The ISSUE: The development of modern civilization is destroying natural habitats at an alarming rate. The destruction of these habitats is causing an alarming increase in the extinction of many species.Questions:
- How can a modern and developed society, like that which exists here in Southern California, continue to prosper without the destruction of the natural systems on which we depend?
- Can the short term economic pressures, for example those brought by developers in the urban planning process, be mitigated by the Endangered Species Act as we move into the next millennium?
The El Segundo Blue (Euphilotes bernardino allyni) - An Endangered Species
- Conservation Biology by Rudi Mattoni.
- Take a Virtual Tour to the Malaga Cove Enclave on this Beautiful Creature.
Only 106 Species of Butterflies are left in Southern California, of which 21 of our "Urban Butterflies" are common enough to expect to see on a regular basis.
- Rudi Mattoni's Field Guide to Butterflies of Greater Los Angeles.
The Endangered Species Act - A Place Where Politics, Science, and Our Own Survival Meet.
The Story of the Palos Verdes Blue (Glaucopsyche lygdamus palvosverdesnesis) - One of only a very small number of species which, thought to be extinct, has been given another chance!
Butterflies have special foodplants (for the caterpillars) and nectar sources (for the butterflies).
- What native and exotic plants do butterflies depend upon for their food at various stages of their lives?
- Grow the right plants and the butterflies will come! How can youth, within a school setting, revegetate the campus and their community with these species of plants on which butterflies depend?
How can youth within a school setting study a population of butterflies? (in your classroom and around your school).
- Finding and Raising Butterflies
- Observations are a starting point in science - Humanity can see butterflies and can learn about them...Learn about butterflies and you see so much more!
- A Car Trip's Study in Relative Sizes of Populations of Flying Insects
- Techniques for measuring the size of butterfly populations...Including some useful and instructive mathematical tools.
- Techniques for Collecting and Preserving Butterflies.
Virtually Visit Rudi Mattoni's Habitat Restoration Research Facility at the Defense Fuel Depot on Palos Verdes.
Come and Get Involved! Would you like to help the Palos Verdes Blue survive? Rudi and Rhapsody in Green extends an invitation to a Habitat Restoration (Revegetation) "Working Party" the first Sunday of every month.
- Inhabitants of El Segundo Dunes
Let's Debate the ISSUE
Resources (web links, sources for equipment and supplies, classroom materials, and other references)
