Update on Monarch Refueling Station

In September of 2024, DEC member Gary Liska, in partnership with a dedicated group of volunteers, established the Cape Henlopen Migratory Monarch Refueling Station in Cape Henlopen State Park to help stabilize the declining monarch butterfly population. The refueling station bursts with pollinator-friendly plants throughout the summer and was designed as a restorative stop for monarch butterflies migrating southwest to Mexico for the winter. “Our plan was to offer the monarchs of Sussex County a haven where they could eat, lay eggs and raise their young. If we did a really good job, the three generations of the summer monarchs would never want to leave, and that’s exactly what happened,” Liska says. 
 

Based on weekly summer checks performed by volunteers, including Delaware Master Naturalist Julie Callahan, a total of 238 monarch caterpillars were counted in the garden this past season, with 58 counted in a single day on August 6. Once this data was collected, it was shared with the Monarch Larva Monitoring Project, an organization that works in collaboration with the University of Wisconsin to track monarch populations throughout the country. “It generally takes about three years for a new perennial garden to fully flourish,” Callahan says. “In less than a year the seaside goldenrod and milkweed varieties were superstars, nourishing hundreds of caterpillars and insects. Tucked inside wooded Cape Henlopen State Park, the monarchs still found our garden.”
 

In addition to the original refueling station, a second site has been established on the shore of the Delaware Bay, including 125 seaside goldenrod plants. The second site not only provides fuel to migrating monarchs and other pollinators, but also offers an additional benefit, thanks to its notably deep root system. “The dune site is a pilot project to evaluate sand retention,” Liska says. “If successful, there is a larger initiative called the Delaware Gold Coast, where goldenrod would be planted along the Delaware Coast east of Dover down to Cape Henlopen.”
 

Liska says the group will use the winter months to assess their first-year efforts and plan for the year ahead, with the hopes of expanding not only the garden, but also public awareness of their mission. To learn more about the refueling station and how you can get involved, visit monarchfoodandfuelgardens.com.