Defenders of Wildlife has set itself the goal of moving more than 100 endangered species up the federal recovery ladder over the next decade. Our “Road to Recovery” series will highlight several of these plants and animals and outline the challenges that lay ahead for improving their status.

Photo courtesy of John & Karen Hollingsworth / USFWS

The Karner blue butterfly was first identified in 1944 by the novelist Vladimir Nabokov. Though better known for his controversial book Lolita published 11 years later, Nabokov was also a dedicated lepidopterist who spent time as a zoology researcher at a Harvard museum. He described the Karner blue butterfly during a trip along the New York Central Railroad in Karner, New York (now part of Albany). Now, all that remains of the town is Old Karner Street, and the blue butterfly that shares its name has been considered endangered since 1992.

The Karner blue (Lycaeides melissa samuelis) was abundant in the 1900′s and once ranged from New Hampshire to Iowa and north into Canada. Today populations only persist in Wisconsin,  Minnesota, Ohio and Indiana, along with very small populations in New York and New Hampshire, having endured an astounding 99% reduction in population in the past century.

The Karner blue has an inch-long wingspan with light silver and brown hues on the underside of their wings and deep blue pigments on top. Adults drink nectar from an array of plant species, including rock cress, butterfly weed and goldenrod, and live anywhere from four to 21 days during which they mate and lay eggs. The Karner blue is bivoltine, meaning it produces two broods each year — one in spring and one in summer. The larvae have a symbiotic relationship with several species of ant that defend against predators and increase survival rates, though larva survival is ultimately dependent on the availability of just one plant.

Photo courtesy of Joel Trickwild / USFWS

The Karner blue butterfly’s annual life cycle is inextricably tied to wild blue
lupine since the larva eat its leaves exclusively. The majority of the remaining Karner populations are small, and several are at risk of extinction from habitat degradation.

Wisconsin currently supports the majority of the Karner population and is the only state so far to develop a comprehensive statewide Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP). As of 2006 the HCP includes 40 partners consisting of major forestry stakeholders, conservation organizations, county forest departments, utility companies, private landowners, The Nature Conservancy, and the Wisconsin Departments of Agriculture and Transportation. These groups are working together to make sure that open areas are maintained as butterfly habitat, while ensuring that potentially destructive activities like timber harvest, prescribed burns and mowing are compatible with long-term Karner conservation.

In New York, the Albany Pine Bush Preserve Commission in New York is clearing away non-native plants and re-growing lupine to guarantee the butterflies have enough lupine. Since 1991 the Commission has been administering controlled brush fires to maintain the unique ecosystem for both plants and animals. In addition the preserve has been protecting precious habitat for the Karner as well as other native species.

For the last decade, captive-bred butterfly populations have been reintroduced to New Hampshire and Ohio by local conservation groups and are successfully breeding in the wild. The Federal Karner Blue Butterfly Recovery Plan proposed in 2003 outlines a plan to restore the species over a 20-year period. But many communities are taking the initiative to start butterfly restorations programs of their own. For example, students at Farnsworth Middle School in Guilderland, New York, began a project as part of their ecology curriculum about the Pine Bush ecosystem. Farnsworth’s seventh graders raise and study butterflies, including the Karner blue, which are then released in the summer. The students are active in scientific research with the Albany Pine Bush Preserve Commission and are the only school in the nation where the students are allowed to handle the Karner blue.

With collaborative efforts like these, the future of these brilliant butterflies is looking much brighter. And because they have a such a short lifecycle, populations can bounce back quickly, which means it shouldn’t take much to move these blue beauties farther down the road to recovery.

Oiled debris field in Sheepshead Bay, NY. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Jonathan Lally.

“Powerful storms,” of course calls to mind Hurricane Sandy, the October super-storm that swept away our illusions that if we ignore climate change, it will go away. And this week, we are pleased to report that Congress finally acted to fund recovery in the areas so hard hit by that storm.

The $50 billion relief bill is important to Defenders’ priorities because it recognizes that restoring and rebuilding our natural infrastructure is just as important to our communities as rebuilding our roads, homes and businesses. We have long known that natural wetlands, dunes, forests and floodplains can absorb some of the impact from a major storm, thereby protecting communities from the ravages of winds and flooding. But the Sandy supplemental makes a historic commitment to restoring and preserving coastal areas as part of a comprehensive plan to prevent future storm damage.  (See our previous blog for details on the contents of the bill.)

It remains to be seen whether 2013 will mark the point where we finally embark on the road to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and the “path towards sustainable energy sources” that the president spoke of last week. That will be the real key to reducing the risk of more billion-dollar weather disasters in the future. By providing the funding  to increase resiliency by harnessing the protective power of restored ecosystems, Congress has at least taken a step in the right direction.

Sierra on a whale watching boat (Credit: Whale & Dolphin Conservation Society)

One of my favorite work trips every year is to the annual meeting of the North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium in New Bedford, Massachusetts. The fewer than 500 remaining North Atlantic right whales live almost exclusively in the coastal waters off the Eastern U.S. and Canada, and this annual meeting brings together the scientists, government officials and conservationists working to bring these highly endangered animals back from the brink of extinction. Defenders of Wildlife has long been a forerunner in the fight to address the leading threats to this species.

As I do every year, in November I presented to the Consortium on the efforts of Defenders and our conservation partners to ensure that right whales and the busy waters of the Eastern Seaboard that they call home are protected from increasing industrialization. There’s a lot happening right now on these fronts, so it was great to communicate to the scientists how their research is being used for right whale conservation, and the upcoming opportunities for them — and you — to weigh in on what’s needed to protect right whales.

Some things to watch for:

Speed Limits for Ships
Ship strikes are the leading cause of death for North Atlantic right whales. In 2008, following years of pressure from Defenders and our partners, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) imposed the first-ever speed limits for large ships on the East Coast. These requirements give crew members more time to stop and avoid whales, and for whales to move out of their path. But the speed restrictions we fought so hard for will expire in December, 2013 unless the governments acts to extend them. Defenders and our partners petitioned NMFS in June to do just that, as well as to expand the restrictions to other times and places that right whales need protection. Making sure these rules stay in place and are as effective as possible is vital to right whale survival and recovery.

A right whale and her calf

Fishing Gear Entanglement
NMFS is scheduled to release a proposed rule and draft environmental impact statement in early- to mid-2013 on new measures to prevent right whales from being entangled in fishing gear. Entanglement can lead to the long and painful death of large whales as fishing lines cut into their blubber and limit their ability to feed and swim. I’m a member of the team advising NMFS on the entanglement problem, and am pushing strongly for the agency to take prompt action to protect right whales and other endangered species from this serious threat.

Critical Habitat
We’re also urging NMFS to move forward with proposed changes to the critical habitat for the North Atlantic right whale. Defenders and our partners petitioned NMFS for expanded critical habitat back in 2009, calling for expanded protection of right whale breeding, calving and feeding grounds, and for the designation of their migratory corridor as critical habitat for the first time. When they failed to act on our petition, we took legal action, and NMFS promised a proposal before the end of 2011. We’re still waiting, but will continue our efforts to shake loose this important conservation measure.

North Atlantic right whales have a long road to recovery, and threats to the survival of the species abound. With your help, Defenders of Wildlife is continuing the fight to make our oceans a safer place for whales.

The pictures coming out of New York and New Jersey are heartbreaking, to say the least. Hurricane Sandy shows us how deadly, dangerous and costly climate silence can be for our communities, our wildlife and the species places we all love.
Check out my latest op-ed in the Huffington Post to read more about this issue: http://dfnd.us/YvqcSs

Aerial photo of Mantoloking, New Jersey after Hurricane Sandy. (Photo credit: Greg Thompson/USFWS)

Collisions with ships in the busy waters off the U.S. East Coast are one of the greatest threats to the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale. And with only about 400 of these animals left, every whale death can have a huge impact on the long-term recovery of the species.

That’s why Defenders and a coalition of our conservation allies filed a petition today with the National Marine Fisheries Service, demanding stronger protections to guard against the threat of ship strikes.

Temporary protections were put in place in 2008 that set speed limits in important whale habitat, including the species’ calving grounds off the coast of Florida, their feeding and breeding grounds off the coast of New England, and their well-traveled migration path in between. But those protections were arbitrarily set to expire in December 2013, even though the threat of ship strikes remains.

As a result, Defenders is asking federal officials to extend the current ship speed limits, apply them to additional areas where ship strikes are likely to occur, and lengthen the amount of time that seasonal protections are in place.

As Defenders senior staff attorney Sierra Weaver says:

“Protections for highly endangered whales should not be removed until the whales have recovered. We hope the agency will follow the advice of its own experts and act quickly to make sure there is no gap in protections.”

Read the coalition’s press release about extending right whale protections.

In past centuries, North Atlantic right whales were decimated by the commercial whaling industry, and while whaling is no longer a threat, other man-made problems like ship strikes and entanglement in fishing gear continue to regularly kill and seriously injure whales.

Right whales received federal protection under the Endangered Species Act in the early 1970s but still have not recovered. Females don’t reach reproductive maturity until age eight, and they only give birth to one calf every four years. Furthermore, these reproductive females and their babies are both the most important animals to the future of the species and the most vulnerable to ship strikes because they spend more time near the surface of the water.

Extending seasonal boat speed limits is the best way to ensure as many right whales as possible are able to survive and reproduce.

A few years ago the road stretched beyond the guardrail.

The road just ended. Literally. The van we were in pulled right up to the steel highway railing, beyond which lay some crumbled asphalt, a short spit of beach, and the wide open expanse of Delaware Bay. There was no parking lot, no cul-de-sac to turn around; just unfinished road and a steel barrier.

Only a few years ago the end of the road was farther out. So was the sea. And decades ago, the water’s edge was hundreds of yards out, evidenced by an old WWII-era pier, whose remnant pilings jutted way out in the now open water. This coastline was changing, and changing fast.

Our group of conservation organizations and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service staff spilled out of the van. Standing on the shores of the Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge, one of the largest protected areas in the state of Delaware, we were on a trip to better understand the issues facing the coastal national wildlife refuges of Delaware and the eastern shore of Virginia. We followed refuge manager Michael Stroeh down the beach, tripping over old stems and roots of marsh grasses and shrubs that poked through the sand as reminders of what was here only a few short years before. It was April, and though the region had experienced the warmest March on record, the wind was biting cold. I cinched the hood of my wind breaker over my head as we stopped our jaunt up the beach.

All aboard the airboat!

Prime Hook is divided into three units, separated by roads that run from the inland to the coast. The roads also serve as dikes. In the 1980s, to make up for lost freshwater wetlands elsewhere, the Fish and Wildlife Service used the dikes to make a wetland impoundment system, managing the water levels to convert the once tidal, saltwater marshes into freshwater marshes – better habitat for migrating ducks, geese, and shorebirds. But once considered an innovative solution, this system now makes the refuge extremely vulnerable to the effects of sea-level rise and increased storm surge.

Taking to the water

We boarded an airboat for the next part of our tour. (If you have never been on an airboat, they are LOUD, even with earplugs and [slightly rusty] external ear protection.) I reminded myself that I was still outside, in nature, at a national wildlife refuge, on the water—rare for a D.C.-based conservationist.

We skipped across the water to the interior of the marsh. We were in the middle of a 4,000 acre wetland that used to be full of emergent vegetation. But where marsh grasses should have surrounded us, it was open water in every direction. The marsh was gone.

“In 2009, a Veteran’s Day Storm created the inlet and brought in the slug of sand and saltwater with its storm surge, killing all of the freshwater vegetation,” explained Susan Guiteras, the refuge’s supervisory biologist. “If we had been able to close the inlet quickly, we may have been able to change the salinity and reestablish the marsh plants. But that would have only been a temporary fix anyway. Once the freshwater plants died, their roots couldn’t hold the marsh muck together, so the peat just washed away, deepening the water to a depth that even saltwater-tolerant plants could not establish.” The habitat had simply washed away.

Prime Hook refuge provides important habitat for migratory birds.

Preparing for the future

The scenario at Prime Hook reflects a broader challenge for refuges in a warming world: as the climate changes, we can no longer count on protected areas delivering the same benefits and habitats they once did. Conservationists need to understand how the impacts in one place affect species and ecosystems over a much larger area, and what can be done to help them adapt to those changes.

Fortunately, the refuge has been working closely with the state of Delaware to strategize about conserving the entire “Bayshore” landscape, planning how to slowly transition the freshwater reservoirs into more resilient saltwater systems to avoid a catastrophic loss from a future storm. Federal and state agencies, conservation groups and other partners are beginning to follow suit, mapping out existing conservation areas, developing shared conservation priorities, and partnering to achieve those priorities across the landscape.

Prime Hook is just one of the first refuges to experience these changes in such a dramatic way. There are over 160 coastal national wildlife refuges across the country. These areas need to begin taking steps to prepare for the changes to come. And with waters inching up along our coasts all the time, there isn’t a moment to waste.

Learn more:

For more information about the impacts of sea-level rise on national wildlife refuges, and recommendations to help them prepare, see Defenders’ recently-released report: National Wildlife Refuges and Sea-Level Rise: Lessons from the Frontlines.