I'm a Survivor

A local butterfly steps back from extinction

By Gerard Olson
Published: Dec 03, 2007

If you’ve visited Redondo Beach lately, you may have unknowingly witnessed a tiny insect taking a dramatic step back from the brink of extinction. The El Segundo blue butterfly, seen only in small sanctuaries for nearly half of a century, is now flapping its blue and grey wings on two beaches in Southwestern Los Angeles.

"The colonization came as a surprise because the previous research had determined that the butterflies were very sedentary and moved only about 200 feet," says Travis Longcore, Science Director for the Urban Wildlands Group. "It now turns out that they can move 1,000 feet to colonize a new habitat."

Until the late 1940’s, the blue butterfly thrived along a 4.5 mile stretch of arid, seaside land known as the El Segundo sand dunes. The dunes have mostly been raked away or covered up since then, due to both residential and commercial development. The butterflies’ home diminished to three fenced-off preserves, the largest cradled within the grounds of LAX and another at the Chevron refinery in El Segundo.

As the dunes disappeared under pavement, the remaining sand grew unstable, prompting developers to plant the invasive Ice Plant. The Ice Plant is an aggressive import from South Africa with succulent green stalks - it can be found forming large green mats on beaches and dunes all across California. Unfortunately for the El Segundo blue butterfly, the Ice Plant crowded out most native plants, including Coast buckwheat, which happens to be the butterfly’s sole source of food.

Butterfly numbers plummeted. They were rarely seen outside of the preserves. Even within the preserves, attempts to restore ecological balance by planting more buckwheat brought over other insect species, which competed with the butterflies and lowered their population even further.

Then, in 2004, on the recommendation of several biologists, including Longcore, the California Conservation Corps took to the coastal areas of Redondo Beach, ripping out the Ice Plant and replacing it with Coast buckwheat and several other native plants that had been overrun. Despite this effort, there were doubts that the butterflies would fly the distance between the preserves and the beach.

Finally, earlier this summer, people began catching slight glimmers of blue amongst the new buckwheat. In one day, nearly 250 butterflies were counted. Though most visitors to the beaches remain unaware of the surprising resurgence happening around them, the El Segundo blue butterfly seems to be taking advantage of the attempts at restoration, and thriving. There are still challenges, however. Some residents of the restored areas complain that the new buckwheat is not as pleasing to the eye as Ice Plant and are resisting further work. Despite this, there is now hope for the El Segundo blue butterfly.

"As my advisor used to say," Longcore adds, "'Nothing is too wonderful to be true.'"

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