Two butterflies, the Dakota skipper and the Poweshiek skipperling, have been proposed for protection under the Endangered Species Act due to steep population declines, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The Service has proposed the Dakota skipper as a threatened species. Found in Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and Canada, the Dakota skipper has experienced a dramatic decline in numbers and no longer occurs on half the sites where previously found. The Poweshiek skipperling butterfly, once found in eight states and Canada, is proposed as endangered and occurs only in a few native prairie remnants in Wisconsin and Michigan, and in Manitoba, Canada. Surveys indicate that Poweshiek skipperlings are gone from nearly 90 percent of the sites where they were previously found. Under the Endangered Species Act, endangered species are plants and animals that are in danger of becoming extinct. Threatened species are those that may become endangered in the foreseeable future. Charlene Bessken of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Ecological Services South Dakota Field Office in Pierre discussed why these butterflies have been disappearing.