The butterfly effect

Washington County water management officials and their partners are over 10 years into a project to raise Scoggins Dam at Hagg Lake in the hopes of providing clean water for several hundred thousand people in the future. But there is still a long way to go. The project has thus far faced years of bureaucratic red tape, the discovery of rare and endangered species near the dam and the federal government stepping in with demands of its own. In mid-June an exciting ecological discovery was made. The Kincaid's Lupin, a threatened plant, and the Fender's Blue, an endangered butterfly were discovered around Hagg Lake. These species are endemic to the Willamette Valley and part of southwest Washington, according to Kathy Cushman, a land and water specialist with the Bureau of Reclamation. These dusty looking blue butterflies have only about a 10-day lifespan and are very rare. They are only found where the Kincaid's Lupin grows, which is host to this butterfly species. The plant has only a short time every spring when its seeds can be collected before they burst forth to further propagate the plant. "The dam raise could take out about 70 percent of the known Lupin population at Hagg Lake," Cushman said. "So the impact on the butterfly would be a 70 percent loss of its host plant." However, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is working with Clean Water Services and the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife to come up with a plan to expand the plant's habitat, mitigating the adverse impact on its population. Seeds from the plant have been collected for replanting but it could take up to five years before it is known whether replanting efforts are successful...more

Surely 200,000 people can go without water so a butterfly can live 10 days. Or, as being proposed we can do both - we just have to wait another 5 years and spend the millions of dollars it will take. The article says, "The cost of raising the dam cannot be estimated right now" but I'm sure the D.C. Deep Thinkers will find it a wise investment.