Paper companies praise

plan protecting butterfly

By The Associated Press
Leader-Telegram staff

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    BABCOCK(AP)--An agreement protecting an endangered butterfly that lives in Wisconsin is being welcomed by paper companies that own thousands of acres of timber affected by the deal.

    "We can manage the land for its timber value and at the same time protect a species. It is the kind of thing we want to do anyway," said Tim Laatsch, a spokesman for Consolidated Papers.

    The agreement for protection of the Karner blue butterfly was signed Monday by U.S. Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt.

    The normal activities of owners of timber land and other affected property are not expected to stop because the

butterfly requires some disruption of its habitat to survive. That's because of its reliance on wild lupine, a plant of rural roadsides, prairie and other open country.

    The encroachment of woodlands suppresses the lupine, which is the only food source for larva of the Karner blue.

    "Our harvest patterns were supplying the desirable habitat for the Karner blue. We certainly would continue that process," said Craig Timm, spokesman for Georgia-Pacific Corp., which owns paper mills in Nekoosa and Port Edwards and has 20,000 acres of timber included in the agreement.

    The deal makes protection of the butterfly part of the company's forest management activities and creates a spirit of

cooperation instead of confrontation on how to protect an endangered species, he said.

    The agreement protects the Karner blue while allowing economic development to continue and providing a framework for resolving any future disputes over protection of the species.

    The Wisconsin Audubon Council is happy with the agreement because it establishes a coordinated effort to protect the butterfly, said Karen Etter Hale, executive secretary of the Madison Audubon Society.

    "You need to have communication between the different types of landowners to be sure you are doing enough of the right things in the right places to maintain that population," she said.

    The light blue, thumbnail-size butterfly, listed as endangered in 1992, roams an area stretching from Menominee and Shawano counties to Wood and Adams counties.