Final Project

Karner Blue Butterfly Habitat Status in Eau Claire, Wisconsin

Goals/Introduction

The goal of this geospatial project was to identify regions within Eau Claire County that would best support a new Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) State Areas For wildlife Enhancement (SAFE) site for the Karner Blue Butterfly. (KBB) This project is of importance because the KBB is an endangered species with specific requirements for growth and development. The CRP SAFE sites focus on these measurements. The sites are contracted areas of land set aside by farmers in accordance with NRCS standards. The farmers receive a monetary benefit for these contracted sites and the butterflies have more available habitat as a result. The sites aim to preserve/restore native plant prairie/open oak savannah species which are more able to meet the needs of the KBB, along with other species of butterfly. A specific seed mix is used for the sites to ensure that the desired spread of plants is most likely to grow. One of, if not the most important plant for the KBB sites is lupine (Lupinus Polyphyllus). Lupine is an integral player in the life cycle of the Karner. Karner eggs are laid on Lupine stems, which then hatch and eat the leaves of the Lupine, allowing for development and maturation. It was because of this close tie with the Karner that the presence of Lupine dictated how successful a field was deemed to be. The outputs of this project are partially based on research that was conducted in the summer of 2017, where each site was visited, monitored, and ranked on an arbitrary scale, based on lupine abundance. This scale ranged from zero to four, with four being the most successful sites, and zero having no lupine. This field data collection allowed for the rest of the project to take place. 

Data and Methods 

A crucial part of this lab was collecting sufficient literature that supported the methodologies used. While there was a sufficient amount of personal knowledge on the Karner Blue and Lupine growth, additional sources were utilized. Dr. Paula Kleintjes-Neff was the leader of this research and was a valuable source of information throughout all stages of the project, Along with this, a number of other studies have been done on Lupine growth tendencies and analyzation methods that were used in this project. With literature to base the analysis on, the next step was finding data that would allow for the answering of the project question. Data sources for this project include shapefiles from the NRCS,  multiple County datasets from the UW - Eau Claire Department of Geography geodatabases, information obtained through Dr. Neff, and work done by previous students. One limitation of the study became apparent at this point. Although Lupine is highly disturbance dependent, there was no spatial data that indicated farming practices of individual farmers, or what type of interaction each CRP site received. Due to this, it was assumed that all disturbance rates and methods were the same for each site in question. All data sources were cited with contact information within the metadata of the geodatabase used for this project. Chase Stoffel, who was not mentioned in the metadata, was a co-researcher for the summer fieldwork. 

Preprocessing 

All used data layers were clipped to the Eau Claire County boundary, as it was the area of interest for this project. The first step of preprocessing was to add a rank field to the site polygon layer. A rank was given to each site based on lupine abundance, as stated earlier. This allowed for categorization by rank classification, which would be used later in the lab. Township, range, and section data were clipped to the boundary layer to facilitate the location of each site and ensure that the site in question was receiving the correct rank value. Following all visited sites having rank, the other variables in the project required attention. The geology layer used for soil types was fairly busy at first. There were far more classifications than what was necessary. In order to fix this issue, an online listing of soil types was accessed and similar soil types were grouped into larger categories. (ex. Sandy Loam = AtB, AtC2, AtD2, BIB, BIC2, BID2, BmA, BuA, CkB, CkC2, CkD2, DaA, Dua, EIB, EID2, FoA, FoB, UnD2, UnE) Each individual type was selected for and then merged with the other similar types. The polygons on the map at that point were represented by one entry on the attribute table, this caused issues with future processing steps. The polygons of a category were exploded, so that all separate polygons were recognized as individuals, but retained the same classification. 

A DEM of Eau Claire County then underwent a slope analysis, in order to find the slopes of each site. Zonal statistics of the slope were computed for each site rank, this resulted in average, maximum, and minimum values of slope in each rank. The average slope of all of the sites in a particular rank was taken as the final output value for that respective rank. 

A high potential flight path raster and polygon layers were added to the map from a geodatabase previously created by a former student. This layer allowed for the variable of 'known range' to be applied to the project 

A land use raster was clipped to the County boundary. It was important for this study to focus on agricultural land, as a new site could not be placed on a road or developed land. 

Processing 

Polygon to raster was used for the necessary layers which in this case was soil type and the High Potential flight Range (HPR) layers. Once all of the variable layers were in raster format, reclassification was conducted. The reclassifications of the rasters are as follows:

Soil type = (Sandy Loam or Loamy Sand = 1, All other soil types = 0)

Slope = (< 3.00 = 1, > 3.00 = 0) (degrees) 

Land use = (Agriculture = 1, All other = 0) 

Flight Path (High Potential Range) = (Inside flight Path = 1, Outside Flight Path = 0) 

Raster calculator was used on the reclassified values to give an output that satisfied all input variables. 

Multiple maps were created to show not only the final output but also how the final output correlated with the different input variables. 

Additionally, geotagged imagery taken over the summer was linked to the map so that when a user scrolls over the site location, they are able to observe the photos that were taken at that field. This is beneficial in that it gives the user a visualization of the scale that was used to rank the sites. 

Results

The results of this project show the areas in Eau Claire County that would best support a new KBB Safe site. These areas satisfy the conditions of soil type, slope, land use, and location within the High Potential Range of the Karner's flight path. The main output map can be seen below.

Fig. 1 - Best KBB CRP SAFE site areas 

Figure one displays the best potential areas for new site locations. These areas are represented by the small purple polygons that all exist within the light blue layer. The light blue layer represents a five-mile buffer around the high potential flight zone of the Karner. This is important because the species does not follow the strict boundaries as shown on maps, there can be variation. The sites located on this map are concealed with a tan buffer. Due to this project dealing with sensitive personal and environmental data, the location of the sites could not be displayed exactly. Another map was created without the land use variable and is displayed below. 

Fig. 2 Best KBB CRP SAFE site location without Landuse

The difference that additional variables play in the study becomes immediately apparent when comparing figures 1 and 2. There is a significantly reduced amount of land available in figure one. However, figure two is useful in that it shows where in the County would be best regardless of land use. There is no operation in practice at the moment, but this map would greatly help in the success of potential land conversion efforts and policies. 

In conclusion, while there are not many areas that meet the conditions set by this project, the NRCS could use this data in the future to establish new locations with the knowledge that they have attributes similar to the best sites already established. Depending on allowed spending, contract availability, and site potential, there are regions of Eau Claire that could be included in the CRP SAFE site plan for the Karner Blue Butterfly to increase populations by providing adequate habitat within the high potential flight path. 

Sources

In: SoilWeb. https://casoilresource.lawr.ucdavis.edu/soil_web/ssurgo.php?action=list_mapunits&areasymbol=wi035. 

Majka, D., Beier, P., Jenness, J., 2007. CorridorDesigner ArcGIS Toolbox Tutorial. Environmental Research, Development and Education for the New Economy (ERDENE), 1-25.

Neff, P. K., Locke, C., & Lee-Mӓder, E. (2017). Assessing a farmland set-aside conservation program for an endangered butterfly: USDA State Acres for Wildlife Enhancement (SAFE) for the Karner blue butterfly. Journal of Insect Conservation, 21(5-6), 929-941. doi:10.1007/s10841-017-0032-x

Plenzler, M.A., Michaels, H.J., 2015. Seedling Recruitment and Establishment of Lupinus perennis in a Mixed-Management Landscape. Natural Areas Journal 35, 224-234.

Smallidge, P.J., Leopold, D.J., 1997. Vegetation management for the maintenance and conservation of butterfly habitats in temperate human-dominated landscapes. Landscape and Urban Planning 38, 259-280.

Walsh, R.P., 2017. Microclimate and biotic interactions affect Karner blue butterfly occupancy and persistence in managed oak savanna habitats. Journal of Insect Conservation 21, 219-230.