Ottawa National Forest Receives Wings Across the Americas Award

Ottawa employees are recognized for their efforts surveying for northern blue butterflies and their obligate host plant dwarf bilberry as receipients of National Wings Across the Americas Award.

The Ottawa National Forest has been awarded the 2009 Wings Across the Americas Award for Butterfly Conservation. The award is for butterfly inventory and habitat recovery work from May 2005 through October 2008.

The work included surveys for northern blue butterflies and their obligate larval host plant dwarf bilberry (both species are Michigan-threatened and Regional Forester's Sensitive species). The project also included collecting fruits from bilberries and having the J.W. Toumey Nursery raise seedlings. Young bilberry plants were outplanted at several locations on the Forest in 2007 and 2008. The plan is for the seedlings to establish populations that will be suitable for northern blue butterflies looking for sites to lay eggs, to help both species recover their populations.

In addition to recovery work for the northern blue, the Ottawa conducted inventories for other butterfly species on the Bessemer and Watersmeet Ranger Districts in 2007 and on the Baraga Plains in 2008. The surveys emphasized regionally rare species, in particular the chryxus arctic, tawny crescent, and West Virginia white butterflies, but all lepidoteran species were of interest. The award also covers pollinator conservation education and the use of a butterfly larval host plant as a management indicator species.

Included in the award are Sean Dunlap, Christy Makuck, Sue Trull, and contractor Stephen Ross; Matthew Bushman (now on the CNNF), Joanne Thurber, Tom Strietzel, Teri Mansfield and Cammie Garrison, Sarah Mase and Bob Johnson (retired Wildlife Biologist) are also recognized.

The award will be presented in March in Arlington, Virginia, at the North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference. This annual event celebrates exceptional work that conserves birds, bats and butterflies and their habitats across the Americas. It recognizes the important roles that these species play in the environment-as well as their value to human society.