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Butterfly on a Bomb Range: Endangered Species Act at Work

Associated Press

   FORT BRAGG, N.C. - In the unlikely setting of the world's most
   populated military installation, amid all the regimented chaos, you'll
   find the Endangered Species Act at work.

   There, as a 400-pound explosive resounds in the distance, a tiny St.
   Francis satyr butterfly flits among the splotchy leaves, ready to lay
   as many as 100 eggs. At one point, this brown and frankly dull-looking
   butterfly could be found in only one place on Earth: Fort Bragg's
   artillery range.

   Now, thanks in great measure to the 46-year-old federal act, they are
   found in eight more places -- though all of them are on other parts of
   the Army base. And if all goes well, biologists will have just seeded
   habitat No. 10.

   One of Earth's rarest butterfly species, there are maybe 3,000 St.
   Francissatyrs. There are never going to be enough of them to get off
   the endangered list, but they're not about to go extinct either. They
   are permanent patients of the bureaucratic conservation hospital ward.

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