In 1994, the butterfly was rediscovered by Rick Rogers, Rudi Mattoni, and Timothy Dahlum at the Defense Fuel Support Point in San Pedro, which is located on the northern (inland) side of the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

[5] G. lygdamus palosverdesensis persists particularly on the Palos Verdes Peninsula, 15 miles south of Los Angeles, in a coastal sage scrub habitat.

The entire subspecies was originally thought to be particular only to the locoweed or rattlepod (Astragalus trichopodus lonchus), but the population rediscovered in 1994 used common deerweed (Lotus scoparius) as its larval food plant.

It is rare to see the Palos Verdes blue far from its home food patch, but research shows that males cover more distance and have longer periods of flight.

Predation by western yellowjackets (Vespula pensylvanica) on the Palos Verdes blue has also been observed at the Defense Fuel Point location.

The main threat to the Palos Verdes blue has been habitat destruction due to weeds and rototilling, which has negative effects on the essential larval food plants.

[7] In 1982, the city of Rancho Palos Verdes bulldozed the then most extensive known habitat of the butterfly to build a baseball field, an act believed to have been a principal cause of the die-off of the subspecies before its rediscovery in 1994.

[4] Particular sites of reintroduction and rehabilitation of the Palos Verdes blue include Defense Fuel Support Point in San Pedro and the Linden H. Chandler Preserve.

[4] In conjunction with other organizations, the Palos Verdes Peninsula Land Conservancy is installing and maintaining coastal sage scrub habitat on the slopes around the fuel tanks to benefit the blue butterfly.

[12] Since that time, the Defense Logistics Agency, which operates the facility, has funded habitat restoration and a breeding program for the blue butterfly.

Honey, produced on the premises, is provided to the captive rearing program so the butterflies are able to feed on the same food source as its wild companions.

This type of modeling has proved inconclusive mainly because the Palos Verdes blue utilizes habitat so variably, depending on climatic and successional changes.

The Youth Environmental Service program of the Palos Verdes / South Bay Audubon Society and other volunteer groups have provided help weeding and establishing habitat for the butterfly.

The Youth Environmental Service (YES) program started in 2012 and focuses on conserving the Linden H. Chandler Preserve, where they work on restoring native plants for the Palos Verdes blue butterfly.