A butterfly on a bomb range: Endangered Species Act at work

  • A St. Francis' satyr butterfly rests on a leaf in a swamp at Fort Bragg in North Carolina on Monday, July 29, 2019. It's wing was marked for identification by a biologist studying the rare insect. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty) Robert F. Bukaty

  • Nick Haddad, left, watches a captive-bred female St. Francis' satyr butterfly fly off after it was released into the wild at Fort Bragg in North Carolina on Monday, July 29, 2019. Haddad has been studying the rare butterfly for more than 15 years. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty) Robert F. Bukaty

  • A St. Francis' satyr butterfly rests on sedge in swamp at Fort Bragg in North Carolina on Monday, July 29, 2019. One of Earth’s rarest butterfly species, there are maybe 3,000 specimens. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty) Robert F. Bukaty

  • A chrysalis of a St. Francis' satyr butterfly clings to a sedge blade in a controlled greenhouse facility at Fort Bragg in North Carolina on Monday, July 29, 2019. Biologists studying the rare butterfly are working to increase its range and population. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty) Robert F. Bukaty

  • Nick Haddad heads to a swamp in search of the rare St. Francis' satyr butterfly, at Fort Bragg in North Carolina on Monday, July 29, 2019. Haddad has studied the vanishing butterflies in hopes of understanding why they are disappearing, and why they are worth saving. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty) Robert F. Bukaty

  • A St. Francis satyr butterfly is released after it was captured and marked in a swamp at Fort Bragg in North Carolina this summer. The endangered butterfly is one of the rarest in the world. AP

  • A red-cockaded woodpecker is weighed by a biologist collecting data on the species at Fort Bragg in North Carolina on Tuesday, July 30, 2019. The bird was captured, measured and banded as part of an ongoing study of the endangered species. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty) Robert F. Bukaty

  • Wildlife biologist Gabe Pinkston prepares to release a red-cockaded woodpecker back to a long leaf pine forest after collecting data on it at Fort Bragg in North Carolina on Thursday, Aug. 1, 2019. The bird was captured, measured and banded as part of an ongoing study of the endangered species. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty) Robert F. Bukaty

  • Wildlife biologist Brian Ball, protected by a safety harness, examines a nesting cavity used by a red-cockaded woodpecker at Fort Bragg in North Carolina on Tuesday, July 30, 2019. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty) Robert F. Bukaty

  • An artificial nesting cavity is seen in a long leaf pine in a forest at Fort Bragg in North Carolina on Tuesday, July 30, 2019. The cavity offers nesting and roosting space for the red-cockaded woodpecker while discouraging it's use by larger birds or snakes. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty) Robert F. Bukaty

  • A red-cockaded woodpecker is held by a biologist collecting data on the species at Fort Bragg in North Carolina on Tuesday, July 30, 2019. The bird was captured, measured and banded as part of an ongoing study of the endangered species. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty) Robert F. Bukaty

  • A red-cockaded woodpecker is seen on a long leaf pine at Fort Bragg in North Carolina on Tuesday, July 30, 2019. The woodpecker was one of the first birds protected under the Endangered Species Act of 1973. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty) Robert F. Bukaty

  • Research assistants David Pavlik, left, and Emily Price, roll out an inflatable rubber dam in an effort to create habitat suitable for the rare St. Francis' satyr butterfly, at Fort Bragg in North Carolina on Tuesday, July 30, 2019. The butterflies prefer wet meadows created by beavers. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty) Robert F. Bukaty

  • Smoke rises from a log a few days after a prescribed burn in a long leaf pine forest at Fort Bragg in North Carolina on Tuesday, July 30, 2019. Frequent burns are beneficial to the endangered red-cockaded woodpecker and the St. Francis' satyr butterfly. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty) Robert F. Bukaty

  • New growth flourishes on the floor of a long leaf pine forest, just three months after a prescribed burn at Fort Bragg in North Carolina on Tuesday, July 30, 2019. Frequent burns keep the undergrowth in check, restoring the forest to habitat the endangered red-cockaded woodpecker once thrived in before natural fires were suppressed by settlers. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty) Robert F. Bukaty

  • A venomous cottonmouth snake moves over a small stream in close proximity to biologists working to improve habitat for the rare St. Francis' satyr butterfly, at Fort Bragg in North Carolina on Tuesday, July 30, 2019. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty) Robert F. Bukaty

  • A sign warns about the dangers of a firing range in a long leaf pine forest at Fort Bragg in North Carolina on Tuesday, July 30, 2019. Frequent prescribed burns keep the undergrowth in check, restoring the forest to habitat the endangered red-cockaded woodpecker once thrived in before natural fires were suppressed by settlers. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty) Robert F. Bukaty

  • Soldiers prepare to leave a firing range at Fort Bragg in North Carolina on Tuesday, July 30, 2019. The area where guns are fired and bombs are detonated is ideal habitat for the rare St. Francis' satyr butterfly. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty) Robert F. Bukaty

  • A sign indicates a tree used by a red-cockaded woodpecker in Southern Pines, N.C., on Tuesday, July 30, 2019. Unlike other woodpeckers, the red-cockaded woodpecker only nests and roosts in living long leaf pines. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty) Robert F. Bukaty

  • Julie Moore, a fierce opponent of de-listing the red-cockaded woodpecker from the endangered species list, visits the bird's habitat in a long leaf pine forest at Fort Bragg in North Carolina on Tuesday, July 30, 2019. In the 1980s and 1990s, efforts to save the woodpecker and their trees set off a backlash among landowners who worried about interference on their private property. “I’ve been run off the road. I’ve been shot at,” says Moore, a former Fish and Wildlife Service woodpecker... Robert F. Bukaty

  • A red-cockaded woodpecker prepares to enter its roosting cavity for the night in a long leaf pine forest in Southern Pines, N.C., on Tuesday, July 30, 2019. The woodpecker was one of the first birds protected under the Endangered Species Act of 1973. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty) Robert F. Bukaty

  • Bunker, the team mascot of the Fayetteville Woodpeckers minor league baseball team, watches the action during a game in Fayetteville, N.C., on Sunday, July 28, 2019. The region, which was once fiercely opposed to the listing of the red-cockaded woodpecker on the Endangered Species Act, has begun to embrace the rare bird. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty) Robert F. Bukaty

Associated Press
Published: 11/19/2019 12:33:37 PM

In the unlikely setting of the world’s most populated military installation, amid all the regimented chaos, you’ll find the Endangered Species Act.

There, as a 400-pound explosive resounds in the distance, a tiny St. Francis Satyr butterfly flits among the splotchy leaves, ready to lay as many as 100 eggs. At one point, this brown and frankly dull-looking butterfly could be found in only one place on Earth: Fort Bragg’s artillery range.

Now, thanks in great measure to the 46-year-old federal act, they are found in eight more places – though all of them are on other parts of the Army base. And if all goes well, biologists will have just seeded habitat No. 10.

One of Earth’s rarest butterfly species, there are maybe 3,000 St. Francis Satyrs. There are never going to be enough of them to get off the endangered list, but they’re not about to go extinct either. They are permanent patients of the bureaucratic conservation hospital ward.

In some ways, the tiny butterfly is an ideal example of the more than 1,600 U.S. species that have been protected by the Endangered Species Act. Alive, but not exactly doing that well.

To some experts, just having these creatures around means the 46-year-old law has done its job. More than 99.2% of the species protected by the act survive, The Associated Press has found. Only 11 species were declared extinct.

On the other hand, only 39 U.S. species – about 2% of the overall number – have made it off the endangered list because of recovery, including bald eagles and American alligators.

“Species will remain in the Endangered Species Act hospital indefinitely. And I don’t think that’s a failure of the Endangered Species Act itself,” says Jake Li, director for biodiversity at the Environmental Policy Innovation Center in Washington.

Red Cockaded Woodpecker

The Endangered Species Act “is the safety net of last resort,” says Gary Frazer, assistant director of ecological services at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which administers the law. “We list species after all other vehicles of protection have failed.”

The 1973 law, passed unanimously in the Senate, was designed to prevent species from going extinct and to protect their habitat. Under the law, it is unlawful to “harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture or collect” endangered animals and plants, and it also forbids the elimination of their habitats.

Another species found at Fort Bragg – the red-cockaded woodpecker – is a case of success but at a cost of $408 million over 19 years.

The woodpeckers live only in longleaf pines, which have been disappearing across the Southeast for more than a century, due to development and suppression of fires.

In the 1980s and 1990s, efforts to save the woodpecker and their trees set off a backlash among landowners who worried about interference on their private property. Wildlife officials were even shot at.

Army officials weren’t happy either.

“We couldn’t maneuver. We couldn’t shoot because they were afraid the bird was going to blink out and go into extinction,” says former top Fort Bragg planning official Mike Lynch.

By the 1980s, the red cockaded woodpecker population was below 10,000 nationwide. Now, they’re well past 15,000 just on military bases.

After failed efforts, biologists and bureaucrats changed their approach.

Instead of prohibiting work on land the woodpecker needs, Fish and Wildlife Service officials allowed landowners to make some changes as long as they generally didn’t hurt the bird. The Army set fires to regularly burn scrub.

The result? When Fort Bragg Endangered Species Branch Chief Jackie Britcher started, in 1983, there were fewer than 300 woodpecker families on Fort Bragg. Now she counts 453 families.

“Something is going right,” she says.

The Army has better land to maneuver in and the community is taking pride in the woodpecker, Lynch says.

Federal money

From 1998 to 2016, the federal government tallied $20.5 billion in spending on individual species on the endangered list. That’s based on an annual per-species spending report that the Fish and Wildlife Service sends to Congress, but that tally is not comprehensive.

Seven species, mostly fish, ate up more than half of the money expended under the act, according to the annual accounting figures.

About $3 million was spent to save the St. Francis Satyr butterfly.

Nick Haddad, a Michigan State University butterfly biologist and St. Francis expert, regularly visits the artillery range.

He expected a moonscape, but found beauty.

Because no one was venturing into the woods there, no one was dismantling beaver dams or snuffing out fires. Aside from munition fragments, the landscape was much like North Carolina before it was altered by humans.

The picky butterfly needs a touch of chaos in its habitat. It requires water, but not a lot. It thrives on fire to burn away overgrown plants, but not too much.

Now, Haddad and his team replicate those conditions elsewhere on base, and they watch the butterfly population grow.

‘This is the thing that gives me hope’

After years of criticisms from conservatives that the endangered species program is too cumbersome for industry and landowners, President Donald Trump’s administration has enacted 33 different reforms.

Among them: a change in the rules for species that are “threatened,” the classification just below endangered. Instead of mandating, in most cases, that they get the same protection as endangered species, the new rules allow for variations.

That is better management, says the Fish and Wildlife Service’s Frazer, adding, “It allows us to regulate really only those things that are important to conservation.”

Noah Greenwald, endangered species director of the Center for Biological Diversity, characterizes the regulations as “a disaster.”

While scientists across the globe warn of the coming extinction of a million species in the decades ahead, Nick Haddad is determined that the St. Francis Satyr butterfly won’t be one of them.

“This is the thing that gives me hope,” Haddad says. “That’s where the Endangered Species Act had an impact.”


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