Tag Archives: Butterflies

Broken Brokaw Hall Saga – Demolition Is Final Answer

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Cost to repair, half a million. Cost to demolish, $35,000

“It’s a historic structure,” said Esther Trosow, with the Conservancy. “It’s on the list of historic structures and they let it fall into a state of decay. If any private citizen did that, according to the historic preservation rules, they would have to be in injunctive relief, which means they would have to fix it. And the city has just decided that they don’t need to do that. They’re thumbing their nose at their own laws.”

Brokaw Hall Sign

Cedar Street Times is reporting that the building’s historical plaque has been removed and presumed stolen.

Broken Browkaw Hall Saga – Demolition Is Final Answer

There Goes The Budget Surplus – Rebuild Broken Brokaw Hall?

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Tear it down – not worth the money to preserve, especially if the habitat is meant to be a home for butterflies.

Brokaw Hall

In an attempt to atone for the sins of the past, the Pacific Grove City Council signaled Wednesday that historic Brokaw Hall might escape demolition.

The dilapidated city-owned building at 263 Grove Acre Ave. was scheduled to be torn down by June 6 after the city’s chief building official, John Kuehl, declared it a health and safety hazard.

The council Wednesday was expected to authorize paying $36,000 for its destruction and to debate about what elements of the one-story wooden building, which was built in 1914 and is former home of the Del Monte Military Academy, would be worth salvaging.

There Goes The Budget Surplus – Rebuild Broken Brokaw Hall?

Broken Brokaw Hall Gets Temporary Stay Of Demolition

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Brokaw Hall

 

The one-story wood-frame building, bracketed by two stone chimneys at 263 Grove Acre Ave., is in an advanced state of dilapidation and unsafe, said John Kuehl, city building official.

Kuehl ordered it fenced off immediately and taken down by Friday.

After his emergency order was reviewed April 13 by the city’s Historic Resources Committee, Kuehl said he was willing to delay the order past May 4 until measures could be taken to salvage parts of the building and draw plans for future reconstruction should money become available.

Broken Brokaw Hall Gets Temporary Stay Of Demolition

More Love For Eucalyptus Trees

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Non native flora can be good. No need to dance around the name calling them “Blue Gum” or what ever. Always green and fragrant.

It used to be that planting nonnative plants or trees in Pacific Grove — and elsewhere in California — was considered an environmental taboo.

But there’s a new respect in Pacific Grove for eucalyptus, a towering nonnative tree that often gets a bad rap in the state for shedding bark, competing with native plants and not supporting native animal species.

In Pacific Grove, however, the monarch butterflies that overwinter in the city every
year are the eucalyptus’ biggest fan. For the last century or so, the insects have preferred clustering in eucalyptus beginning in the fall until late February, when they leave. The dense, nonnative trees provide wind shelter for the insect.

More Love For Eucalyptus Trees

Broken Brokaw Hall May Be Demolished

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Not enough room on the lot for a P.G. Remodel?

Brokaw Hall

A historic building that was once part of a military school in Pacific Grove has been tagged for demolition.

Brokaw Hall is “in a dilapidated condition and is now considered unsafe and a danger to the public,” said city building official John Kuehl. The building is at 363 Grove Acre Ave.

After a March 21 inspection, Kuehl issued an order requiring that the property be fenced off immediately and demolished by April 29.

Broken Brokaw Hall May Be Demolished

Plant More Eucalyptus!

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Bob Pacelli’s tree project appears to be a smart thing to do.

Among his recommendations for the sanctuary are placing eucalyptus trees for more wind shelter and “habitat complexity,” trimming hazardous trees, planting more oak trees and assessing older trees and pitch canker risks of Monterey pines on the property.

Even though they are native to Australia and have nothing to do with the monarch’s historic habitat, Weiss said it was critical for the city to plant new blue gum eucalyptus trees along the southern row of the grove — and he said it should be done in February and March after the monarchs leave.

Plant More Eucalyptus!

Brokaw Hall Broken

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It looks a lot like the average motel in P.G. If it gets saved, you think they can get a alcohol permit and use it for receptions? How about a pub? The Orange & Black Pub. They can have butterfly tables.
Brokaw Hall

Brokaw Hall was designated historic in 1996 after homeowners passed a bond measure to buy it and the property it sits on. Taxpayers are still paying for the purchase. Since then, however, the duplex, which lies within the Monarch Grove Sanctuary, has seen little or no maintenance and is crumbling.

City budget director Jim Becklenberg said the city would take action if it finds the building poses a hazard to the public. “We are trying to evaluate what the best use is for the building and how it can enhance the visitors’ experience there,” said Becklenberg, adding that there are no current plans to tear it down.

Brokaw Hall Broken

Butterflies Coming Back

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Monarch Cluster

“A lot of urban development has destroyed suitable habitat,” said Stuart Weiss of Menlo Park, a conservation biologist with Creekside Center for Earth Observation.

“Monarchs are very finicky about where they make their clusters,” Weiss said. They need the right temperature, humidity and wind exposure; otherwise, they move on to a more suitable area. The forests that monarchs like to cluster in are so small now, “the loss of a few trees can open up a site to more wind,” he said.

Weiss is working with Pacific Grove on a management plan for the sanctuary so it can better deal with the loss of trees or other changes in the grove.

“Urban Development?” Nothing but clueless people put in charge here.

Butterflies Coming Back

No Tagging Of Monarchs

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Monarch Molesting No Touch

The Pacific Grove City Council decided Oct. 20 to hold off on an eight-year program of tagging monarch butterflies for fear handling the insects could disrupt the population of the butterflies, which was drastically lower in the city last year than in previous years.

Tagging “requires physically touching the butterflies,” Jim Becklenberg, the city’s budget director told the council. “This year, given we have the low numbers … I think we need more information before making that decision for tagging.”

No Tagging Of Monarchs

Letters From The Editor – Monarch Citizen Movement

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Coast Weakly

The Weakly has a story about the efforts to import some trees for this coming winter’s butterfly migration.

Heavy pruning of the sanctuary’s eucalyptus trees a year ago may have been responsible for the estimated 96 percent drop in the monarch population there last overwintering season – although, according to butterfly experts, the population simultaneously fell about 90 percent throughout the Central Coast.

Funny is the comment from M. Butterflies:

Monarch Butterflies are known to be very conservative Republicans who believe in the rule of law, individualism, and private property. Most Monarch’s have changed their migration patterns to avoid over-taxed nanny states like California.

This attempt to set up overpriced Government subsidized housing is going to be considered a serious insult to a vast majority of Monarch’s, who are all ready counter-protesting Monterey Counties boycott of Arizona.

Letters From The Editor – Monarch Citizen Movement