Laura Velkei, founder of Project Monarch L.A., said volunteers planted the habitat in the Victory Memorial Grove area of Elysian Park in order to support the black and orange butterflies.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe more people that are putting their hands in the ground … getting a crush on a caterpillar or a butterfly, all those things connect us more deeply to nature than any other conversation could possibly do,\u201d Velkei said. \u201cHow do you not love a monarch butterfly? They\u2019re just amazing.”<\/p>\n
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Volunteers gather for a group photo at Elysian Park in Los Angeles. <\/p>\n
(<\/p>\n
Courtesy Project Monarch L.A. <\/p>\n
)<\/p>\n
The planting event was co-organized by Friends of Elysian Park<\/a>, which has worked for the past few years to beautify this portion of the park, planting oak trees, agaves and more.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve really kind of brought it back to a beautiful natural state, and I think the community ends up taking better care of it because of that,\u201d Sakae Koyama, co-president of Friends of Elysian Park, told LAist.<\/p>\n Philip Murphy, co-president of Friends of Elysian Park, said he tried to propagate dozens of milkweed plants for the park a couple years back but they didn\u2019t take. So he was happy to work with Velkei and Project Monarch L.A. to try again.<\/p>\n The monarch habitat even got its own art installation in the form of local artist Katrina Alexy\u2019s orange totems. They\u2019re meant to draw attention to the need for more milkweed in our region.<\/p>\n If you\u2019d like to sign up for future Project Monarch L.A. volunteer events, head over to their website<\/a>. You can also visit Santa Monica Mountains Fund for tips on how to grow milkweed at home<\/a>.<\/p>\n