Local group working to boost Monarch butterfly numbers within BCMUD

On June 3, 2024, several members of the Cat Hollow at Brushy Creek Homeowners Association met near the corner of Great Oaks and Liberty Walk drives to begin preparations for a unique project.

Together with landscape company Urban Dirt, the BCMUD HOA sketched out perimeters for what will become the Butterfly Demonstration Garden.

The garden is part of a much larger project from the Native Plant Society of Texas called the Bring Back the Monarchs to Texas Initiative, which aims to reverse the Monarch butterfly's declining population through an aggressive plan to increase plant life that nurtures the species.

The Brushy Creek MUD Board of Directors approved the landscape change for the Butterfly Demonstration Garden on June 20, 2024. In the next several weeks, crews will plant pearl milkweed vine, antelope horns, and orange butterfly weed, among other species—all of which will encourage Monarch butterflies to stop by on their long migrations to and from their winter home in Mexico.

“It would have been better to have completed the installation of the garden earlier, but the area does have irrigation, which should help the plants survive through July and August,” said project coordinator and Cat Hollow resident Robert Camper. “Once established, the plants should have no need for supplemental water, except in the worst of droughts.”

Camper added the nectar plants will also benefit bees and other pollinators, and migrating Monarchs should be spotted in the garden by September and October.

For much more information on the NPST’s Bring Back the Monarchs to Texas initiative, click here.