Monarch butterfly on milkweed | Sue Anderson

Volunteers monitor showy milkweed near Steelhead Falls.

Monarch Way Stations at
Steelhead Falls and Foley Waters

In the fall of 2016, in cooperation with Monarch Advocates of Central Oregon, the Bureau of Land Management, and  United States Forest Service, twenty volunteers with Friends and Neighbors of the Deschutes Canyon Area planted 350 showy milkweed plants in two sites along the Middle Deschutes River.  These sites were weeded and monitored in May 2017.  It appeared that 233 plants had survived the winter.  During that summer, we left buckets at both sites for volunteers to water the plants whenever they hiked  Steelhead Falls Trail or Foley Waters Trail.

In September 2017, FANs volunteers weeded and monitored the plants to see how many survived the hot summer months. The overall survival rate was 62%, with the site downstream of Steelhead Falls being most successful.  We measured all the plants, including the leafless stalks for those that were already dormant.  We had one "Super Milkweed" that reached 55 cm, or 21.7 inches!

Donna Reinaker is the new FANs Monarch Way Station Coordinator.  She will be assisted by Renee West. 

FANs volunteers will monitor for monarch butterflies, eggs and caterpillars at Steelhead Falls and Foley Waters Monarch Way Stations.  Please contact Donna at reinaker@hotmail.com if you are interested in joining the monitoring effort.

Keep your fingers crossed that some migrating beauties find our Monarch Waystations!