One of North America’s rarest butterfly species is making a comeback to Fort Custer Training Center in Augusta.
Around 300 of the federally endangered Mitchell’s satyr butterflies will be reintroduced to the Fort.
The Fort is home to a unique ecosystem called a fen, which is a groundwater-fed wetland. The Mitchell’s satyr needs the specialized environment to survive.
Michele Richards is a natural resource specialist with the Michigan Army National Guard. She’s worked on the reintroduction project for over two decades.
“We got here and it’s one of those pinnacle moments in my career,” Richards said. “I plan to make more, but it’s pretty amazing, and I hope that it sets a precedent for other installations to be able to do the same.”
The Kalamazoo Nature Center is one of several private organizations that collaborated with public agencies on the project. In a statement, the KNC said the training center is believed to be the nation’s first military installation to reintroduce a federally listed species in a place they once were eliminated.
Colonel Andrew Kuhns is the Michigan Army National Guard Chief of Staff. He said military organizations with training installations are trending toward wildlife conservation.
“They’re becoming more amenable to, you know, this thing where preserving wildlife, preserving habitats is important,” Kuhns said.
The butterflies will continue to be monitored and genetic work conducted to observe diversity of the gene pool.
