2003 West Eugene Wetlands Recognition Award Recipients

Cheryl Schultz

In 1993, University of Washington Ph.D. student Cheryl Schultz sent out a query to TNC staff that she was interested in a research project o­n rare invertebrates, preferably a butterfly.Ed Alverson, TNC Conservation Ecologist in west Eugene, contacted Cheryl, suggesting that she might be interested in the Fender’s blue butterfly.The Fender’s blue butterfly had been rediscovered four years prior in the southern Willamette Valley and had been located at Willow Creek in 1990.Cheryl spent four field seasons investigating the Fender’s blue butterfly in west Eugene, renting an apartment across the street for three months at a time.

Her work included annual monitoring, and research o­n behavior and activities o­n the Fender’s blue butterfly.In 1995, she received funding from the BLM to test habitat restoration o­n upland prairie, which included the Fender’s blue butterfly larval food source, Kincaid’s lupine.Cheryl’s findings have been published in prominent scientific journals, such as Conservation Biology and Ecology.Since Cheryl completed her Ph.D., she has continued to be involved in Fender’s blue butterfly research.

Cheryl grew up in Ohio and completed her undergraduate studies at Bowdoin College in Maine.She was recently hired o­n the faculty of Washington State University in Vancouver, and supervises a new generation of students who will continue to further Fender’s blue butterfly research.