Oregon Public Broadcasting

A rare butterfly species got a helping hand Wednesday, thanks to a Northwest power provider, a conservation group, and a private landowner.

The Fenders’ Blue Butterfly lives on small patches of grassland in the Willamette Valley. It was listed as “endangered” in 2000 by the federal government. 

Wednesday, Bonneville Power Administration agreed to pay nearly two and a half million dollars so that a ranch outside Philomath can be conserved as prairie and oak woodland. Karlene McCabe is director of the Greenbelt Land Trust, which will manage the 200-acre conservation easement. McCabe: “There are known populations of Fender blue butterflies just to the west about a half mile away, and there’s also known populations to the east of the property, about a mile away. And so the location of this is just perfect for providing that stepping stone to those butterflies that need a place to land about every half a mile.”  McCabe says the property includes 80 acres of very good butterfly habitat. She says that’s a rare find, considering the level of development in the Willamette Valley. The BPA money comes from a fund meant to mitigate activities related to the operation of dams on the Willamette River.