The Monarch Butterfly Grove off Highway I has long been an important tourist attraction. Next February it will have a chance to become better publicized and better known. The City of Pismo Beach and the Pismo Beach Business improvement Group have announced plans for a first ever winter festival honoring the Monarch Butterfly, according to Bruce Murphy, president of B.I.G., the improvement Group.
"The event will be held February 1 and 2," Murphy said, "And will tentatively be called the Pismo Beach Butterfly Faire Well. It will celebrate Pismo Beach, butterflies, and winter fun. While still in planning stages the two sponsors have enlisted the aid of a professional planner, J. R. Viera of Viera Etc. According to a joint announcement the First Annual Butterfly Faire Well will begin Friday night with a kick-off Theatre Faire and will continue Saturday morning with a Parade Faire. There will be displays by street merchants, an art show featuring works by local children, a variety of entertainment and music, food, crafts and more.
The event will extend into Sunday. According to Murphy a driving force behind the concept is Pismo Beach Mayor Rudy Natoli who sees the new event as a way to connect people and the community. "What ever we do should be natural, real and well done," the Mayor said. The event will both honor and highlight the migration of the Western Monarch butterfly, the only Western butterfly to migrate from their summer feeding habitat to wintering grounds. The Western Monarch winters in of groves along the central coast. There is an important winter grove near Monterey and some near Cambria and Pismo Beach. The Pismo Beach site is, one of the coast's largest and most important.
"The Monarch is literally a national treasure," said Sheila Boone, Director of the Daniel Boone Butterfly Palace, a Nipomo project dedicate4 to butterfly awareness and research, "With a little help and planning the Pismo Beach. event can become an important winter time event."
The idea had been proposed first in a Gazette article (October 17, 2001). At that time Nadine Turner, Vice-President of Sales and Marketing for Pacific Hotels acknowledged agreement. "After the events of September 11 a new kind of tourist is emerging, an eco-tourist interested in close-to-home destinations and nature-based attractions," Turner said.
Monarch Butterflies are found in several places around the world. Two important populations are found in the U.S., an eastern population which lives east of the Rocky Mountains and the western group. The eastern group winters in remote Mexican mountains. The Western Monarch chooses sites along the Central Coast. In Pismo Beach flights begin arriving in , October and remain until late February when the warming sun brings them to activity.
According to Viera, Pismo's Butterfly Faire Well will be sensitive to issues of downtown businesses and residents as well as to the butterfly habitat. The fair will offer shuttle rides to the grove to minimize parking problems and the impact of visitors and vehicles on the butterfly colony.
S. Boone Productions, Siamak Sehat,
Photograph