North American Land Trust (NALT) has partnered with local governments across the United States to permanently conserve wildlife habitat and open space and help them meet the environmental goals of their communities.
This team approach to conservation is working in Upstate New York, where NALT has partnered in conservation efforts to save habitat for the endangered Karner blue butterfly. The County of Saratoga, New York, recently completed a project with NALT to create 183 acres of protected habitat for the Karner blue butterfly and the Frosted Elfin butterfly.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) has listed the Karner blue butterfly as an endangered species. The Frosted Elfin butterfly has experienced population declines due to the loss of habitat, according to the USFWS.
“The goal is to create plant communities that the butterfly species depend upon and are native to the site and surrounding area,” said Matt Stutzman, Northeast Program Manager for NALT. “The habitat creation will include planting native grasses, nectar species, and native blue lupine (Lupinus perennis). This will create the necessary habitat required to support the Karner blue butterfly and Frosted Elfin butterfly species.” These plant species are critical to the long-term survival of these butterfly species, especially the Karner Blue, as they are obligate host species. This means they lay eggs and rear their caterpillar young on this plant species alone. Without blue lupine, the Karner blue life cycle ends at adulthood.
Saratoga County sought to permanently protect the butterfly habitat as a condition for safety improvements at its airport. The county, working with state and federal authorities, chose three locations in the towns of Northumberland and Wilton. The locations are near existing Karner blue butterfly mitigation sites, creating a combined 320 acres of butterfly habitat. The creation of the habitat will further the conservation goals listed in the Saratoga Sandplains Recovery Unit (SRRU).
“What began as an airport maintenance challenge evolved into a regional conservation effort benefiting aviation safety, the environment, and the community,” said Saratoga County Board of Supervisors Chairman Phil Barrett. “Saratoga County, collaborating with multiple federal, state and local entities, created 183 acres of permanently conserved open space that not only protects Karner Blue Butterfly and Frosted Elfin habitat near the Saratoga County Airport runways, but also offers community members a beautiful trail system for hiking, biking and bird or butterfly watching.”
Barrett added: “NALT will hold a permanent conservation easement on the habitat to ensure its success into the future, and we are thankful for this partnership.”
This is the second time NALT worked with a local government in New York to protect the Karner blue butterfly. In 2011, NALT partnered the City of Saratoga Springs, along with a developer and local and state partners, to create a 162-acre conservation easement to protect sensitive wetlands and butterfly habitat. NALT holds the conservation easement on the parcels of sensitive land, including 3.5 acres designated as a butterfly preserve.
In the recent project, an engineering firm, McFarland Johnson Inc., conducted an environmental review and drafted a Mitigation Management and Protection Plan. NALT will steward and enforce the restriction of the conservation easement, ensuring the mitigation plan is followed.
Mitigation projects, which offset the environmental impacts of water resources and endangered species habitat, often require conservation easements to ensure permanent protection of sensitive land. NALT has partnered on more than 45 mitigation projects across the country, including protecting 1,300 acres along the Yockanookany River in Mississippi and 1,000 acres along the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland.
For more information on mitigation services, or any other environmental services offered by NALT, visit our “What We Do” section of our website.
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