$3.8M invested in recovering endangered Bay Area butterfly species

( KRON ) — The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is investing over $3.8 million to recover two endangered butterfly species native to the Bay Area, including San Bruno’s elfin butterflies and mission blue butterflies found across South San Francisco to Redwood City.

According to the Wildlife Service, actions toward recovery include “restoring habitat, conducting annual surveys of the butterflies and their food plants, managing invasive plants, increasing the number of food plants through seeding, and conducting important research on the species.”

The Wildlife Service says it will work with “a variety of partners” to implement a recovery plan for the two respective butterfly species.

The investment is part of a larger $20 million investment in endangered species, which the Wildlife Service said is reserved to support four species groups: “Hawaiian and Pacific Island plants, butterflies and moths, freshwater mussels, and southwest desert fish.”

The Wildlife Service said recovery actions were “necessary” to achieve the species’ recovery within approximately 10 years. “With these actions successfully inplace, the Service aims to meet the necessary criteria for delisting both species.”

Both butterflies were listed as endangered in 1976 due to “habitat degradation and modification, small remaining populations and the impacts of climate change,” the Wildlife Service said.

The mission blue butterfly can be found in coastal scrublands and grasslands in select areas of southern Marin, San Francisco and San Mateo counties in California. The San Bruno elfin butterfly is found in rocky outcrop areas in San Mateo County, California. “Both species are tied to areas where their larval host plants are found,” the Wildlife Service said.

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