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STORIES -> Success Stories - Partnerships with Forest Service
Watershed Partners Work to Improve Habitat for Threatened & Endangered Species
![[Photo]: The Pawnee montane skipper: a very special butterfly.](/common/images/Skipper-Image1.jpg)
Large-Scale Watershed Restoration Projects are partnerships between the USDA Forest Service, other
federal and state agencies, local communities, private landowners, and others to rehabilitate key,
large-scale ecosystems. The Upper South Platte Watershed Project, located southwest of metropolitan
Denver, is an example of one of these projects. One objective of the Upper South Platte Watershed
Project is to improve habitat for a threatened butterfly: the Pawnee montane skipper. The project
area hosts the only known habitat for the skipper, covering 38 square miles along the South Platte
River.
An annual monitoring program for this species was established
in 2000. During 2002 this program was continued by counting adult skippers and blooming prairie
gayfeather, an important nectar source for the butterfly. Monitoring was done within three sample
areas, including areas in which vegetation had been treated previously, areas to be treated in 2002
and later, and a control area of high quality skipper habitat not scheduled for treatment. Because
fires in 2002 burned 40% of suitable Pawnee montane skipper habitat, monitoring was conducted to
measure the affects of the wildfires on the skipper. This was a cooperative effort among Denver Water,
US Fish and Wildlife Service, the Colorado Natural Heritage Program and U.S. Forest Service.
The objective of this new monitoring program is to document
skipper survival and habitat conditions in burned and unburned skipper habitat. A multi-agency team
sampled 56 randomly selected 40-acre habitat units during September 2002. Monitoring of skipper
numbers, habitat and burn conditions suggest that this year's drought and wildfires reduced the
number of adult skippers and prairie gayfeather plants, but that forest thinning may have a long-term
beneficial effect on skipper habitat.
For more information, please contact:
Steve Culver, Fisheries Biologist
USDA Forest Service, S. Platte RD
19316 Goddard Ranch Court, Morrison, CO 80465
Upper South Platte Watershed Protection and Restoration Project
303-275-5614; 303-275-5564(fax); sculver@fs.fed.us
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PARTNERING WITH THE FOREST SERVICE
