conservation
Construction Threatens Critically Imperiled Butterfly in Eagles Island Wetlands by Morgan Greene The golden butterflies pictured below are rare skippers (Problema bulenta), and if you want to see them in North Carolina, the only place you’ll find them is in the wetlands of Eagles Island. In fact, no one knew whether the skippers still existed in our state until wildlife biologist and owner of Wilmington Outdoor Adventures, Kay Lynn Hernandez, recently rediscovered them. Hernandez first spotted the skippers on one of her kayaking ecotours and subsequently spent weeks trying to photograph them to confirm her sighting. The rare skippers are quite shy and typically fluttered away whenever Hernandez got close, but she wasn’t alone in her mission: many ecotour clients were eager to
help and would email her butterfly photos they’d taken during their tours. When Hernandez finally captured the skippers on her phone, she sent the pictures to NC State to be identified by the university’s resident lepidopterist, Matt Bertone. Sadly, these photos were not high enough quality for Bertone to accurately identify the butterflies as rare skippers. Because rare skippers are critically imperiled in North Carolina, Hernandez knew getting a second chance to photograph the butterflies was unlikely. “I was afraid we’d never see [them] again,” says Hernandez. “There could be fewer than five to twelve individuals remaining, to get that kind of conservation status.” Undeterred, Hernandez called her friend and professional photographer Bryan Putman, and the two set out for Eagles Island in hopes of getting a proper photograph. After six hours of searching, they miraculously stumbled upon the skippers again. Putman took the photograph featured on this page, which was successfully used to identify the skippers and prove that they still reside on Eagles Island. The rare skipper is a wetland species that feeds primarily on aquatic plants like pickerelweed and arrowhead, both of which grow in Eagles Island. Unfortunately, Eagles Island may soon be unable to support the skippers, which could lead to the species’ extinction in North Carolina. There are two proposals for construction in Eagles Island: Battleship Point and Wilmington Hotel and Spa. This development would likely spell doom for the golden butterflies. “We looked at a plan one of the engineers was working on … and it just has this massive footprint,” says Hernandez regarding the plans for Wilmington Hotel and Spa. “It’s really in a wetland. There’s just enough upland for them to legally build on it, but they haven’t left any space … for any stormwater or impacts from the building to be dealt with before it impacts the wetlands around it. And of course, the river.” Finding a critically imperiled species would be enough to raise alarm over the negligently planned construction for Eagles Island, not to mention the impact the construction could have on the wetlands and surrounding ecosystems. However, there is yet another crack in these proposals that cannot be overlooked: Eagles Island is a part of the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor.
Photo © Bryan Putnam, Art-Sublimina-Photography.com
Rare skippers are attracted to Pickerelweed, also known as Pickerel Rush (Pontederia cordata).
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When Hernandez leads ecotours around Eagles Island, she focuses on the wetland’s cultural history just as much as its wildlife. She particularly focuses on the lasting impact of the Gullah Geechee, a group of people kidnapped from Africa’s west coast for their society’s advancements in rice cultivation. The enslaved Gullah Geechee not only hand dug Eagles Island’s rice canals, but
Cape Fear’s Going Green • Spring 2022
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