By Ryder W. Miller
In an effort to help create more habitat for butterflies in San Francisco, students from Hoover Middle School have been conducting habitat restoration in the Sunset District.
Kids In Parks has returned to Herbert Hoover Middle School for the fourth consecutive year to work on the Green Hairstreak Butterfly Habitat Restoration Project.
Much of the school work has been done during school days, but there has also been community work over the weekends. The site is at Hawk Hill, which is adjacent to Hoover Middle School, located at 14th Avenue and Rivera Street, on SF Unified School District property.
The primary goal of the project is to restore habitat for the Green Hairstreak Butterfly. The plan is to remove invasive plants and replace them with native species.
Nature in the City posts: “Discovered by modern science in the late 1800s from ‘the hills of San Francisco’ the Green Hairstreak (Callyphors dumetorum) is a small, nickel-sized butterfly isolated in three remaining remnant habitats within the City: Hawk Hill, the Rocky Outcrop overlooking the Sunset District and the coastal bluffs of the Presidio.”
“We are creating a native plant demonstration garden and an outdoor classroom,” said Jeffrey Brown, the lead organizer for the restoration project.
The educational aspect of the project is very important. Related topics include “watershed biodiversity,” “bird watching” and others.
Brown said the students present a Green Hairstreak Festival each spring, and maybe this year it will be open to the public.
Liam O’Brien, one of the compilers for the “San Francisco butterfly count,” said he thought the students should get credit for the work they have done.
“A truly wonderful amount of work has been done there,” O’Brien said.
Such projects can provide opportunities for students to learn things in non traditional ways by providing an impetus to explore a variety of disciplines. The project also teaches stewardship.
Sarah McConnico, the site steward at 14th and Pacheco, explained that it is important to note that even though they are active at sites during the winter months, they are careful not to disturb the sensitive areas, which are located around buckwheat. There is always the possibility that there are green hairstreak instars just below the surrounding leaf litter. Wikipedia posts that an instar is a developmental stage for arthropods, such as insects, between each molt (ecdysis) until sexual maturity is reached.
McConnico pointed out that it is this potential that gives them hope and propels them to move forward as stewards of the sites. They do their best to recreate the mosaic patchwork of upland dune communities that where present before urban expansion. McConnico said it is exciting when they are able to tell people about the butterfly and the habitat restoration that is going on right in their neighborhood.
“We saw our first adult Hairstreak in the spring of 2010 at 14th and Pacheco. It was evident by the pristine nature of his wings. He had just emerged and was basking on a buckwheat leaf on one of the most blustery, cold days you could imagine for April. This glimmer of hope stands as an example of how it is possible to restore what has been lost and provide a habitat corridor for not only the Green Hairstreak, but other native biota that have been edged out,” McConnico said.
Signs have been ordered and the corridors being restored will allow butterflies to more easily fly from floral site to floral site in the City.
Assisting with numerous restoration projects in the City is SF Parks Alliance.
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