Wilsonville, Ore. – A butterfly recovery lab for the endangered Taylor’s Checkerspot Butterfly will soon be in operation at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility (CCCF) in Wilsonville.
The project is the result of a grant awarded to the Oregon Zoo, which will provide oversight and equipment through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The lab will be located in a medium facility housing unit, and will expand opportunities for women in custody to gain valuable work experience as butterfly lab technicians.
Along with butterfly rearing, the project will also provide gardeners training to raise the plants needed to feed the butterflies when they are in the caterpillar stage. USFWS will drop off the first egg clusters in April for the butterfly lab technicians to start raising the caterpillars to pupation phase. The pupas will be taken to a protected habitat to hatch into adult butterflies.
This butterfly recovery program meets a long-term goal of DOC’s sustainability plan in several ways. Among them is the ability to bring science and nature inside the medium institution, help improve Oregon ecosystems, and maintain partnerships with key stakeholders that work with Oregon’s endangered species and native plant habitat restoration projects.
Opportunities like these help create collaborative, intellectually stimulating environments in which incarcerated men and women play key roles in conservation and scientific awareness.
CCCF is Oregon’s only women’s prison.
