LOOKING FORWARD TO A JANUARY 2026 SUMMIT? STAY TUNED FOR DETAILS!
Contact us at westernmonarchadvocates@gmail.com
Welcome to the Western Monarch Advocates (WMA) Interstate Website
2023 INTERNATIONAL
WESTERN MONARCH SUMMIT
FIELD TRIPS & WORKSHOPS
These Activities are Free to Participate.*
Limited Space, Register Today!
*only one ticket of each event per registrant
Pismo Beach/San Luis Obispo, California
January 20 - 22, 2023
These activities are provided as part of this Summit. There is limited space, so please register for these events ASAP.
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NOTE: Space is limited for the field trips and workshops and it is first-come, first-serve. If the workshop/field trip you are registering for does not appear on this page, the workshop is full. We are sorry for any inconvenience.
FIELD TRIPS
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TRILOGY OVERWINTERING GROVE
The Woodlands Village Monarch Habitat is found on the Nipomo Mesa in the center of the Trilogy Monarch Dunes housing development. As part of the mitigation of the development of this parcel of land over twenty years ago, 19 acres surrounding the traditional aggregation area were preserved as a sanctuary.
Locally known as “The Monarch Dunes Butterfly Habitat," it is the first overwintering site in California operating as privately owned public open space, that is managed by volunteers in concert with their community’s HOA, land developers, and the county of San Luis Obispo.
A special acknowledgement to Dr. Kingston Leong who originally designed the habitat and trained the volunteers who now maintain it.
(35 person limit)
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NOTE: Both the Saturday and Sunday field trips to Trilogy Overwintering Grove on Saturday are now full.
PISMO OVERWINTERING GROVE
The Pismo State Beach Monarch Grove is a publicly owned overwintering site for monarch butterflies. This is one of the most well-known groves and generally has one of the largest overwintering western monarch populations.
The grove is a part of Pismo State Beach and is located on HWY1 between Grover Beach and Pismo Beach.
(35 person limit)
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NOTE: Both the Saturday and Sunday field trips to Pismo Overwintering Grove are now full.
WORKSHOPS
POLLINATOR GARDENS WORKSHOP
The Pollinator Gardens workshop will address all aspects of creating habitat (food, shelter and water) for western monarchs, bees and other pollinators.
Tom Landis will facilitate the workshop which consist of Powerpoint presentations followed by
discussion periods. Tom will start by presenting the latest information on creating Monarch Waystations in the Pacific Northwest, and will discuss both backyard gardens and community scale pollinator projects.
*Carianne Funicelli of Strategic Habitats in Tucson, AZ will talk about her site-specific approach to designing plant palettes.
Steve Plath of the Southwest Monarch Study will also present their regional planting guides for the different plant communities in Arizona and Nevada.
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*This presentation will be virtual. Despite their unavailability to attend the conference, we feel the topic of their presentation is critical for our understanding of Western monarchs. Most of these remote speakers will be live zoom presentations with the opportunity for questions and answers.
PROPAGATION OF NATIVE MILKWEEDS WORKSHOP
The Propagation of Native Milkweeds workshop will be facilitated by Tom Landis. It will begin with Bobby Gendron discussing his life-long interest in milkweeds and presenting a visual tour of the native milkweeds in the western states.
Next, Tom will share his experiences in growing milkweeds in the Pacific Northwest, and go through the basics of both seed propagation and growing milkweeds from rhizomes. This discussion will include the very latest information on seed collection and propagation of early growing milkweeds including California milkweed and heartleaf milkweeds.
Steve Plath of the Gila Native Plant Nursery will talk about his methods for propagating milkweeds of the Southwest.
Kenneth Abernathy who runs Caterpillar Chow in southern CA will talk about propagating native milkweeds of southern CA, with an emphasis on Asclepias eriocarpa.
