earlier this year, the Native Plant Society and four conservation groups
in Lane County sued the Fish & Wildlife Service over the pace of
restoration efforts for the butterfly and lupine as well as a second
rare plant, the Willamette daisy.
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