(KRT) - Karner blue butterflies are an endangered species. A state biologist wants to increase their numbers by creating more oak savannas and pine barrens, where they thrive.

John Lerg has a plan to increase the population of endangered Karner blue butterflies in Michigan. The state Department of Natural Resources biologist says their numbers will grow if we create more of the oak savannas and pine barrens where these tiny creatures thrive.

About the size of a postage stamp, adult Karner blues feed on wild lupines and other flowers. But the caterpillars feed exclusively on wild lupine leaves, and loss of habitat is threatening the Karners with extinction.

I have a much easier, faster and cheaper way for the DNR to ensure the future of this rare creature - make it one of the animals we can hunt.

Wait. Before you reach for that straitjacket, hear me out.

About 80 years ago, there were a half-million deer in the United States. Today there are about 20 million. Fifty years ago the Great Lakes had lost most of their top predators. Today, they abound with salmon, steelhead and walleyes.

In 1960, the only turkeys in Michigan were farm-raised. Now wild turkeys are so common that farmers complain about crop damage.

And how about the explosion of striped bass in inland lakes around the South, the return of elk to Michigan and trout stream restoration everywhere?

In every case, the animals made a comeback because hunters and anglers got behind the effort to increase their numbers.

I guarantee you that if the Legislature added the Karner blue butterfly to the list of game animals, within weeks we would see the establishment of a hunters' organization called Karners Forever.

In a year, internal dissension would cause it to splinter and give rise to new groups called Karners Unlimited, the Karner Butterfly Society and the National Wild Karners Federation.

The groups would hold fund-raising dinners for Karner habitat projects, complete with silent auctions where people could bid on paint-by-number pictures of a bull Karner blue perched on a lupine, game-ranch hunts for trophy Karners ("As big as a matchbook!"), and teeny-weeny shotguns with a butterfly engraved in gold on the action.

Quick to sniff a profit, Remington, Federal and Winchester Corps. would churn out minuscule shotguns at $1,500 each. No. 15 shot shells, the size of an allergy-relief capsule, would sell for $49.50 for a box of 25. To curry favor with hunters, the companies would announce grants to Karner rehabilitation programs and donate products for auction by the hunters' groups.

Outdoors writers would extol the thrill of Karner hunting and popularize the species ("We were so close that we could hear the rustle of trembling wings and knew that one false step could start a deadly stampede.")

Eventually, there would be so much publicity that Harvard University would establish the Nabokov Chair of Karner Blue Studies in honor of Vladimir Nabokov, the famed author of "Lolita" and lifelong lepidoterist who identified the species when he was curator of Harvard's butterfly collection in the 1940s.

Harvard would raise millions of dollars to extend the Karner's range, gaining support from the National Wildlife Federation, Sierra Club and other environmental organizations that hope to get grant money.

By 2050, the Karner blue would be the most ubiquitous butterfly from northern California to Labrador, its one-time place on the endangered species list only an unpleasant memory.

But there are downsides to my plan. The DNR probably would hire 22 more butterfly biologists and whine about a lack of funding to pay their salaries. And you know that two days into the first Karner hunting season, someone would throw wild lupines out in the woods and start a baiting controversy.

Then the Michigan Wild Lupine Growers Association would threaten to sue the DNR over crop losses to hordes of ravenous butterflies, forcing the DNR to extend the Karner season, increase the daily bag limit to 10,000 and issue unlimited Karner doe permits.

(Males are purplish with black edges on the upper side of their wings; the females' wings are deep blue to blue-gray with orange crescents on the undersides.)

States where Karners had been introduced would complain that this exotic species was driving indigenous butterflies to extinction, setting off a battle between those states and others where Karner hunting was economically important.

Congress would become even more polarized than now, splitting between pro- and anti-Karner states. The president would be blamed for the mess, and to distract the voters as the election neared, he would invade France, claiming we had to protect the wine and cheese industry from terrorists.

The French would throw up their hands in disgust, say, "You want it? You got it," and Americans would wind up paying $3 trillion to bail out a country whose economy is in worse shape than ours.

Aw, forget it. Putting the Karners on the game list probably isn't worth the risk. Maybe we should just go with John Lerg's plan after all.

If you would like to help, for $10-$55 you can buy great prints and posters featuring Michigan's natural beauties on the DNR Web site,  www.michigan.gov/dnr .

Profits from these sales go to the non-game fund, as does $25 of the $35 cost of the special Michigan non-game fund license plates.

Or you can just stand back and do nothing. But when we find ourselves the sole support of 50 million Frenchmen, don't come crying to me.

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 Detroit Free Press