Word: checkerspot
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Sacramento mountains checkerspot butterfly is unique, found in all the world only on 2,000 acres of high meadow in the village of Cloudcroft, N.M. (pop. 768, altitude 8,640 ft.), and the adjoining Lincoln National Forest. The 2-in. checkerspot colorfully floods Burro Street, Cloudcroft's main drag, every summer, and it takes its scientific name--Euphydryas anicia cloudcrofti--from the town that shares its habitat...
...twice. In 1993 the Mexican spotted owl, which nests in the Lincoln forest, was declared threatened--a ruling that, combined with a slumping timber market, "killed the logging industry," according to Wood. And in 1999 an environmental group, the Center for Biological Diversity, began petitioning on behalf of the checkerspot, pointing out that it was at risk from development, off-road vehicles and livestock-grazing--or as Nicole Rosmarino, wildlife-program director of WildEarth Guardians, which joined the cause in 2007, puts it, "smelly cows, noisy ATVs and the din of chain saws...
...plan--one of the first in the nation--designed to safeguard the butterfly on both public and private land. But with logging virtually gone, Cloudcroft relies on tourism, which draws hundreds of thousands of visitors a year to hike, camp, fish and hunt. Restrictions on human activity in the checkerspot's habitat would bode ill for a local economy already suffering in the recession. "Anybody who is young and trying to make a living in Cloudcroft works in the tourist industry," says Wood. "This is very bad for business...
...latest skirmish in the checkerspot conflict began in October 2007, when an attempt to fight an infestation of tree-destroying looper caterpillars aroused the ire of environmentalists, who argued the insecticide also threatened checkerspot larvae. The government denied demands for an emergency protected-species listing but agreed to reopen debate on permanently adding the checkerspot...
Meanwhile, the checkerspot slumbers beneath the snowy alpine meadows of Otero County. Cloudcroft cautiously prepares for what it hopes will be the usual summer tourist invasion. And environmentalists intensify their campaign to add what would be the 21st butterfly to the list of protected species in the U.S. "Diverse native insects should be cause for celebration," says Rosmarino. "I would like to see Cloudcroft honor and promote its endemic checkerspot, perhaps with a butterfly festival." Cloudcroft is less enthusiastic. "Their agenda," warns Michael Nivison, the village administrator, "is to get everybody out of the forest...