Students Save Native Butterfly Habitat at UC Berkeley

A pile of wilting plants behind a UC Berkeley construction site sparked an urgent rescue mission that brought together students, activists, and nature lovers for a weekend of hope.

Rosetta Wang, founder of the Wild Harvest and Restoration Fund, discovered mature California pipevines uprooted and dying in the sun last Friday afternoon. The plants are the sole food source and breeding ground for California pipevine swallowtail butterfly caterpillars.

The vines had been removed to make way for new clean energy infrastructure replacing the campus's aging fossil fuel system. UC Berkeley's existing energy system is nearly obsolete and produces the single largest source of campus emissions.

Within hours of Wang's social media appeal, a team dubbed the "Pipevine Posse" mobilized in an Oakland backyard. Armed with soil, compost, planters, and determination, the volunteers worked through the weekend to save the plants.

"These plants were exposed. They would probably be dead within the next few days," said Alyssa Pun, a UC Berkeley undergraduate and researcher studying Conservation and Resource Management at the Leong Lab.

The team submerged the vines in large bins with drainage holes, keeping the soil moist and placing them under shade. Their plan goes beyond simple rescue: they intend to propagate the vines into many new plants through careful cultivation.

Arman Omidavr, a botany major and Botany Club member, explained how stem cells at nodes along the vines will sprout completely new shoots and roots. Each can become its own individual plant, multiplying their rescue effort many times over.

Starting this fall, the team will begin a careful watering regime. Once new shoots emerge, they'll propagate cuttings that will be ready for replanting during the cool dormant season.

The Ripple Effect

UC Berkeley plans to replant the original vines along Strawberry Creek once construction finishes, potentially expanding the habitat beyond its original size. Meanwhile, the student rescue effort could produce hundreds of new pipevine plants for distribution across the Bay Area.

The volunteers will give away plants for free in October. Wang is already scouting creek beds, parks, and backyards as potential homes for the new vines.

While neither the butterfly nor the vine faces extinction, the students understand something deeper. Biodiversity gives ecosystems resilience against climate change, offering more chances that some species will survive rising temperatures.

"What we don't realize about biodiversity is that once it's gone, it's gone," Omidavr noted.

For first-time volunteer Mamodou, the weekend offered an introduction to conservation work and the California pipevine butterfly. His reason for joining was simple: "I thought planting and saving some plants, helping out others and hanging out with friends is a fun time, so why not?"

From a discarded pile of dying vines, a new generation of habitat protectors is growing alongside the plants they're saving.