It’s courting time for the tiny El Segundo Blue butterfly and Friends of Ballona Wetlands celebrated the successful repopulation of this endangered species to Ballona on Saturday. The Friends have been looking for the butterflies ever since they began their dunes restoration project back in the 1990s, reintroducing stands of dune buckwheat, the butterfly’s only habitat. In 2011 Daniel S. Cooper, an environmental consultant who regularly monitors birds and other wildlife in the Ballona Wetlands, discovered a small population of Blues in the Dunes. From a tentative beginning of only 30 residents the population has exploded, and in 4 years Ballona is now home to hundreds of El Segundo Blue butterflies.
Dr. Irena Mendez, a natural resources consultant for Psomas, has been monitoring the butterflies for 2 years now. Her experience with the El Segundo Blue (ESB) butterfly dates back to 1994, as Chief Project Scientist for the El Segundo Dunes Restoration Project that restored over 150 acres of coastal dune habitat at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). She managed the ESB and its habitat at LAX for over 7 years. “To see this growing population of butterflies flourish in the Ballona Dunes where they once were commonplace is very exciting.” Irena explained the butterfly’s courting behavior while visitors’ cameras and cell phones recorded the electric blue male’s and more subtly hued female’s mating dance.
Over a casual lunch, Dr. Eric Strauss, President’s Professor and Executive Director of Loyola Marymount University’s Center for Urban Resilience, stressed the importance of maintaining wildlife habitat in an urban setting. “These are the rewards for restoration that make all of us proud to be associated with efforts of this kind. Without the Friends of Ballona Wetlands, these butterflies might very well be extinct at Ballona.”
The El Segundo Blue Butterfly project is only one of many successful efforts by Friends of Ballona Wetlands to improve habitat at Ballona while awaiting full restoration. Past successes have been the thriving freshwater marsh, the dunes restoration project, and tide gate improvements which allows more water into the wetland, thereby increasing the population of the endangered Belding’s Savannah sparrow, for the first time since records have been kept.
Enjoy a slideshow below, or click here to see more photos on our Flickr page.
