DNR warns rare butterfly may be killed during work in Oconto and Marinette counties
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources say some endangered butterflies might be killed when an overhead transmission line is removed in Oconto and Marinette counties.
The DNR said the proposed project where American Transmission Company will remove a 23-mile transmission line between its Pioneer and Crivitz substations will run through a swamp metalmark butterfly habitat.
The butterfly lives in about 37.5 acres of the 223 acres of the project area, with about 7.5 acres of the habitat being disturbed.
American Transmission Company plans to remove its conductor and lattice structures as well as concrete piers.
The DNR said it has determined that the proposed activity is "not likely to appreciably reduce the likelihood of the survival or recovery of the swamp metalmark within the state, the whole plant-animal community of which it is a part or the habitat that is critical to its existence."
The swamp metalmark, which is listed as a species of concern at the federal level, is most likely to be found in alkaline wetlands, wet meadows, marshes, or tamarack bogs around fens, according to the DNR. They need an abundance of their larval host plant, swamp thistle.
NatureServe Explorer estimates that about 100 pockets exist in the United States where the swamp metalmark live, but outside of the Ozarks, the species has "a highly fragmented distribution with low habitat occupancy, consisting mostly of small colonies with little or no potential for recolonization" and "has recently disappeared from a number of sites."
The butterfly has also been found in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky, Oklahoma and Arkansas.
More information about the project and copies of the jeopardy assessment is available by visiting the DNR Incidental Take Public Notices webpage or by contacting DNR Conservation Biologist Stacy Rowe at Stacy.Rowe@wisconsin.gov or 608-228-9796.
The DNR encourages the public to submit written comments regarding project-related impacts to the swamp metalmark by Dec. 16. Comments can be emailed to Rowe or mailed to Department of Natural Resources c/o Stacy Rowe, DNR Conservation Biologist, 2514 Morse St., Janesville, WI 53545.
Contact Kevin Dittman at 920-431-8416 or kdittman@gannett.com.
MORE: Oconto County school districts get their report cards from the state. Here's how they scored.
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This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Rare butterfly may be killed during work in Oconto, Marinette counties
