New Mexico group aims to protect Great Basin silverspot

A New Mexico environmental group is seeking to get the Great Basin silverspot butterfly, found in wet areas of the Southwest, listed as an endangered species. According to an Earth Day release from the nonprofit WildEarth Guardians, the organization is petitioning the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list the butterfly under the Endangered Species Act. “This rare butterfly inhabits wet meadows, seepage areas and marshes in otherwise desert habitats of the Southwest,” the release states. “In the U.S., they are found in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah, but have disappeared from many of their former sites.” According to a 2007 study prepared for the Forest Service by ecological consultant Gerald Selby, the Great Basin silverspot butterfly (Speyeria nokomis nokomis) has a “fairly restricted distribution” in the Four Corners region, including Northern New Mexico. The study discusses the butterfly’s “vulnerable” status and “very localized distribution in wet places associated with generally arid range.” “The primary threat to Great Basin silverspot butterflies is habitat loss,” the study states, saying hydrological modifications such as water diversion projects and draining wetlands, housing developments and mineral extraction have contributed to “habitat loss and fragmentation” in the Southwest, where the wetlands the butterflies require are already fragmented and scarce and butterfly colonies are “small and isolated.” According to the study, excessive livestock grazing threatens the butterflies, though moderate grazing may actually benefit them “by giving a competitive advantage to their larval foodplants” (bog violet). The study suggests identifying and protecting critical habitat areas, as well as working to eliminate invasive species and conducting other management activities...more