Butterfiles Thriving at Los Angeles Airport

Blue butterfly It is good to see stories of creatures coming back from extinction.

Dan Sanchez at the Epoch Times reports;

“The El Segundo Blue Butterflies, once facing extinction, are now thriving on 200 acres of sand dunes at the west end of Los Angeles International Airport (LAX).  Members of the media were invited for a rare view of the butterflies July 30 at the natural wildlife preserve that is currently closed to the public to help meet its restoration goals.

There has been an ongoing effort that started back in the mid 80s to plant the specific food plant for the butterfly which is the seacliff buckwheat shrub and also to improve the habitat.  “Butterflies can fluctuate dramatically from year to year, in recent years the numbers ranged from 30,000 when we had bad drought conditions, to more typically in the 60 to 70,000 range,”  See full article.