Outline of Quino Recovery Plan - The Xerces Society

connectivity that may have existed between other occupied habitat patches and
the Crowne Hill habitat area has been constrained by development, leaving the
habitat isolated and subject to rapid degradation. Landscape connectivity
between the Warm Springs Creek and Skinner/Johnson habitat complexes has
been constrained by State Route 79 and associated development. Although State
Route 79 separates the Warm Springs Creek habitat complex from the
Skinner/Johnson habitat complex, the two complexes might function as one
metapopulation if landscape connectivity were restored. Restoration of
connectivity between the Skinner/Johnson and Warm Springs Creek habitat
complexes could help stabilize populations associated with both habitat
complexes. Quino habitat sites are in openings in coastal sage scrub and typified
by low rounded hills, clay soil lenses, and soil crusts. Dwarf plantain (Plantago
erecta) is the primary host plant found in this area.
Oak Mountain/Vail Lake, Sage Road/Billy Goat Mountain, and Brown Canyon
habitat complexes: Recent Quino checkerspot butterfly observations are
concentrated in the vicinities of Oak Mountain, Vail Lake, Pauba Valley (Figure
2), and in the vicinity of Sage Road from Magee Hills and the town of Sage
south and east to Wilson Valley and Billy Goat Mountain (Figure 2). One
possibly isolated population occurs just southeast of Hemet in Brown Canyon
(Figure 2).
Habitat Considerations:
The site just southeast of Hemet may be isolated from documented
metapopulations to the south by intervening areas of contiguous dense chaparral.
Landscape connectivity in the habitat complex areas is generally good, and
habitat is largely unfragmented. Landscape connectivity most likely exists
between the Oak Mountain/Vail Lake and Sage Road/Billy Goat Mountain
habitat complexes. Quino checkerspot habitat in these areas is characterized by
rounded hills with gabbro clay lenses and soils in the west blending with granitic
soils to the east. Habitat patches also occur on stable soil crusts, especially in
granitic soil areas, and red clay lenses (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 1997b).
Dwarf plantain (Plantago erecta) and woolly plantain (P. patagonica) are the
primary host plants found in these areas.
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