Page 12 August 2, 2012 Pet of The Week Blue Butterfly Tour Offers Look into Preservation Efforts Pheonix •SS# 12-04973 •Pit Bull •5 months •Male •South Bay Pet Adoption Center 12910 Yukon Avenue, Hawthorne, CA 90250 (310) 676-1149 Play with me! I am an energetic little guy looking for a home to call my own. I love to play fetch and go for long walks. Since I am still trying to learn my puppy manners, a home with someone willing to take me to obedience classes is a must. Drop by the shelter and see what makes me so special! • Council from front page Superintendent of the Lawndale School Dis- with information on how the City can block trict, spoke to the lack of funding available an MTA station. Ginoza explained that the to all schools throughout California due to Planning Commission has received a grant education cuts made by the State. She ad- from CDBG that can assist with a study to vised of a coalition of area schools proposing be presented for acceptance by the Council at a parcel tax on the November 2012 ballot the August 20 meeting. The study will allow as an umbrella species because by protecting the butterfly their habitat and the other species that live in it are also being protected.The El Segundo Blue Butterfly, which became the first insect to be listed as a federal endangered species, is sometimes referred to to add $75 to $200 per year to property for a review of the mixed-use zoning in the Photo courtesy of the Los Angeles World Airports. taxes to boost the funds available to local area where MTA is proposing a station and area school districts within the boundaries could give guidance on how to deal with a By Cristian Vasquez was, which can range from mating to laying of Centinela Valley. The Local Classroom station and improve the mixed-use zoning Squeezed between the western border of eggs, to feeding and simply trying to stay Funding Authority is the entity of the joined to be beneficial to the City. MTA does not the Los Angeles International Airport and the warm. The information goes into a database forces designing the ballot measure. extend an approval process to cities where ocean is a dry section of small hills scattered with GPS capabilities, which helps Arnold Lawndale High School Reunion a station is proposed. with brush and desolate to the unknowing analyze the data at the end of the season and The other comments from the public in- Tree for Lawndale Dog Park eye. Home to a wide range of animals and the end of count events. cluded Angie Gomez who announced that on A request by the Lions Club to donate a tree species, the once house-filled hills are now “For the most part, they just fly around-- September 8, the Manhattan Beach Marriott for the Lawndale Dog Park was approved by the habitat of the El Segundo Blue Butterfly. they’re easier to spot when they fly because will host a class reunion celebrating the 50th consensus so that the organization can arrange “This is a habitat which supports a lot of a lot of them are well camouflaged when Anniversary of the first graduating class of for a presentation ceremony on August 22, unique species. The butterfly though, because it they are sitting in one spot,’ Arnold said. “As Lawndale High School. This reunion includes just two days after the next Council meet- is a butterfly, allows people to better relate to you approach the plants, if you approach it multi-class years and information is available ing at which time the request can be on the it than they can to let’s say a wasp or a cricket without casting a shadow on them, the but- at www.stillcrazycardinals.com. agenda for a formal vote. or a beetle,” Dick Arnold, the entomologist terfly will sit still. But these are things you Metro Green Line As a body, the Council also sits as the and consultant to LAX for the preservation learn after years of experience.” As the Council members offered their Executive Board of the Successor Agency project, said. “We have legless lizards that Information provided by Marshall Lowe final individual reports, Mayor Pro Tem to the Redevelopment Agency. The Due are not snakes. There are several rare plants, from the Los Angeles World Airports in- Larry Rudolph requested that the City Man- Diligence Review of the Dissolution of the all of which supply the biodiversity makeup dicates that in 2011 there was an estimate ager’s office make information available to Redevelopment Agency, as required by State of the El Segundo Sand Dunes. It really is an between 120,610 and 125,920 El Segundo the public by displaying a binder with all Assembly Bill 1484 that dissolved rede- endangered habitat that is composed of a lot Blue Butterflies. That represented an eight documents about the extension of the Metro velopment agencies throughout California, of unique species. However, the way the law percent increase over 2010. The 2010 count, Green Line and any data that covers how requires that a formal accounting audit be is written, we have to recognize a particular however, represented a 30 percent increase Lawndale will be included. This request completed to pass remaining funds to the species in order to protect the habitat. It’s from 2009. Back in 1976, there were fewer sparked a passionate discussion about the Successor Agency. The Successor Agency kind of backwards in some sense, but the than 500 butterflies and that is when the El need for any MTA station in Lawndale, es- to the Lawndale Redevelopment Agency butterflies are sometimes referred to as an Segundo Blue Butterfly became the first insect pecially along Manhattan Beach Boulevard, Executive Board appointed Caporicci & umbrella species because by protecting the to be listed as a federal endangered species. less than one mile from two other proposed Larson to perform the required accounting butterfly we are able to check its habitat and “It population will go up some years and stations. Mayor Hofmann expressed his audit and approved a resolution to confirm manage the habitat to benefit the butterfly down other years--that’s just part of varia- objection to a station at any location along this appointment. and other species.” tion,” Arnold said. “If you see a yearly graph Manhattan Beach Boulevard and asked that The next meeting of the Lawndale City Arnold and a group of four go out to you will see spikes and drops, but during Deputy City Manager Otis Ginoza have a Council will be held on Monday, August the dunes on several occasions and collect the last 20 years it’s been pretty stable. If report ready at the August 20 Council meeting 20 at 6:30 p.m. • information by observing the butterflies’ it’s a wet year, you will get a lot of flowers behavior. This helps Arnold and his group and as a result a lot butterflies. If you get a with preservation efforts and allows them dry year, the buckwheat does not produce prevent the El Segundo Blue butterfly and enough flowers, so you don’t get as many other species from going extinct. butterflies.” “Well you figure out how many are out The Blue Butterfly, which is the size of a here and whether or not the population is dime, spends almost its entire life cycle in increasing or decreasing. There is normal intimate association with the flower heads fluctuation from year to year, but if you of some species of buckwheat. The butterfly start to see an overall trend where it is really emerges during summer when the flowers declining, then you need to figure out what is of its host plant, sea cliff buckwheat, open. the underlying cause,” Arnold said. “Is it not The adult life of these butterflies is relatively enough buckwheat that is flowering? Butterfly short, lasting only a few days during which depends on the flower of the buckwheat. they mate and lay eggs, but the eggs hatch You can’t always identify everything, but within a week. The larvae feed on the flower you can try to get as much information as heads of the host plant for one month before possible to identify the underlying problem they outgrow their pupal stage. Then when and eventually correct it. Sometimes we just the next summer arrives, the cycle begins. may need to increase the number of plants. “I don’t catch them--I only observe them. I We just need to know what’s going on in have been doing this for 35 years, so I have the habitat.” been able to build up speed,” Arnold said. Arnold will observe the behavior of but- “When you see one, you record his position, terflies when they are alone or in groups. He whether it was male or female and what its will then record and indicate how many but- behavior was. When that gets recorded, which terflies were spotted and what their behavior takes about 10 seconds, then I move on.” •
Lawndale 8.9.12
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