About 125 volunteers create a habitat at Finley Wildlife Refuge

Someday, 5-year-old Linden Thomas may get to see a Fender's blue butterfly at William L. Finley National Wildlife Refuge. When that day comes, she can take pride in knowing she played a part in helping it get there.

Linden was one of about 125 volunteers who showed up at the refuge south of Corvallis on Saturday morning to cover a hillside with a variety of plants that will serve as habitat for the endangered butterfly, should it ever return to the area.

The species is found only in the Willamette Valley and primarily in Benton County, according to John Gaylord, planting chairman of the Audubon Society of Corvallis. The butterflies used to live in the Finley area, but no longer. The refuge hopes to reintroduce the butterfly in a few years.

"It would be great to have some here," said assistant refuge biologist Molly Monroe.

The Audubon Society of Corvallis organized the event, its second planting at the refuge in as many years.

Though the National Audubon Society is known for its work with bird conservation, one of the group's missions is to restore ecosystems.

"One of our precepts is to plant," Gaylord said. "We have a wonderful relationship with Finley, where we try to help them and they try to help us."

Originally, volunteers planned to plant spurred lupine and Nelson's checkermallow. But crop failures forced the biologists to use alternates. Meadow checkermallow, Oregon iris, shooting star, dense sedge, showy milkweed, camas and wild onion were all planted at the site.

Volunteers included brothers from an Oregon State University fraternity, high school students and members of the Greenbelt Land Trust.

Sean Thomas, young Linden's father, grew up in Corvallis and now teaches forest conservation in Canada. His professional perspective on the event was that it's easy for people to get excited about planting without considering all the other work necessary to maintain the plants.

"I like this project," Thomas said. "They put a lot of thought into exactly what they're planting."

Linden's grandmother, Jody Thomas, looks forward to a future visit with her granddaughter to see the flowers and, hopefully, Fender's blue butterflies.

"I'll show her pictures and say, 'You helped do some of this,'" she said.