Habitat restoration is at the core of our work here at the Audubon Center at Debs Park and this November, we are retiring one of our sites from our care: Monarch Alley. In doing so, we wanted to take a moment to reflect on how much it has changed with everyone's efforts!

Monarch Alley is accessible from our Center by going through the gates towards the Butterfly Loop and taking the steps down on the right. As the name implies, it is a site dedicated to Western Monarch butterflies, which lay their eggs on Narrowleaf Milkweed. As a result, the site is host to a number of Narrowleaf Milkweed dotting the path, their bright green leaves vivid against the ground. The rest of the site is full of California Roses, Hummingbird Sage, Sticky Monkey-flowers, California Fushia and other plants dedicated to the palate of Monarch Butterflies, providing them with a resting stop and food for their migration. In summer, you will often find their bright orange wings fluttering around!

However, Monarch Alley was not always a home for Monarch Butterflies.

In fact, there was a time it was referred to as Death Valley. It was a barren site with three main obstacles: Eucalyptus Trees, toxic soil and too much shade. 

The site had been planted twice previously and had an established grove of Coyote Melons, but the entrance to the site is surrounded by a slope of Eucalyptus trees, which provided too much shade for young plants and the fallen leaves of the Eucalyptus trees leached chemicals in the soil that discouraged plants from growing. 

Thus, plants that had been planted near the Eucalyptus trees were growing slower and were smaller than in other areas planted in the park - with the exception of the Hummingbird Sage, to our surprise! Should you come down to the site, you can see for yourself where the impact of the Eucalyptus trees are most felt among those plants.

Farther down the path, there is more sunlight and that section is home to those aforementioned California native plants, such as California Wildroses and Narrowleaf Milkweed. This area is exceptionally beautiful in the morning, where the sunlight and shade create an almost ethereal sight. It's stunning to see the change in this site from Death Valley where nothing grew to the flourishing Monarch Alley that it is now. None of this would've been possible without everyone's help and we highly encourage you to come take a look at how everyone's hard work has born fruit!