Karner blue butterfly at a Wisconsin butterfly site in 2008. USFWS photo by Joel Trick.

The Wisconsin Statewide Karner Blue Butterfly Habitat Conservation Plan program and the Wisconsin DNR Karner Blue Recovery Program in cooperation with the UW-Wisconsin, Madison, developed an emergence model for the Karner blue butterfly that was field-tested and used in the summer  of 2008 to target survey dates for the butterfly at several Wisconsin recovery sites.  Over 88,000 meters of transects located on 10 recovery properties in central and northwest Wisconsin were surveyed for the butterfly.  Karner blue butterfly populations were calculated for three of those sites using distance monitoring methodology taught to recovery partners by the U.S. Geological Survey.  Preliminary data from those three recovery areas found populations ranging from 2,700 to 12,000 butterflies with one site, Sandhill State Wildlife Area, exceeding the recovery goal of 6,000 butterflies.  Four of the sites had counts too low to enable a population estimate.  The survey effort is an important step in the recovery of the butterfly in Wisconsin.  The data from the surveys will help guide future monitoring, management, and other recovery efforts in Wisconsin.  Information on the emergence model and the Wisconsin Statewide Karner Blue Butterfly HCP can be found at: http://dnr.wi.gov/forestry/karner/