Article taken from the Santa Barbara News Press 
Published with permission

The Butterfly Effect

Return of the monarchs transforms Ellwood grove into a place of beauty

By By ANNA DAVISON 
NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER

02/17/04

Up to 40,000 monarch butterflies arrived this year to roost in the Ellwood eucalyptus groves -- a comeback from 2003, when the numbers were much lower, experts say.

Walt Sakai, a biology professor at Santa Monica College, tagged 5,500 monarchs in December, at the peak of the migration. The monarchs make their way to the coast of California in October, roosting in groves that provide water, nectar and shelter from the wind. They mate, and by March, they fly back inland to lay their eggs and die. Four or five generations later, they return to the coast.

Scientists disagree on how far the wandering monarchs travel. Adrian Wenner, a UCSB professor emeritus of natural history, said he has seen them lay their eggs on milkweed in the foothills and backcountry of Santa Barbara County. When the days get shorter and the nights get colder, he said, they start moving toward the coast.

"I can show you the caterpillars in Santa Barbara County all summer long," Mr. Wenner said. "In the fall, the monarchs migrate, but they don't navigate. They don't know where they're going. They behave like insects behave."

Mr. Sakai is in the majority of scientists who say the butterflies travel as far as Oregon, Nevada and Arizona to lay their eggs. An Ellwood monarch, after all, has been found as far away as the Grand Canyon.

"A lot of Santa Barbara butterflies stick around and don't go very far, but the tagging shows there are some that get a fair distance away," Mr. Sakai said.

East of the Rocky Mountains, biologists say, the butterflies head south in the fall to the state of Michoacan, Mexico. There, they number in the tens of millions.

The largest monarch grove in Santa Barbara County is on private land at the former Chevron oil and gas plant on the Gaviota coast. It is not open to the public.

The Ellwood grove, once a roosting spot for up to 100,000 monarchs, will be preserved as part of a future land swap between UCSB, the city of Goleta and the county. The grove is on the ocean bluffs at the end of Coronado Drive in Goleta.

"We only have another week or so before all the monarchs are gone," Mr. Wenner said. "They're starting to leave already."