09/02/2026
Can monarch habitat restoration help reduce fire risk? 🤔
At El Dorado Ranch Park, IERCD is restoring monarch habitat in the same area where a pyrotechnic device ignited dry invasive grasses in 2020, sparking the El Dorado Fire, which ultimately burned over 22,000 acres.
Invasive annual grasses change how a landscape burns. They grow quickly after winter rains, dry out early, and leave behind a connected layer of fine fuel. Once that fuel is dry, it easily ignites and can help fire move across the ground quickly. They can also keep the site stuck in that pattern. As invasive grasses grow and die back each year, they leave behind a layer of dry thatch that covers the ground, blocks light, and makes it harder for native plants to sprout. Instead of a mix of native plants, flowers, open ground, and habitat, the land can become covered in one dry, weedy layer 😟 Restoration is one way to interrupt that cycle!
By removing invasive grasses and planting native milkweed and nectar plants, IERCD is helping the site recover into something healthier and more useful. For monarchs, that means host plants for caterpillars and nectar for adults. For native bees and butterflies, it means more of the plant relationships they depend on. For wildfire, it means less dry, connected grass on the ground and more native habitat that is actively cared for.
This monarch restoration area will soon expand to more than 2 acres. Combined with nearby IERCD restoration work, the area will support over 8 acres of native habitat! It also shows why habitat restoration belongs in the 30x30 conversation. Conservation is not only about protecting places from being lost. It is also about helping those places recover, improving what is growing there, and managing habitat so native plants and wildlife can thrive over time.
