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Health & Fitness

Blue Butterfly; A Success Worth Celebrating.

Friends of Ballona Wetlands reported August 6th that their Annual Butterfly Count, the seventh such effort of many volunteer laypeople and experts, counted over 70 El Segundo Blue butterflies at the Ballona “Dunes” area (http://www.ballonafriends.org/blog/).  The “Blue” is listed under the federal Endangered Species Act, so both the animals and their habitat receive special protection.  The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is responsible for implementing the Act, including permitting and administering official surveys of protected species.

For decades under special permit to the Friends, countless volunteers removed non-native weeds and iceplant at the Dunes, and watered native buckwheat, a shrub the Blue’s survival requires.  While a growing Blue population at the Ballona Dunes likely benefited from the Friends’ effort, a much larger effort at the El Segundo Dunes west of LAX preserved and enhanced one of the last remaining large areas of Blue habitat, preventing the species’ extinction.  Both efforts and all of the people and organizations who assisted should be soundly applauded!

Now, it appears recovery is progressing well as individuals emigrated from El Segundo to Ballona and continue to reproduce there in increasing numbers. The Blues may also be present in buckwheat growing on the north slope of the Westchester Bluffs, all prehistoric dune deposits.  Buckwheat occurs in other upland areas of the Ballona Wetlands State Ecological Reserve, and Blues may be moving in those areas as well.  Enhancing or creating buckwheat stands in the Reserve is worth considering for the future.

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Enjoy your Ballona Wetlands!

www.ballonafriends.org

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