Butterfly on a bomb range: Endangered Species Act at work in US

Soldiers prepare to leave a firing range at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. In the unlikely setting of the world’s most populated military installation, amid all the regimented chaos, you’ll find the Endangered Species Act at work.

There, as a 400-pound explosive resounds in the distance, a tiny St. Francis Satyr butterfly flits among the splotchy leaves, ready to lay as many as 100 eggs. At one point, this brown and frankly dull-looking butterfly could be found in only one place on Earth: Fort Bragg’s artillery range

A St.Francis satyr butterfly rests on a leaf in a swamp at Frot Bragg in North Carolina. Now, thanks in great measure to the 46-year-old federal act, they are found in eight more places — though all of them are on other parts of the Army base. And if all goes well, biologists will have just seeded habitat No. 10.

One of Earth’s rarest butterfly species, there are maybe 3,000 St. Francis Satyrs.

Nick Haddad, left, watches a captive-bred female St. Francis' satyr butterfly fly off after it was released into the wild at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. Haddad has been studying the rare butterfly for more than 15 years.

A chrysalis of a St. Francis' satyr butterfly clings to a sedge blade in a controlled greenhouse facility at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. Biologists studying the rare butterfly are working to increase its range and population

Research assistants David Pavlik, left, and Emily Price, roll out an inflatable rubber dam in an effort to create habitat suitable for the rare St. Francis' satyr butterfly, at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. The butterflies prefer wet meadows created by beavers

Nick Haddad heads to a swamp in search of the rare St. Francis' satyr butterfly, at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. Haddad has studied the vanishing butterflies in hopes of understanding why they are disappearing, and why they are worth saving.

Another species found at Fort Bragg — the red-cockaded woodpecker — is a case in point.

The small woodpecker is a member of the original class of 1967. It may soon fly off the endangered list or, more likely, graduate to the less-protected threatened list.

The woodpeckers live only in longleaf pines, which have been disappearing across the Southeast for more than a century, due to development and suppression of fires. When naturally occurring fires were tamped down, other plants and brush would crowd them out.

Wildlife biologist Gabe Pinkston prepares to release a red-cockaded woodpecker back to a long leaf pine forest after collecting data on it at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. The bird was captured, measured and banded as part of an ongoing study of the endangered species.

A red-cockaded woodpecker is seen on a long leaf pine at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. The woodpecker was one of the first birds protected under the Endangered Species Act of 1973

An artificial nesting cavity is seen in a long leaf pine in a forest at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. The cavity offers nesting and roosting space for the red-cockaded woodpecker while discouraging it's use by larger birds or snakes.

Smoke rises from a log a few days after a prescribed burn in a long leaf pine forest at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. Frequent prescribed burns are beneficial to the endangered red-cockaded woodpecker and the St. Francis' satyr butterfly.