I met Sheila Boone, the 5th great granddaughter of Daniel Boone. She told me about the rapid decline in the monarch population and inspired us to join her in saving the California Western Monarch and their habitat. That inspired me to take action. I also could not bear to think of my descendants seeing only pictures of the monarch and that made me determined to do something!

I soon encouraged my family and friends to help. For many years now we have been encouraging people to plant milkweed, the host plant for the adult monarch butterfly. I found resources for milkweed, nectar plants and other pollinator plants and encouraged their use in gardens big and small. This is how I came across Moosa Creek Nursery, where I can get native milkweed grown without the use of harmful pesticides.

In the early years Joe and I took live stock: egg, caterpillar, chrysalis and adult monarchs and made visits to many Orange County classrooms, and other organizations. Eventually we were invited to organizations in Los Angeles as well.

Later we attended a seminar at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, where we met and networked with others who shared our passion, and discussed the importance of the monarch as a pollinator in our food chain. Some of those we met were authors who presented us with their books; in turn we placed them in the hands of many more families.

Western Monarch Guardians is a group of people who share the same passion for saving the monarchs. We have partnered with Mile Square Regional Park in Fountain Valley, CA for the past eight years where we hold Monarch Butterfly Events. Joe wanted people to be able to get up close and personal with the butterflies at these events. So we purchased a tent, enclosed it and then purchased different species of butterflies from a local breeder. This tent enclosure became very popular, and is now called 'Joe's Butterfly House'. It gives the young and old an opportunity to visit the butterflies and is a perfect setting for a photo-op!

Saturday, February 11th, 2017 from, 10 AM to 2 PM at the Forest shelter in Mile Square Regional Park we will celebrate Monarch Butterfly Day. Here you can learn about the Monarchs and there are lots of fun activities for children. You can also celebrate and learn about a bill passed in 2004 announcing every February 5th would be ' California Western Monarch Day'

 

Yes, this is the fulfillment of a dream of Sheila Boone, and something we worked on for many years. Sheila wrote and submitted the resolution. We greatly appreciate the help of assembly man Ken Maddox from Orange County, and State Senator McPherson. The Bill was unanimously passed in 2004. We're really proud that this dream could be fulfilled.

 

At the Monarch Grove in Pismo Beach. This year they will have their celebration on February 4th.

 

There has been a small increase in the monarch population, and awareness is increasing as we see larger and larger attendance at our events each year. But we have a long way to go to recover a healthy, sustainable population and to be sure that our future generations will have the opportunity to view live monarchs in the wild.