More than 70 volunteers recently appeared at the Goleta Butterfly Grove on Ellwood Mesa to plant trees and save butterflies.

Some, like 5-year-old Sofia Whitcraft, even brought their own shovels.

For the next few months, volunteers can come to Ellwood Mesa to help clear brush, dig holes, and plant trees. By planting native seedlings and young potted eucalyptus trees, volunteers are working to make the site a safer and more inviting one for migrating monarch butterflies.

After the planting, UCSB students will come to the grove to connect the new trees to the drip irrigation system, through which they will be watered until the rain starts in wintertime. 

The next volunteer day is on Sept. 27, and later dates can be found on the city of Goleta’s website.

Abe Powell, co-founder and CEO of the Bucket Brigade, is the newest leader in the city’s years-long project of the restoration of Ellwood. The Bucket Brigade joined the cause in November 2024, and since then has planted more than 2,000 native seedlings as well as more than 150 eucalyptus trees. 

“We like to think in terms of task, purpose, and end state,” Powell said. “The task is to restore this grove to a condition where it will support the butterfly winter nesting population again.”

Last year was dismal for the butterfly grove. During the overwintering period, from about December 2024 to February 2025, only 34 butterflies showed up, an incredible drop from the 26,000 that nested at Ellwood in the 2023-24 season.

Climate and pesticide issues contribute to the declining numbers, but so does the state of the local grove.

Migrating butterflies need wind protection first and foremost when they settle down for the winter. This shelter comes from a ringed forest with buffer trees and a grove of trees at the center, a structure that the city is hoping to create. Unfortunately, Powell says, a drought that hit about 10 years ago killed almost 9,000 trees at Ellwood, and those remaining are too sparse to provide adequate cover. 

The grove at Ellwood Mesa is made of blue gum eucalyptus trees, an invasive species from Australia. While invasive species pose problems to our environment, restoring the grove is a more urgent priority. 

“Unless we cut them all down and start over, this is going to be a eucalyptus grove for the next couple hundred years,” said Powell. “Because of how serious the butterfly die-off was, [the city] decided to go with the fastest possible fix.… We’re planting ironbark and sideroxylon, two species that aren’t as invasive as these blue gums, but still grow really fast and will make wind protection.”

The trees that are being planted this year were grown at Cal Poly in pots.

In a Q&A, Powell explained to a group of volunteers that in order to give the trees the best possible shot at survival, it was necessary to cut off the bottom of the roots.

“By scraping the outside, the roots that went sideways are cut off … and now the root shape is pointing outward again,” Powell explained. “We’re hurting the tree, but we’re also helping it.”

“The Bucket Brigade is always looking for volunteers,” said Bucket Brigade volunteer coordinator Nayari Uribe Diaz. “It’s not only that we’re trying to work to restore the environment in Santa Barbara and Goleta, but we’re also trying to bring the community together, create community resilience, [and] make those connections. It’s definitely a community effort.”

Interested volunteers can also help out at Bucket Brigade’s humanitarian farm, one of the last urban farms within the boundaries of Santa Barbara, near Arroyo Burro Beach.