Butterflies Have Ears
January 20th, 2000

A checkered butterfly found only on high meadows in the Sacramento Mountains of southern New Mexico is creating a rift between environmentalists and the village of  Cloudcroft over 140 acres of prime butterfly habitat .

The Cloudcroft Butterfly
Two inches from wingtip-to-wingtip,

The Southwest Center for Biological Diversity in Tucson, Ariz., wants an emergency listing of the Cloudcroft checkerspot butterfly as a federally endangered species. But the village of Cloudcroft, nestled atop the mountains
at 8,640 feet some 200 miles southeast of Albuquerque, wants access to 140 acres of prime butterfly habitat that is now part of the Lincoln National Forest.
The village — population about 750 — is asking the U.S. Forest Service for permission to use, and eventually annex, the land.

The village needs the acreage for recreation sites for children, expansion of its sewage treatment plant and for space to store maintenance equipment, administrator Curtis Schrader said. “What about the kids?” Schrader said Tuesday. “Aren’t they threatened, sensitive or endangered? Shouldn’t they have adequate recreational areas?”
From ABC News