Recent decades have seen extensive global declines in pollinator species, which can in turn reduce agricultural yields, hinder regeneration following disturbance, and alter plant communities

Within military lands, where training activities may cause regular ecological disturbance, the maintenance of pollinator assemblages is a key part of strategies to prevent land degradation, facilitate community recovery, and enable continued use of military lands over the long term. The eastern regal fritillary (argynnis idalia idalia), a large and brightly colored nymphalid butterfly, is one pollinator species of high conservation concern. A single population remains, found solely at fort indiantown GAP national guard training center (ftig), a military installation in annville, pennsylvania, following its extirpation across much of eastern north america. The current situation is precarious, and the U.S. Fish and wildlife service (USFWS) has proposed the eastern regal fritillary be listed as endangered under the endangered species act. An opportunity now exists to work in advance of any potential final rule listing to seek win-win opportunities for advancing the recovery of the eastern regal fritillary while maintaining military training and readiness. Temple university and the USFWS have both collaborated with ftig for more than a decade to improve understanding and management of the eastern regal fritillary. In this project, we propose to deepen the collaboration among the three organizations, with the overall aim of reducing the extinction risk of the eastern regal fritillary and other pollinators and prairie-dependent species found at ftig. To accomplish this aim while benefitting military training and readiness at ftig, we will lay the foundation for the establishment of populations of this at-risk species off the installation. Our specific objectives will be to advance prairie restoration, evaluate the suitability of other potential reintroduction sites, improve the success of captive rearing, and monitor theeffectiveness of these restoration, surveying, and rearing efforts. This project will advance scientific understanding and improve implementation by employing an adaptive management approach in which progress is quantitatively monitored and findings guide next steps. This project will improve the resiliency of the eastern regal fritillary while also proactively working to reduce potential future risks to military training and readiness. The scientific findings attained and on-the-ground conservation completed in this project will advance efforts to establish redundant populations off the installation. This will provide a significant benefit to ftig by initiating processes to share responsibility for managing the species at other locations and with other partners. In this way, the project will also anticipate and counter known risks to future military training activities, and thereby improve the predictability of future training on the installation.