SACRAMENTO, California — California wildlife officials granted temporary endangered species protections on Wednesday to a small Southern California butterfly already flummoxing housing development.
What happened: The California Fish and Game Commission voted unanimously to declare the Quino checkerspot butterfly as a candidate for state endangered species status, citing its shrinking population. The move gives the species interim protections while the state conducts a full review.
More context: Developers have had to set aside land for the small red-and-black butterfly since its 1997 listing under federal endangered species law. But environmental groups, which petitioned for the state listing last December, said the added protections were needed to guard against potential rollbacks under the Trump administration, which has sought to weaken endangered species and habitat rules broadly.
“Sprawl development has turned this resilient species into one of the rarest butterflies in California,” said Sofia Prado-Irwin, Ph.D., a staff scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity, which petitioned for the listing. “Their future is dismal without greater protections under state law.”
