Rare butterfly assessment for the Columbia River Basin in the Pacific Northwest

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A complete survey and analysis has been completed of the butterfly fauna in the Columbia River Basin, extending from the summit of the Cascade Range in Oregon and Washington east to the Continental Divide in western Wyoming and Montana. This work is based upon the Atlas of Western USA Butterflies by Stanford and Opler (1993), a county dot distribution atlas of all butterfly species in western North America. It is also based upon the insect collection at Oregon State University’s (OSU) Systematic Entomology Laboratory and upon many years of collecting records from amateur butterfly collectors currently being compiled for Oregon and Washington by John Hinchliff of Portland, Oregon, in cooperation with the Entomology Department at OSU. The results of this survey are surprising and unexpected. There are almost no rare butterflies within the Columbia River Basin east of the Cascade Range. A total of 175 butterfly species occur within this region. Of these, 137 species (78% of the fauna) are common and widely distributed. An additional 25 species (14%) are at the edge of their ranges in this region and are more common elsewhere. Most of these are West Coast species that extend along the east slope of the Cascade Range. Eight species (5%) are alpine or subalpine species that are narrowly endemic to the northern Rocky Mountains. Only 5 species (3%) are truly rare within the Columbia River Basin. Only two butterfly taxa in the Columbia River Basin are potential candidates for federal listing as endangered: Polites mardon of the Cascade Range in Oregon and Washington and Parnassius clodius shepardi in the lower Snake River canyon of eastern Washington. Six rare species from the region are briefly described in this report. Sixty-two species excluded from consideration as rare or endangered are listed.

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ELECTRONIC FILE - Zoology: Invertebrates

Citation: Hammond PC. 1994. Rare butterfly assessment for the Columbia River Basin in the Pacific Northwest. Eastside Ecosystems Management Strategy Project. 13 p. Available at: http://www.icbemp.gov/science/hammond2.pdf.
(Clarifying info: Initially the USFS was directed in 1993 by President Clinton to develop the ecosystem-based management strategy, and the USFS and BLM then initiated the project. The MOU that was eventually signed also included USFWS, NMFS, and EPA. The website archive for ICBEMP is maintained by the US Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station.)

SWAP (2/19/2016) citation (with page numbers):
Hammond PC. 1994. Rare butterfly assessment for the Columbia River Basin in the Pacific Northwest. [place unknown]: Eastside Ecosystems Management Strategy Project. 13 p. [accessed 2015 Feb 19]. http://www.icbemp.gov/science/hammond2.pdf