Photo identification clockwise top left: Norma Brandel Gibbs;
Huntington Beach Mayor Debbie Cook and Huntington Beach Tree Society
founder Jean Nagy; 3 year-old volunteer waters plants; Huntington
Beach city staff and student volunteers plant trees.
Huntington Beach
California Arbor Day Tree Planting Ceremony
Huntington Beach Arbor Day
Tree Planting at
Norma Brandel Gibbs Park Sims Grove
is One More Step Towards Creating a
Friendly Habitat for Migrating Monarch Butterflies
Story, photos & video submitted by: Chris MacDonald
Huntington Beach, Calif.―Over 100
community volunteers, civic leaders and City of Huntington Beach
employees donated a Saturday to plant trees in the Norma Brandel Gibbs
park in honor of national Arbor Day. Under the direction of the
Huntington Beach Tree Society, the needed trees helped replace hundreds
destroyed by the
Australian tortoise beetle. The Arbor Day planting was one of several recent efforts to replenish
the forest and make it once again inhabitable for migrating Monarch
butterflies. The effort included planting 800 butterfly plants and 55 trees in honor of Arbor Day.
Huntington Beach Tree Society has planted more than 4500 trees in the
city. Visit
hbtrees.org, for more information about Huntington Beach
Tree Society.
If you
notice a
transformation of the Norma Brandel Gibbs Park Butterfly Grove, you can
thank Leslie Gilson, for one. The Huntington Beach resident
who frequents the park on Graham Street across from Meadowlark
Golf Course, observed that many trees were dead or dying. She researched
the migrations of Monarch butterflies seen less and less in the grove,
took photos of the decaying forest and made storyboards that she
presented at a Huntington Beach City Council meeting showing the problem,
and calling for a plan of action. So moved were public
officials that they ordered immediate removal of the dead or dying trees
(destroyed by beetles). The
non-profit Huntington Beach Tree Society helped create a strategy for
replanting the grove so that it may once again provide a welcoming
atmosphere for butterflies.
Leslie Gilson, Huntington Beach, CA
Known as Sims Grove, the parcel of
land was once slated for development. Brandel Gibbs saved the land
for future generations to enjoy. Once a stand-alone park, the grove was
connected to a newly-formed park named after Gibbs, a former Huntington
Beach mayor. The goal for the
grove, which is a portion of the Normal Brandel Gibbs Park, is to return
it to a successful habitat
for migrating butterflies as it once was.
Attending the Arbor Day Ceromony
at the Norma Brandel
Gibbs Park were: Jean Nagy, president of Huntington
Beach Tree Society; Mayor Debbie Cook; Council Member Joe Carchio;
Public Works Director Randy Menzel, Huntington Beach Parks & Landscape; Norma Brandel
Gibbs; daughter Norma
Jean Gibbs; Scout Troop 227 St. Bonaventure; Scout leader Darrell Rivers
(also VP of Huntington Beach
Historical Society); City Historian Jerry Person; Huntington Beach
Chamber of Commerce Women of Action representative Elaine Craft; and over
100 volunteers comprised of neighbors and community organizations.
Sponsors included: City of Huntington Beach, Huntington
Beach Tree Society, Leslie Gilson, United States Department of Fish &
Game, Era Energy, LLC; Southern California Edison, West Coast Arborists,
Cycle Giant/Wingstuff; EMS Development Company, Carroll's Paint &
Flooring
Elaine Craft, Women of Action, HB Chamber of Commerce
read a poem she wrote:
Earth Arbor Day Celebration at Butterfly Park
A flurry now of royal wings upon the sun does shine
The Western Monarch comes again upon these trees to dine
The blue gum Eucalyptus grows here to host these ones
Each year brings back a splash of wings in gold and
amber brown
We plant more trees with joy in heart to grow within
this space
To shade the lovely plantings that thrive within Gibbs
Park
Our butterflies will surely dine upon the plants grown
here
And then of course they will return to bring us joy each
year
