Researchers have tracked a single butterfly from Idaho to Ohlone College’s Newark campus.
Wings Rising is a nonprofit group based in Idaho. On Sept. 7, 2026, they released a group of butterflies along Snake River. Each butterfly was given a tracker, coded and given a nickname. Many butterflies from that group have taken refuge in the Bay Area. One, named “Mary Alice,” traveled almost 500 miles (803 km) to Newark. She is living in a butterfly waystation on Ohlone College’s campus.
The Vivien Larson Memorial Monarch Butterfly Waystation is a garden space at Ohlone College. On the grounds of the Newark campus, a garden filled with milkweeds, as well as other native nectar plants, allow monarchs to have a safe space to rest and feed as they travel. In 2004, Ohlone College created the monarch waystation as part of their environmental studies program. That waystation was later named in honor of Larson—a former board member who died from cancer in 2021.
Alene Hortin is a volunteer with Wings Rising in Idaho. She called Ohlone College and spoke with Allison Solorzano to inform the college about Mary Alice’s travels.
“She was just so happy someone here knew that her butterfly was around, to know that Mary Alice started from her… and was now [here],” Solorzano said.
Hortin and Solorzano could each see where Mary Alice was because of a new type of tracker and a phone app that anyone can download.
Project Monarch is an app available on both iPhone and Android. Cellular Tracking Technologies working with Cape May Point Arts & Science Center deploy radio transmitters on monarch butterflies to trace their migration across North America. The Project Monarch app allows citizen-scientists and universities to follow migrations in real time. This has not always been the case when researching butterfly migration.
Until recently, a piece of paper with a bit of writing was placed on a butterfly and researchers hoped they could find it later. That was it.
Now tiny solar cells with antennae are attached to a monarch’s thorax. The signal from the antennae can be monitored anytime the sun is out. They do not broadcast while butterflies have their wings closed, but the signal does start up again once the insect is moving.
Mary Alice started her journey in an area North-West of Bruneau Dunes State Park in Idaho. She passed through Winnemucca, Nevada; changed direction above Plumas Nation Forest in California; passed through Chico; spent time around Point Reyes National Seashore; flew by the Bay Bridge and Treasure Island and made her way down the East Bay. She stopped by San Leandro, Hayward Executive Airport and Eden Shores housing development; really enjoyed two or three houses on Woodland Drive in Union City and is now smearing the map orange over Ohlone College in Newark.
She spends most of her time going between Ohlone’s garden and nearby New Ohlone Creek; a restoration success story in and of itself.
Funded by proposition 68—a bond from 2018—a section of chronically eroding flood control channel has been transformed into a naturalized creek habitat. Officially labeled “2023 Naturalization of Line D (New Ohlone Creek) Project” this restored waterway runs from Cherry Street into the San Francisco Bay. Upstream and farther east, the full flood control channel surfaces from under The Hub shopping center in Fremont.
New Ohlone Creek runs through land owned by Ohlone College. It remains a flood control channel under the authority of Alameda County Flood Control and Water Conservation District. The creek is not open to the public.
Please note that parking at Ohlone College’s Newark campus on Cherry Street is often completely unavailable during weekends. Plan accordingly.
