Innovative program helps return endangered butterfly to the wild in Oregon
For nearly 750 endangered butterflies raised at the Coffee Creek Correctional Facility, it's timeto head home.
For much of the past year, inmates at Coffee Creek have raised and cared for Taylor'scheckerspot butterfly larvae as part of a collaboration with the Oregon Zoo, U.S. Fish andWildlife Service and the Institute for Applied Ecology.
Last week, they transferred 476 of the growing caterpillars back to conservation biologists atUSFWS for release on western Oregon prairies near Corvallis, and another 246 are scheduled
for release this week. It is the second-ever release of Taylor's checkerspots in Oregon — thehttps://www.oregonzoo.org/news/2019/03/inmates-help-rare-nw-butterfly-homeward-boundfirst being last year's inaugural release of 562 Coffee-Creek-reared caterpillars — where only
two known populations of this rare Northwest butterfly remain.
"Having a captive rearing and release program in Oregon is vital for the recovery of Taylor'scheckerspots," said Oregon Zoo butterfly conservationist Ronda Naseth, who advises theprogram at Coffee Creek. "Bringing butterfly conservation work into a medium-security housing
unit continues to be a rewarding process."
Coffee Creek's butterfly conservation lab launched in May 2017, with funding from USFWS andthe help of an Oregon Zoo Foundation grant. Zoo staff taught inmates how to care for butterfly
eggs and raise larvae, supporting their efforts along the way. In 2018, inmates also learned howto care for the adult female butterflies that lay the thousands of eggs needed for the program'ssuccess.
"Inmates who have the opportunity to participate in this species recovery program are eager toshare what they've learned with their loved ones," said Naseth. "That has the wonderful ripple
effect of more and more people in our communities caring about the future of these butterflies."
Rearing the rare butterflies comes with many challenges. One of the most difficult tasks is
feeding the ever-munching larvae, which require vast quantities of specific plants. The Institutefor Applied Ecology assists the lab in supplying, propagating and harvesting plantago plants forthis purpose. The level of care is crucial: The species is listed under the U.S. Endangered
Species Act and, according to Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, is in imminent
danger of extinction.
In addition to the inmates that rear the Taylor's checkerspots, another team of inmates isdedicated to the care and harvest of the 2,200 plantago plants that feed the larvae. Two ofthese plantago crew members have been cross-training in the butterfly lab since February,
sharing the knowledge they are gaining about the larvae's nutritional needs with their fellow
crew members.
"We have all learned so much since our first season," Naseth said. "The butterfly team is thrilled
to have partners who are working so diligently at providing the lab with beautiful harvests, andwe are exceptionally proud of the quality of larvae being released this year. "The Coffee Creek-reared caterpillars will complete their development in the wild, first turning
into chrysalides and then — over a span of warm, sunny days this spring — emerging as adultbutterflies and unfurling for the first time their distinctive, colorful wings.
Though once abundant across the inland prairies of the Pacific Northwest, the Taylor'scheckerspot has now lost 99 percent of its grassland habitat to successional plant growth,
agriculture and urban development. And while the butterflies themselves are small, therestoration of their high-quality native prairie habitat also benefits a multitude of other species
associated with this ecosystem.
The Oregon Zoo has provided more than 28,000 checkerspots for release since joining therecovery effort in 2004 — including a record-setting 5,398 larvae transferred to the Washington
Department of Fish and Wildlife last month for release in the south Puget Sound area, wheresome of the region's best prairie habitat remains.
Committed to butterfly conservation, the Oregon Zoo is a charter member of the Association of
https://www.oregonzoo.org/news/2019/03/inmates-help-rare-nw-butterfly-homeward-boundZoos and Aquariums' Butterfly Conservation Initiative, a collaborative effort among nearly 50
zoos and aquariums. To rear checkerspots and release them into the wild, the zoo works inpartnership with and receives funding from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife andJoint Base Lewis-McChord. Additional project partners include the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service, the Sustainability in Prisons Project which is a partnership founded by The Evergreen
State College and Washington State Department of Corrections, Mission Creek Corrections
Center for Women, Larch Corrections Center, the Institute for Applied Ecology, Coffee Creek
Correctional Facility and the Xerces Society.
To learn more about the Oregon Zoo's effort to save Taylor's checkerspots and other imperiled
Northwest species, visit oregonzoo.org/recovery.

https://www.oregonzoo.org/news/2019/03/inmates-help-rare-nw-butterfly-homeward-bound