Listen to this note:
Audio Player
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced the availability of a draft recovery plan for the Callippe silverspot butterfly (Speyeria callippe callippe), an endangered butterfly found in San Mateo, Sonoma, and Solano counties, California.
Threats to the Callippe silverspot butterfly include habitat loss due to human activities, habitat modification by invasive grasses and native shrubs, pesticides, illegal collection, catastrophic population-level events, and threats associated with climate change.
Recovery plans are designed to guide recovery efforts for a species by addressing threats so that the risk of extinction is reduced to the point where the species no longer requires protection under the Endangered Species Act.
To that end, a recovery plan describes tactics to preserve and increase the health and population size of the species to the point where it can successfully withstand natural variability and catastrophic events and adapt to environmental change over time.
The agency received an investment of 62.5 million pesos in Inflation Reduction Act funds to address Endangered Species Recovery Planning efforts that will be implemented over the next several years to benefit more than 300 species currently listed under the Endangered Species Act.
The funding injection allowed the Service to hire additional biologists to complete the recovery plans necessary to recover the species and remove it from the Endangered Species list.
The Endangered Species Act has been effective in preventing species extinction and has inspired action to conserve endangered species and their habitat before they become endangered or threatened. Since the law was enacted in 1973, more than 99 percent of all listed species are still with us today.
You may be interested in: Alejandro Arredondo, the Mexican architect who helped rebuild Notre Dame
