Butterfly habitat islands in Limestone Canyon.
With recent enhancement efforts to butterfly habitats in OC Parks’ Limestone Canyon, Irvine Ranch Conservancy has been focusing on the monitoring of these local pollinators to track population growth after recent nationwide declines. The monitoring efforts have been steered by IRC Project Coordinator, Catherine Le, who is responsible for analyzing wildlife activity throughout the Landmarks and works closely with teams of volunteers to enhance knowledge of wildlife patterns and study the effects of land management.
Butterfly monitoring in Limestone Canyon, where Catherine and her team of dedicated volunteers visit on a monthly basis, began years ago and includes data from as early as 2012. This abundance of data from over the years has shown a decline in butterfly populations, especially following recent wildfires in Limestone Canyon. During their monthly patrol, the volunteers are split into different groups that visit four separate routes, observing and recording the number of butterflies and flowering plants that are visible.
Butterfly monitoring in Limestone Canyon, where Catherine and her team of dedicated volunteers visit on a monthly basis, began years ago and includes data from as early as 2012. This abundance of data from over the years has shown a decline in butterfly populations, especially following recent wildfires in Limestone Canyon. During their monthly patrol, the volunteers are split into different groups that visit four separate routes, observing and recording the number of butterflies and flowering plants that are visible.
The data from these point count surveys allows IRC to better understand population changes of these local pollinators and how the rest of the wildlife on the Landmarks could be affected. Along each transect, roughly 2-3 miles, trained volunteers take tallies of the visible butterflies, while noting the habitat where they were found and all the plants that are flowering there. The groups are typically split with one lead and up to four observers. The observers call out their best estimate within their detection area, including the type of habitat each butterfly is spotted in, and leads make the final call on how many and the species of butterflies to record.
The types of habitats and flowering plants are important to note as butterflies rely upon two different types of plants throughout their lifetime. Larval/host plants are needed by caterpillars for growth and development and nectar plants are needed by adult butterflies as food sources. As the number of larval/host plants and flowering nectar plants can be directly correlated with the number of butterflies that are found, IRC’s Restoration and Enhancement team is currently working towards planting a variety of plant species to further study their effect on butterfly populations.
Butterfly monitoring is a long-term process and can take years to see trends, but the results from recent monitoring have shown that, though there’s been far less diversity among species, overall populations have seemed to bounce back since the Limestone Canyon fire. Recent data has also shown that there has been a shift in something known as the flight period for adult butterflies. With flowers blooming earlier than normal, adult butterflies are taking flight earlier than usual. This early flight period could potentially throw the wildlife cycle out of sync, affecting the birds that rely on feeding their young with larvae and caterpillars, and could have possibly larger effects.
This project is an ongoing effort, and we hope to continue seeing positive results from IRC’s team and volunteers’ efforts. To follow progress and learn more about habitat restoration, visit IRConservancy.org, LetsGoOutside.org or follow the Landmarks on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
The types of habitats and flowering plants are important to note as butterflies rely upon two different types of plants throughout their lifetime. Larval/host plants are needed by caterpillars for growth and development and nectar plants are needed by adult butterflies as food sources. As the number of larval/host plants and flowering nectar plants can be directly correlated with the number of butterflies that are found, IRC’s Restoration and Enhancement team is currently working towards planting a variety of plant species to further study their effect on butterfly populations.
Butterfly monitoring is a long-term process and can take years to see trends, but the results from recent monitoring have shown that, though there’s been far less diversity among species, overall populations have seemed to bounce back since the Limestone Canyon fire. Recent data has also shown that there has been a shift in something known as the flight period for adult butterflies. With flowers blooming earlier than normal, adult butterflies are taking flight earlier than usual. This early flight period could potentially throw the wildlife cycle out of sync, affecting the birds that rely on feeding their young with larvae and caterpillars, and could have possibly larger effects.
This project is an ongoing effort, and we hope to continue seeing positive results from IRC’s team and volunteers’ efforts. To follow progress and learn more about habitat restoration, visit IRConservancy.org, LetsGoOutside.org or follow the Landmarks on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
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