Written by Allee Gustafson on July 22, 2024

Last week, KS Wild volunteers ventured to the Mardon skipper (Polites mardon) habitat in the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument. It was a warm and sunny day, and we were surrounded by dragonflies and the smell of mugwort. The habitat is monitored by volunteers from KS Wild, Vesper Meadow, and Friends of the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument in support of the BLM's efforts to protect and conserve this imperiled species. At this time of year, the Mardon skipper has already laid its eggs in bunches of native grass throughout the habitat. It's crucial to keep grazing cattle out of the habitat to ensure the survival of the eggs through winter and their hatching in early June. During a two-week window, the Mardon skipper is nectaring and laying eggs on host plants. Until then, we depend on volunteers to monitor the habitat once a week while cows are grazing in the monument until mid-October.

During this field day, our team consisted of two KS Wild employees and three volunteers who were trained to monitor the Mardon skipper fence effectively. We conducted some minor fence repairs with fence clips and patched two areas in the fence through which a calf could get through. In addition to monitoring the fence, we looked for trespassing cows that may have breached the fence. Thankfully, and due to our vigilance in monitoring last year, no cows were spotted in the habitat on this day.

Our goal is to keep grazing cows out of the habitat, but we also have plans to expand the Mardon skipper fence enclosure. The fence expansion is scheduled to happen later this fall through a collaboration of grants from KS Wild and our partners at Vesper Meadow and the FCSNM. In the meantime, we need volunteers to monitor the habitat to ensure the fence is intact and in working order.

Do you want to be a part of the critical stewardship work that it takes to keep species like the Mardon skipper and others alive and thriving in the Klamath-Siskiyou bioregion? Help us protect biodiversity and the many species that rely on the diversity complexity of the KS region! Sign up to volunteer with us to get your hands dirty for the wild!

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Thanks to Vesper Meadow and Friends of the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument for their partnership in protecting the Mardon skipper’s habitat! Special thanks to the Public Lands Fund for providing the grant funding for this important stewardship work for the biodiversity of the Klamath-Siskiyous!