Roadsides

[Kondla, Norbert FOR:EX]

Roadsides do provide useful butterfly habitat and in some extensively
cultivated areas, sometimes the only useful habitat for some distance.  A
common practice in the flatlands of southern Alberta, Canada is for folks to
mow the roadsides and bale the material for hay.  Wonder how many thousands
of Cercyonis pegala immatures per linear kilometre of roadside get fed to
livestock ??  it's true, grazing and browsing mammals are actually
carnivores and scavengers :-) This baling of anything more than a few inches
high is also applied to shallow, ephemeral wetlands (locally known as
sloughs) later in the season when the ground is dry enough to support
machinery.  Here the  issue is one of impacts on the three coppers that
commonly use such habitat patches when their foodplants are present: L.
helloides, L. dione, L. hyllus.  The butterflies persist after 100 years of
such activity so extinction seems unlikely in the near future but it would
sure be interesting for someone to do some research on some of these
land/resource use activities so that better and more integrated decisions
can be made to conduct such acitivities in a way that is a bit more friendly
to the wildlife.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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


 
 ------------------------------------------------------------ 

   For subscription and related information about LEPS-L visit:

   http://www.peabody.yale.edu/other/lepsl