A metamorphosis is coming for Lost River Cave’s Charlie Miller Butterfly Habitat, which will undergo a habit restoration to improve the attraction.

The habitat will not house butterflies this summer – instead, work will begin to introduce new plants while amending the soil and improving plant life within the structure. This process will begin next month, with butterflies returning in 2021.

Lost River Cave Nature Center Director Annie Holt said everyone involved in the project agreed this would be a good time to get it done.

“This is definitely something we have been working on in phases,” Holt said. “Of course, it would have been difficult to do all at once with all the butterflies. The fact that it would have been difficult to have everyone in there with social distancing in place, it was a really opportune time to go in there and do it all at once. …

“The soil has been in there for several years. Plants will leech nutrients from the soil. Even farmers will switch out different crops. They will rotate crops. Some crops will remove while other crops will put back. That’s not something we can do in a garden, (but) every once in a while that’s what you need to do to the soil in the garden. That is what we are going to be doing – adding nutrients back into the soil.”

Holt said the restoration will also involve removing exotic plants they have been using as nectar or feeder plants and putting in native plants.

“One of the things that natives will do for us is establish a seed bed,” Holt said. “Once they start growing, they will shed seeds into that fresh new soil and so each year they will come back. Native plant seeds can weather through anything the environment will throw at us. … All we do is maintain the butterfly habitat each season rather than having to replant and replant. In addition, they will be heartier and they will be healthier for the native species of butterflies that we will be releasing in there.”

While there will be no butterflies in the habitat, it will still be open to allow visitors a chance to see the restoration.

“We will be glad to talk to them about native plants,” Holt said. “We will be glad to talk to them about what they can do at home with soil remediation. If we are in there, we will interpret. We will educate.

“Now, there might be times where you go through and their won’t be any staff in there, but the doors will be open so you can go in and see what the progress is. Our visitors are very interested, very dedicated and very invested in the butterfly habitat.”

Lost River Cave is closed to the public during the coronavirus pandemic, but plans to reopen the park are pending.