Saving Species, Supporting the Mission

All photos were taken on Vandenberg Space Force Base by Joel Sartore, Joel Sartore Photography, with assistance from the dedicated Department of Space Foce, Environmental staff.

Vandenberg Space Force Base (VSFB) is at the forefront of launching rockets and satellites, but some of the most amazing discoveries on Earth are happening on the grounds of this coastal California installation.

Among the more than 850 plant and animal species dispersed across VSFB's 99,500 acres are 17 federally listed threatened or endangered species, along with endemic species only recently identified or so new to science, they have not been fully identified.

“All of the base is habitat,” said Rhys Evans, Vandenberg Space Force Base lead wildlife biologist. “We have 99,500 acres, and of that maybe 15% is developed. We have a 42-mile coastline, and maybe 200 yards of it is developed. Our coastline is pristine and awesome.”

“Vandenberg’s mission is pretty straightforward," Evans said. "U.S. Space Force Guardians and U.S. Air Force Airmen launch rockets and support a test range for Air Force Global Strike Command assets like the Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missile – minus the munitions, of course. SpaceX, United Launch Alliance, and Firefly Aerospace are among the base’s commercial partners that currently use Vandenberg to launch satellites. In 2023 VSFB personnel supported approximately 35 launches. Each launch complex needs a large buffer where no housing, offices or other development can exist," Evans continued. "Although it doesn’t often happen, there is always the possibility that a rocket or missile will pose a hazard or have an anomaly before or shortly after launch.  As a result, most of the base is undeveloped.”

This creates a vast wildlife habitat that includes 9,000 acres of sand dunes and 5,000 acres of wetlands, and is home to 53 mammal species, 315 species of birds, 17 reptiles and 10 amphibian species, along with myriad insects. Among those are ten animal species protected by the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA).

In addition to federal and state environmental protections, VSFB biologists also must follow the 1960 Sikes Act, which requires the Department of Defense to identify, monitor, and create recovery programs for the natural resources and ecosystems that occur on military-owned lands. In some ways, the Sikes Act is stricter than the federal ESA, as it requires protection plans to include species recovery efforts.

Among the species Evans and his team monitor and protect are the Southwestern pond turtle (Actinemys pallida), Western spadefoot toad (Spea hammondii), a fish called the tidewater goby (Eucyclogobius newberryi), the Lompoc grasshopper (Trimerotropis occulens), the Arguello slender salamander (Batrachoseps wakei), and buckwheat blue butterfly (Euphilotes spp.) (undescribed), endemic to Santa Barbara County, that, so far, has defied definitive scientific identification.

VSFB biologists first identified the butterfly in 2005, and initially thought it might be a subspecies or otherwise related to the El Segundo blue butterfly, a federally listed endangered species that lives in similar areas along the coast, about 150 miles away.

In 2007, researchers announced it was more likely a new species, but further genetic testing made them unsure. Fast-forward to 2020, when geneticists from the University of Hawaii published that they still don't know what this butterfly is, but they know what it’s not – the El Segundo or any other known blue butterfly, Evans said. It is its own species, but they haven’t officially named it yet.

For now, it is informally called the buckwheat blue butterfly because it lives entirely on, in, and around the seacliff buckwheat plant in Santa Barbara County, Evans said, rarely moving more than 2 feet away from its host plant. It feeds on the plant, finds a mate there, lays eggs there, and lives out its larval and instar stages on or under the plant.

At one point in its development, the larva goes into diapause underground for 10 to 13 months (or longer), depending on the weather. Evans said biologists tracking it have to be quick. The adult males live only about 7 to 9 days, and the females live about 11 to 14 days.

“In the right time of year, we have biologists out on the range for 30 straight days,” he said.

Scientists can tell the overall age of the butterfly by looking at the condition of its fragile wings, which easily tatter with wind and other weather elements. By the end of its brief life, the butterfly’s wings become virtually nonfunctional, and it dies.

Protecting such a rare and limited species as this butterfly means protecting its highly limited habitat. That means not only habitat protection, but also restoration – and even expansion.

If a species is protected under the ESA, expanding territory becomes tricky, if not downright impossible. There is no way to legally change the location of the protected species’ habitat – even if the new spot appeared to be better, Evans said.

But for the buckwheat blue butterfly, being separated from the federally protected El Segundo species has paved the way for habitat expansion. Biologists at VSFB planted buckwheat in new places, and waited for the butterflies to expand their range, Evans said.  When after five years it became apparent that the butterflies weren’t traveling to the new habitat – which, Evans noted, was better than where they were - a biologist actually hand-carried them from Point A to Point B to establish them in the new spot.

“We put quite a bit of money and time into creating new habitat. We did habitat restoration and plantings in new places,” he said, adding that it was good for Vandenberg and so far, seems to be good for the butterfly.

Elsewhere along VSFB's pristine coastline is the perfect habitat for the tidewater goby, a small fish that was placed on the federal ESA list in 1994 and proposed for downgrading to threatened status in 2014.

The tidewater goby needs an estuarine environment that exists in coastal lagoons, where fresh water meets the sea. Habitat desecration from development can push too much saltwater into the lagoons or expunge lagoons all together. VSFB's unspoiled coastline plays an important role in protecting these tiny fish because the lagoons are intact.

These coastal lagoons aren’t the only aquatic habitats that support species in peril at VSFB. Farther inland, vernal pools and other freshwater basins provide habitats for Southwestern pond turtles and amphibians such as the Western spadefoot toad.

The Arguello slender salamander is a relatively new species discovered in 2006 by VSFB-affiliated scientists. It lives in a very small area of the region – maybe 2 to 4 square miles – and spends most of its life underground, Evans said. It needs to stay very moist, and recent droughts have not helped this species thrive. Right now, it is believed to exist solely at VSFB and nearby properties, although biologists are hoping to find it in other areas of the Santa Barbara region.

“It is very narrowly distributed, with very low numbers,” Evans said. “If it was not on Vandenberg Space Force Base, the land it’s on would probably be a golf course or housing development and the animal would be extinct.”

The spadefoot toad needs two distinct habitats to thrive – an aquatic area for breeding and raising tadpoles, and a drier terrestrial area for foraging and estivation – a type of summer hibernation for reptiles and amphibians. Vernal pools provide the aquatic component, and as they dry up the spadefoot burrows into the ground and estivates until it rains again. As of 2023, the Western spadefoot remained under review for federal ESA listing.

And what’s good for salamanders and toads is good for turtles. Protected freshwater habitats at VSFB also provide a home for Southwestern pond turtles, one of two of the West Coast’s only native freshwater turtles.

In 2020, the Western pond turtle was divided into two species, the Northwestern Pond Turtle and the Southwestern Pond Turtle, which is the one that lives in and around VSFB. Both species were recommended for threatened status under the  ESA in 2023 .

But perhaps one of the most amazing stories of what ecological treasures occur on VSFB's massive land mass is that of the Lompoc grasshopper – an insect named after the nearby city, the name of which comes from a Chumash word that means “estuary,” or “where the waters meet.”

Alice Abela, a contracted biologist at VSFB, said the search for the Lompoc grasshopper got serious during a base-wide invertebrate survey in 2004-2005. Scientists collected a grasshopper species that was different that others seen across the base and that looked very similar to the Lompoc species, which was described in 1984 from mounted museum specimens collected in 1909 and 1938.

“No one had ever seen one of these alive,” Abela said of the survey team. So in 2006, two specialists were sent to VSFB to find more. But the trip didn’t turn out as planned.

“Back then we were using Mapquest,” she said. “And it sent them up Harris Grade.”

That road is a narrow, winding bit of mayhem that creeps near VSFB's eastern border. As the scientists were standing outside their vehicle trying to figure out where they were supposed to be, one of them spotted what turned out to be a Lompoc grasshopper in the white shell deposits of the roadbed.

“There was so much skepticism as to whether this was a real species or not,” Abela said. “So it was exciting to find it on Harris Grade. It was kind of serendipitous.”

VSFB also has such shell-filled gravel deposits in its wildfire breaks, she said, so biologists then knew where to look for these insects that are masters of camouflage. And they found them.

“They really like the rocky fire breaks on Vandenberg,” Abela said. “Where the rocks are really white, the grasshoppers are white, and where (the rocks) are gray, they are gray.”

The notion that a grasshopper species not seen alive since 1938 could be found on VSFB may seem surprising to those who don’t study species found on military installations but the biologists who study such areas know better. And VSFB has yet to reveal all of its secrets. There are at least three as-yet unidentified species of Jerusalem crickets on the base, and three undescribed species of flies, among other things.

“Vandenberg is a bit of a Noah’s Ark,” Abela said. “You don’t see such big tracts of undeveloped habitat (elsewhere) in California, and there is a limited pool of people who go out there.”