photo credit: Clint Pogue/USFWS
A Behren's Silverspot Butterfly pictured on the coastal bluffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

Perched high on grassy bluffs above the Pacific is where you find Behren's Silverspot Butterflies. 

A federally endangered species, the Behren's Silverspot once ranged in the 60 mile stretch between Salt Point State Park in Sonoma County and the Mendocino Headlands.

Now the medium-sized butterfly makes home in a small footprint of its historic range.

But as the Mendocino Land Trust’s Anna Bride said, the Behren's Silverspot is still always searching for its host plant of choice: the Early Blue Violet.

"It's this really small purple flower that used to exist in really dense patches on our coastal prairies," Bride said.

Bride said climate changes, development along the coast, the spread of invasive species, and cattle grazing in the coastal prairie have all contributed to dwindling numbers of Early Blue Violets.

"Because of that, the butterfly, when it's in its caterpillar stage, it doesn't have it's one leaf that it eats to feed off of," Bride said.

The restoration project, Bride said, is funded by a Wildlife Conservation Board grant, and is a joint effort.

"It's kind of like that tandem effort of both improving the habitat, but also because this butterfly is so near extinction, augmenting the population is really crucial," Bride said.

California State Parks, the Bureau of Land Management, the Laguna Foundation, Wynn Coastal Planning & Biology, and the Mendocino Land Trust are all working to clear invasive species and plant Early Blue Violets for Behren's Silverspot caterpillars, plus other native pollinators for the mature butterflies to feed on.

The project also includes a captive breeding program for Behren's Silverspot at the Sequoia Park Zoo in Eureka to bolster the population.

Although some of the restoration work is taking place on Mendocino Land Trust property, one thing Bride said won’t be shared is just exactly where.

"We do know where one existing meta-population is," Bride said. "But we can't share that information due to the threat of butterfly poachers. There's been the poacher who camps out and knows where their release points are and just waits there."

Why poaching? It's not exactly clear, but the illicit trading of rare species is the likely explanation.

One thing Bride does share though, is the importance of restoring the Behren's Silverspot.

"Generally, when we think of butterflies we care about, I think the monarch comes to mind," Bride said. "But they're just passing through, you know, they're just overwintering here. It's kind of beautiful to focus on our local butterflies that are eating their host plants here and living out their entire life cycles here, and they're a part of our community."

"Their caterpillars are feeding our birds, and they're such an essential part of our ecosystems here, even though they're very small," Bride said, echoing the sentiment of Chrstine Damiani, who runs the captive breeding program at Sequoia Park Zoo.

53 acres of Behren's Silverspot Butterfly habitat will be restored across multiple sites.