The tips of cylindrical leaves in the stand of eucalyptus trees in Bolinas looked as though they were dipped in flames. Upon closer inspection, the flashes of orange seemingly everywhere were the wings of thousands of monarch butterflies, bunching together for warmth in the early morning chill.
“This is so beautiful right here,” said Bolinas resident Ole Schell who grew-up with monarchs on his father’s Bolinas ranch. “I love it when they hang down from the branch.”
Monterey’s famous monarchs may get all the attention, but Bolinas’ annual butterfly convocation is every bit as spectacular. Bolinas’ coastal overwintering site historically draws so many butterflies each year they’re part of the town’s lore.
“There was a time in my youth when you could shake a branch and maybe a thousand would fly off,” Schell said as the sky over his head filled with the darting orange specks of butterflies on the move.
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Schell’s sentimental attachment to the monarchs is what inspired him several years back to convert part of his family ranch into a butterfly sanctuary, filling it with shrubs and nectar plants favored by the monarchs. He was also motivated by the ghastly drop in the monarchs’ population in 2020 — when their numbers plummeted to an estimated 2,000 in California - from traditional highs of three to five million.
Since then, the numbers have rebounded — last year the annual butterfly count calculated an estimated 300,000 statewide — an encouraging sign, though far below historical numbers.
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Schell stood at one of two sites in Bolinas where a forest of eucalyptus draws monarchs each year. After creating the West Marin Monarch Sanctuary on his own ranch, Schell has begun creating similar habitats around Bolinas including the location where he stood gazing up at the branches. He and the band volunteers who make up the West Marin Monarch Sanctuary plan to plant more of the monarch friendly plants at the site.
“This winter we’re going to be working to restore this particular site,” said Audrey Fusco, a restoration ecologist with the West Marin salmon protection group SPAWN. “We’re going to be working to remove the Scotch Broom and French Broom and other non-natives.”
But the location also reveals the challenges.
With the permission of the landowners, Schell recently put up signs on the trees beneath a path of power lines, instructing PG&E to not cut them. But a couple weeks ago, a sub-contractor for the utility cut one of the trees down, exposing the monarchs’ gathering place to the wind. Schell raised money to buy several bushes to temporarily replace the fallen tree.
“Wax myrtle shrubs are going to be a windscreen for this winter to protect this site,” Schell said.
The future of the monarchs in Bolinas is a thorny issue: a movement is afoot to remove many of the non-native eucalyptus trees from the area - which represent a fire hazard and also because eucalyptus are susceptible to toppling over in storms. The conundrum is that native butterflies have taken to the eucalyptus as their preferred habitat.
“We’re concerned that if the eucalyptus are removed in one fell swoop,” Schell explained, “it’ll end the monarch butterfly population in West Marin.”
As Schell stood beneath the canopy of eucalyptus, the branches seemed to bend and drip with clusters of monarchs. With the morning beginning to warm, the left the warmth of their clusters and took wing — bringing the sky to life.
“Isn’t that stunning?” muttered Schell.
Since starting his own sanctuary two years ago, Schell has seen a slight uptick in the monarch population on the ranch - mirroring the statewide rebound. His hope is that his own efforts will spread in the area and hopefully contribute to a further renaissance of Bolinas’ favorite creature
“So that’s the goal,” said Schell as his eyes darted across the sky as if attempting to lay eyes on each butterfly. “To restore the monarch population as much as we can.”
