The HCP, prepared for the US Fish and Wildlife Service, will allow private landowners with Fender’s blue butterfly habitat in Yamhill County to continue regular land management activities such as livestock grazing, mowing and haying, which might otherwise come into conflict with Endangered Species Act protections for the butterfly.  The Yamhill SWCD will work closely with participating private landowners to help them schedule mowing and manage grazing to avoid or minimize impacts to the butterfly and its habitat.  Any unavoidable impacts to the butterfly’s habitat will be offset by managing habitat elsewhere specifically for Fender’s blue.  The project is expected to improve habitat conditions for the butterfly on private lands throughout the county.

The Yamhill SWCD completed widespread surveys for Kincaid’s lupine and Fender’s blue on the lands of willing landowners this year, and hopes to continue surveys in 2012 and 2013.

The SWCD began the process to develop a Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) for Fender’s blue butterfly in fall of 2010.  Fender’s blue is an endangered species endemic to Willamette Valley prairies.  It depends on Kincaid’s lupine, a threatened species, as its larval host plant and visits a variety of native flowers for nectar.  IAE recently completed a five year collaboration with Benton County to develop a county-wide HCP for Fender’s blue, Kincaid’s lupine and several other rare prairie species.  The Benton County HCP is the first of its kind in Oregon.  IAE will be coordinating with the SWCD and USFWS to draft the Plan for lands in Yamhill County.