FW: BUGS: Butterflies and Weeds

[Kondla, Norbert FOR:EX]

FYI, and I am still interested in observations of weeds reducing or wiping
out butterfly populations. Thank you in advance for sharing your
observations.

> ----------
> From: 	Chris Schmidt[SMTP:bjorn at ualberta.ca]
> Sent: 	Wednesday, April 14, 1999 2:56 PM
> To: 	'altabugs'; Kondla, Norbert FOR:EX
> Subject: 	RE: BUGS: Butterflies and Weeds
> 
> One of the best places to find the lupine-feeding blue, Plebejus
> icarioides, in the Kootenay Lake area of southern BC was along
> right-of-ways with lots of (you guessed it) lupine. In the early 90's, I
> frequented two large, seperate populations, with adults being
> common-abundant during the flight season. As of about three years ago,
> these lupine colonies have been out-competed by knapweed (as have most of
> the other native plants). I haven't seen icariodes since in these spots.
> 
> Chris.
> 
> ----------
> From: 	Kondla, Norbert FOR:EX[SMTP:Norbert.Kondla at gems3.gov.bc.ca]
> Sent: 	Wednesday, April 14, 1999 1:51 PM
> To: 	'altabugs'
> Subject: 	BUGS: Butterflies and Weeds
> 
> As I sit here munching my lunch, I thought I would share some interesting
> tidbits about butterflies and weeds. Here in BC - southern part that is -
> two species of knapweed have infested about 80,000 ha of land and one
> report
> suggests that they could take over up to one million ha.  This is pretty
> scary when one realizes that they do not grow in shadey forests which are
> pathetic butterfly habitat anyway, but grow in the same open habitats that
> are necessary for many butterfly species. Of course there seems to be no
> hard before and after data, but I sure wonder what these weeds have done
> to
> prime butterfly foodplants like Eriogonum spp and hence the several
> species
> that feed on them.  I never really thought of weeds as being a significant
> conservation issue for butterflies whilst living in Alberta or even in
> northen BC but it was a real eye opener to see the situation in parts of
> southern BC.  If any of you have some weed horror stories re. competition
> with butterfly foodplants, I would sure be interested.  But of course I
> still like to see some weeds, like the introduced thistles since they are
> useful as nectar sources.
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Norbert Kondla  P.Biol., RPBio.
> Forest Ecosystem Specialist, Ministry of Environment
> 845 Columbia Avenue, Castlegar, British Columbia V1N 1H3
> Phone 250-365-8610
> Mailto:Norbert.Kondla at gems3.gov.bc.ca
> http://www.env.gov.bc.ca
> 
> 
>