Oregon winery released sheep in its vineyard, and an endangered butterfly once thought extinct came back

An Oregon winery discovered that one of its best conservation tools had four legs: sheep.

At Van Duzer Vineyards in Dallas, using them to manage the land helped rebuild habitat for the Fender's blue butterfly, a small endangered species once believed extinct.

What happened?

Van Duzer, a Willamette Valley winery known for pinot noir, joined a wider effort to protect the Fender's blue butterfly, Forbes reported. The insect relies on Kincaid's lupine, its native host plant, but its habitat has shrunk dramatically as development and agriculture have expanded across the region.

Bruce Sonnen, the vineyard manager, said, "They originally thought it was extinct." After butterflies were discovered near the vineyard, Van Duzer partnered with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to restore parts of the property, removing invasive vegetation and reintroducing native flowering plants.

In 2012, Sonnen made flash grazing a key part of that work. Instead of depending heavily on mowing, tractors, and fuel, the winery started bringing in 120 to 130 sheep annually to graze through prairie and oak habitat.

"The sheep come and eat all that plant material, and it basically goes out the back end of the sheep and naturally fertilizes the ground," he said.

The property went years without any confirmed sightings before scouts finally found one adult female Fender's blue there in 2014.

Why does it matter?

The sheep-based approach allowed the winery to manage heavy plant growth with less fossil-fuel-powered equipment while creating better conditions for native flowers and pollinators.

Sonnen told Forbes the gains reached beyond one endangered insect: "It's not just the butterfly that we're increasing habitat for. It's all these other species that are having a direct effect from taking these areas back from farming or blackberry overgrowth and getting them back to how they were."

Other wildlife has benefited, too, including acorn woodpeckers, which now have several breeding pairs on the estate.

Visitors can also take nature walks on the property during the summer.

What are people saying?

Looking back on the long-awaited breakthrough, Sonnen recalled the pivotal moment in 2014: "They were out scouting and finding all these silver butterflies and kind of getting dejected. Then all of a sudden one guy says, 'Hey, I think I got one.'"

"I swear to God, they probably took close to 100, 120 pictures," he said.

He also connected the project to the winery's larger way of thinking: "There's a little magic in all of the steps. You can't make good wine without it."

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