The imperiled mardon skipper butterfly: An initial conservation success

Abstract

The mardon skipper (Polites mardon), is a rare butterfly found only in the Pacific Northwest of the United States of America. The conservation of this butterfly has been part of an unprecedented cooperative effort between the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, The Forest Service/Bureau of Land Management Interagency Special Status/Sensitive Species Program, (ISSSSP) Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Washington State University, the Oregon Zoo, The Six Rivers National Forest, and the Center for Natural Lands Management. In 2000 the mardon skipper was listed as a candidate species under the US Endangered Species Act. In an effort to conserve this butterfly partners developed and implemented surveys across the species’ range, studied host plant preference and the impacts of management activities such as fire, and implemented restoration activities and management actions at dozens of mardon sites. This ongoing process identified many additional mardon skipper sites and an improved perspective on the status for the butterfly. The discovery of new sites was cited as one reason the U.S. Department of Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service did not ultimately list the species under the US Endangered Species Act. This process serves as a model that could be replicated toward the conservation of additional U.S. butterfly species, and potentially applied to additional animal groups.