Butterflies and Parking Problems
City of Goleta Hosts Wednesday Night Meeting for Neighbors of Coronado Butterfly Preserve
The only thing outnumbering the 50,000 or so monarch butterflies in the Ellwood area’s eucalyptus groves this past winter were the countless hordes of human beings who drove in cars and tour buses down Coronado Drive, parked on the once-quiet residential street, and then trampled through the woods to catch a glimpse of the annual insect migration, which lasts from October to February. So say neighbors of the Coronado Butterfly Preserve, and the resulting concerns — which range from rude visitors blocking driveways and bus drivers who leave engines running to blocked mailboxes, moved trash cans, requests to use private bathrooms, and damage to the groves — will be aired on Wednesday night during a 6:30 to 8 p.m. community workshop inside Ellwood School’s multipurpose room, at 7686 Hollister Avenue.
“It’s just become this big magnet,” said Goleta’s spokesperson Valerie Kushnerov, who believes that this winter’s warm weather, a big butterfly turnout, a well-known docent program, and the increasing power of the Internet to locate the groves combined into a “perfect storm” of stressing factors. “The city is really interested in partnering with the neighborhood to work through this issue.” Wednesday night’s meeting is part of an ongoing effort to develop a management plan that deals with the increased use.
“It’s a constant rotation of cars coming and going, coming and going,” confirmed Susan Ham, who’s watched a steadily growing tide of visitors since she moved to Coronado Drive in 1969, but said that this past season was the busiest yet. “There has to be at least 1,000 cars a day during the season, and they all try to park on the 300 and 400 blocks of Coronado,” said Ham, adding that there’s also four to five full-sized tour buses a day. “It isn’t just on the weekends — this is seven days a week, from 8:30 in the mornings till five o’clock at night.” Residents can’t even park in front of their homes on Thanksgiving or Christmas, complained Ham, explaining, “It grew beyond control before anyone had a plan.”
