Athena Mekis
Staff Writer
Our neighbor city, San Pedro, is home to many wonders: Dead Man’s Island, Sunken City, Abalone Cove and the world’s rarest butterfly.
The Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks will fund two observation stations at Deane Dana Friendship Park in San Pedro, allowing visitors to view the fingernail-sized, endangered Palos Verdes Blue Butterfly through viewing scopes without disturbing their fragile habitat.
“We are working feverishly in planning,” said Regional Park Superintendent Kim Bosell, who hopes to see the observation stations fully functioning by the beginning of next spring when the female butterflies deposit their eggs.
A major reason the Palos Verdes (PV) blue butterflies only live along the Palos Verdes Peninsula is that they feed on the rare ocean locoweed, which is indigenous only to that area, although they also feed on deerweed, which is found in California, Mexico and Arizona.
“The butterflies go through all phases of life on one plant,” Bosell said.
Even if the gazebo-style observation stations and viewing scopes are in place by next spring, it may take years for the butterfly population to multiply in abundance, Bosell said.
“We have released thousands of PV blue butterflies and larvae to multiple sites [along the peninsula] for four years now,” said Jana Johnson, biologist for the Blue Butterfly Project.
Surveys on population growth have yet to be conducted.
“We will continue releasing every spring, as long as our team of dedicated students continues to produce such large numbers of PV Blue, and entities such as the US Navy, Palos Verdes Peninsula Land Conservancy (PVPLC), and LA Parks & Rec have restored habitat ready for this comeback species,” Johnson said.
The PVPLC maintains the Palos Verdes Peninsula by captive-breeding native plants and the PV blue butterflies at San Pedro’s Moorpark College, according to the PVPLC website.
The PV Blue Butterfly was thought to have been extinct until 1994, when a team of researchers led by Dr. Rudi Mattoni rediscovered the butterfly at the Defense Fuel Supply Point in San Pedro. Since that time, the Defense Logistics Agency, which operates the facility, has funded habitat restoration and a breeding program for the blue butterfly, according to the PVPLC website.
“We have just under 2,000 PV Blue in the Captive Rearing program with America’s Teaching Zoo at Moorpark College and The Urban Wildlands Group, Inc. [It’s] the only program that I know of that allows undergraduates to work with endangered butterflies hovering on the brink of extinction (and they understand what is at stake and put in long hours to ensure success),” Johnson wrote in an email.
The area was designated a nature park by the Wildlife Association in 1995 to assist the native wildlife, which was deteriorating due to urbanization.
With a panoramic view of Catalina Island, the harbors of Long Beach and Los Angeles and the San Bernardino Mountain ranges, Friendship Park is a “destination spot,” Bosell said.
Buses run from the nature center to Friendship Park’s hilltops to ensure accessibility for children, seniors and disabled people. One of the observation stations will be handicapped-accessible.
The gazebos will be made from recycled materials with deck railings, benches, shading overhead.
Information signs will be posted at each station to inform visitors about the butterflies and other wildlife in the habitat such as how the wildlife is connected and their lifecycles.
The $179,000 grant for the Nature Education Facility Program was received last month, according to Bosell.
The grant will fund this project as part of Proposition 84, the Safe Drinking Water, Water Quality and Supply, Flood Control, River and Coastal Protection Bond Act of 2006.
The Bond authorizes $5.388 billion in general obligation bonds, according to California government website.
To learn more about the Palos Verdes Peninsula and the PV blue, contact the Friendship Park nature center at (310) 519-6115 or visit SanPedro.com.
