Biologists, Volunteers Release Endangered Butterflies

(Editor's note: A hopeful tale from across the Bay. If you've ever driven on Highway 280, you are involved in this situation.)

As part of a continuing effort to repopulate the checkerspot butterfly in San Mateo County, a group of biologists and volunteers hand-carried a few dozen of the endangered species into Edgewood County Park and Natural Preserve Tuesday afternoon.

About 46 of the red-and-white checkered butterflies were collected from Coyote Ridge in Santa Clara County earlier that day and released at the park, where Stanford biologist Stuart Weiss has spearheaded the effort to reintroduce the checkerspots.

The checkerspot butterfly, which is a federally listed endangered species, numbered around 4,500 adults in the Edgewood area in 1997, Weiss said.

Nitrogen contained in exhaust from vehicles traveling on nearby Interstate Highway 280 created an artificial fertilizer, which allowed invasive grass species like Italian rye to thrive and crowd out the native species that the checkerspot butterflies depend on, Weiss said.

The checkerspots were extinct in the area by 2003.

The effort to reintroduce the species is funded by a myriad of public and private grants.

While it's still too soon to judge success, early observations by biologists and checkerspotters -- who fan out across the windswept hills during butterfly counts -- indicate that the restoration effort is having an effect.

"We're pretty optimistic," Weiss said.

-- Bay City News