A Butterfly Haven

In the Texas Hill Country, a conservationist is helping monarchs adjust to the changing world

TWENTY-FOUR years ago, Monika Maeckle bought a small property on the Llano River in Central Texas as an escape from fast-paced San Antonio. A journalist and marketing professional by trade, she didn't at first realize the value of the location on which she and her husband would later build their ranch. She also had no idea how this decision would eventually transform her life.

One October evening a few years later, a friend invited Maeckle to their nearby house, which sat on a watershed with several large cypresses. "All these butterflies dropped from the sky and started to gravitate toward the trees," she recalls. "Stronger people who could swing a big 12-foot-long pole began trying to capture them, and we waited. By the end of the evening, we'd tagged a couple hundred butterflies, and I left there enchanted."