Photo By Claudia Neve | A Karner Blue Butterfly is shown sitting on flowers in a prairie area July 15, 2024,...... read more read more
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In 1994, Tim Wilder became the first endangered species biologist at Fort McCoy and was charged with developing a program that would improve habitat and numbers for endangered species.
More than 30 years since, the Karner Blue Butterfly program that came out of that effort has been a model for success across the United States.
Wilder said in March 1995, he and his team at the Natural Resources Branch drafted and had approved the first Fort McCoy Karner Blue Butterfly (KBB) Endangered Species Management Plan. In 1995 they were part of a different directorate. Today they fall under the Fort McCoy Directorate of Public Works Environmental Division.
On March 27, Wilder retired as the branch chief and ended his 30-plus years with the Karner program. He reflected on being able to support and build the program.
“The other thing I really loved about the job is the species I got to work with as an endangered species biologist,” Wilder said. “You got to know that species. You’re doing the research and the surveys and everything, too. Where a lot of wildlife biologists, if you’ve got a huge property you’re managing, you’re more managing habitat, but not individual species per se. So that was really neat to be able to do that with the Karner.”
As time went on, the Fort McCoy Karner program grew to include working with outside partners, such as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR), and many others.
“When we got involved with the state, they started dealing with the Karner after we did,” Wilder said. “They had what was called a habitat conservation plan that they were trying to develop. So, we weren’t members of that, but we were partners, giving them advice and working with them. And we got benefits out of it, too.
“But it was just surprising when we started working (with the state),” he said. “We learned how many other people were dealing with the Karner and were already far behind us. I remember we were out on tours and I was pointing out, ‘That’s a Karner Blue Butterfly egg.’ And they're thinking, ‘I never saw one before.’”
Wilder said through lots of work in the program, they really got to know the butterfly.
“McCoy’s getting to be known for its rare butterflies,” Wilder said. “We’ve got one of the best populations of the Karner left under one ownership. We’ve also got the regal fritillary butterfly now that’s going through the process of being federally listed. And we’ve got the best population of that left in the upper Midwest. Monarchs are going to be listed, and we’ve got them here too.”
Wilder said the Frosted Elfin butterfly is another butterfly that’s rare like the KBB and prevalent at Fort McCoy.
“It’s host plant is wild lupine, just like the Karner, and we’ve got the best population of that left in Wisconsin,” Wilder said. “It’s almost range wide. There’s a few spots that probably have more. But the one that's not even listed yet, but it probably will be in some days, is called the otto skipper butterfly. And that one, we're the only place left in Wisconsin that has them, I think, since 2015.
What they’ve also learned over the last three decades about the Karner are ways to better its habitat and to make natural resources decisions to continue improving the habitat so they can successfully reproduce. Wilder said also that Fort McCoy has never lost time for training troops because of habitat for the butterfly.
“I have always thought the levels of training that occur on McCoy, that disturbance caused by them is inadvertently helping manage this butterfly,” Wilder said. “We had some research done … here a few years ago. And what the findings came out with, again, show that at the levels that training is now, because it helps control the shrub layer, the bivouacking and that kind of stuff, it promotes the lupin (to grow) better.”
And he said that’s what the butterfly wants.
“So, our timber sales, our prescribed burning, our management, the training all goes in,” Wilder said. “I was always under the perception when I started here that the Fish and Wildlife Service biologists … were the experts on these species. That’s not the case. We’re the experts on the species and especially on the properties here. It took me a few years after I was the endangered species biologist to realize that.”
Wilder said Fort McCoy now has USFWS and WDNR people coming to Fort McCoy to see what the installation does for butterflies, sees the species themselves because they can’t see them in other places, and sees what kind of surveys Fort McCoy is doing.
But the success of the KBB and other endangered butterfly species at McCoy comes back to having the wild lupine throughout the installation, Wilder said.
“We’ve had a great working relationship with the USFWS and the DNR on all the species we deal with there,” Wilder said. “But again, I think we've been a little bit lucky. McCoy is 60,000 acres, mostly sand, where that wild lupine plant does well.
“And … when you look at how the lupine is scattered across the landscape, it looks like you just took paint and threw it up on the wall,” he said. “I mean, there’s patches of it kind of all over the place. And since there was no breaks in the habitat at McCoy where you’ve got farm fields, for example, the butterflies can naturally just move. All the wildlife can naturally move around the landscape.”
Wilder said when they’ve done most of their presence-absence surveys, they have good numbers.
“That’s when we go out, and we’re not counting butterflies,” Wilder said. “We’re just trying to document if they exist in those patches. Most of the time we’re well over 90 percent, 95 percent of the patches hold butterflies.”
He said the other thing Fort McCoy lands got going for the butterfly is the post has lupine that grows out in the open with no trees, no shade.
“Then we've got lupine that grows back in that … scrub oak habitat,” Wilder said. “There’s plenty of sunlight still getting back in there. And so, we’ve got different microclimates where that butterfly can exist.”
Wilder said Fort McCoy was also the place that developed an innovative, one-of-a-kind process to mitigate the permanent take of KBBs off the installation in 2013.
“The process included Fort McCoy moving funds ($3,320/acre) to the USFWS who in-turn provided the funds to the WDNR to establish or manage KBB habitat on their lands.
“Since McCoy had already reached its conservation goals and the WDNR hadn’t, this was a win for Fort McCoy in that we are assisting the WDNR to reach their goals. This species cannot be delisted until the WDNR reaches their conservation goals. In addition, as soon as Fort McCoy provided the funds to the USFWS, it was the USFWS responsibility to ensure the WDNR used the funds properly — not Fort McCoy. I was told by natural resource managers at the Pentagon that this was the first and only time this method had been used to mitigate the incidental take of an endangered species off an installation, and they were surprised by the low cost of doing so.
Wilder said Fort McCoy briefed this method to other Department of Defense natural resource managers and to all natural resource managers at a National Wildlife Society meeting.
In 2025, Fort McCoy’s current Endangered Species Biologist Jessup Weichelt continues what Wilder started by managing the KBB program and needs for other endangered butterflies at Fort McCoy.
“It’s been some great work by everyone, and it’s something Fort McCoy should be proud of,” Wilder said.
See more about the Karner Blue Butterfly by visiting https://www.fws.gov/species/karner-blue-butterfly-lycaeides-melissa-samuelis.
Fort McCoy’s motto is to be the “Total Force Training Center.” Located in the heart of the upper Midwest, Fort McCoy is the only U.S. Army installation in Wisconsin.
The installation has provided support and facilities for the field and classroom training of more than 100,000 military personnel from all services nearly every year since 1984.
Learn more about Fort McCoy online at https://home.army.mil/mccoy, on Facebook by searching “ftmccoy,” on Flickr at https://www.flickr.com/photos/fortmccoywi, and on X (formerly Twitter) by searching “usagmccoy.”
Also try downloading the My Army Post app to your smartphone and set “Fort McCoy” or another installation as your preferred base. Fort McCoy is also part of Army’s Installation Management Command where “We Are The Army’s Home.”
| Date Taken: | 04.02.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 04.02.2025 17:01 |
| Story ID: | 494426 |
| Location: | FORT MCCOY, WISCONSIN, US |
| Web Views: | 377 |
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