Western Monarch Habitat Recovery Program

One of the most important and direct ways that we can benefit monarchs and other pollinators is to improve habitat by providing drifts of milkweed and nectar plants. The nursery has expanded the quantity of nectar plants and the variety of species grown in recent years. We plant nectar plants at our own floodplain restoration project sites and also help local schools and other organizations establish pollinator gardens in an effort to help recover habitat for the Western monarch butterfly and other pollinators. 

Each winter we grow hundreds of nectar plants in the SPAWN Nursery to be planted at our own restoration project sites. We also received riparian wildflower habitat kits from The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, which contain native nectar plant plugs, in 2021, 2022, and 2023. Between fall 2021 and spring 2024 SPAWN added thousands of nectar plants to our Tocaloma and Roy’s Riffles habitat restoration sites. 

Additionally, we have planted pollinator gardens around our nursery at Tocaloma and at the entrance to the Roy’s Riffles site.

During the winter propagation season, we also propagate milkweed and nectar plants with 3rd and 4th graders at several elementary schools in Marin County. Most of the milkweed and nectar plants grown by students are taken home by students and teachers or given away through our Narrow-leaf Milkweed Give-Away program to interested gardeners and to community-based monarch waystation projects. Some of the plants grown at local schools remain right at the school where they were grown and are planted in school habitat gardens. 

In addition to planting nectar plants at our own restoration sites and propagating native milkweed and nectar plants with elementary school students at schools, SPAWN is installing habitat gardens and monarch waystations on school grounds. In spring 2020 Audrey Fusco, SPAWN Nursery Manager and Restoration Ecologist, and Charlotte Torgovitsky, founder of Home Ground Habitats Nursery, launched a program called “Bringing Nature to School”. The program supports the creation of native habitat gardens in schoolyards. The objectives are to provide students with opportunities for hands-on learning in nature while also improving habitat for wildlife. School garden program partners SPAWN and Home Ground Habitats donate plants and other supplies, design garden spaces and provide advice and assistance with preparing the garden site, and work with students and teachers to plant the habitat garden.

During the past three school years the Bringing Nature to School program has created eight new monarch waystation gardens on school grounds within Marin County. The first habitat garden created through the program was built by the 4th grade class at Glenwood Elementary, located in San Rafael. Under the guidance of teacher Julie Ryan, the students cleared a weedy patch of ground near the entrance to the school and planted the garden with milkweed, nectar plants, and native grasses on the last day of school prior to the pandemic shut-down. In September of 2020 the garden was visited by monarchs, and the milkweed patch was full of caterpillars. During the school year of 2020-2021, during the pandemic, students were sometimes able to meet small groups in the newly created garden. Teachers let us know that watching the new garden grow and fill in during their visits to the school brightened their day.

Each garden created through the Bringing Nature to School program is adapted to the local conditions of each school to maximize benefits to wildlife. Another school garden, located at the Lagunitas school and San Geronimo Community Center, was created in combination with a salmon habitat restoration project. An old storage shed and sandbox were removed from a former playground area on the banks of Larsen Creek. These were removed to reduce sand from escaping and pouring into the creek. The site was transformed into a habitat oasis for pollinators, birds, and other wildlife and can be used as a teaching space and a place that community members and students can enjoy nature. One of our nursery volunteers, Bob Frank, added a bench to the site so that visitors can relax and enjoy a view of Larsen creek. 

The SPAWN Nursery donates plants to support the creation of the new waystation and in past years we have donated milkweed and nectar plants to various organizations and businesses in Marin County, including supporting pollinator habitat at the College of Marin Kentfield campus, the O’Hanlon Center for the Arts, Fernwood, and a local assisted living center. Our program also supports the West Marin Monarch Sanctuary in Bolinas through help with garden design and donations of native nectar plants, shrubs, trees, and other habitat plants. 

For additional information about efforts to restore habitat for Western monarchs in Marin County please visit the Marin Monarch Working Group (MMWG) website. SPAWN serves as the fiscal sponsor for the MMWG, you can donate to our collaborative conservation efforts to enhance monarch overwintering habitats in West Marin here.

For more ways to help save Western monarchs, visit Xerces and Monarch Joint Venture. Further information about milkweed planting guidelines and other tips on how to support monarch butterflies can be found on the Xerces website.