Dr. Edith Wallace, a hardworking volunteer for BCAS, put it this way: “The area that we are working on in a section of Overpeck Preserve is an example of a degraded environment where there is extensive growth of invasive plants, such as the mugwort.  As these plants do not provide food for our native insects, including caterpillars, it is important to plant a garden of native plants to provide food for these insects.  If we want to see butterflies, we must provide food for the caterpillars.”

Occasionally, I will be talking to people about helping butterflies and they will say, “I help the butterflies; I have a butterfly bush in my yard.”  There is a lot more to helping butterflies than having a butterfly bush.  A butterfly bush is a non-native shrub and can become invasive.  Instead, plant a buttonbush, which is a native butterfly bush and a great nectar source. 

To have a proper butterfly garden and truly restore a healthy habitat there must be host plants as well as nectar plants.  A host plant is a plant where butterflies can deposit their eggs and have the caterpillars eat that plant to become a butterfly.  For example, Monarch butterflies will only deposit their eggs on milkweed plants.  If there is no milkweed, there are no longer Monarch butterflies.  Everyone should introduce some milkweed into their home gardens.  Some of the other host plants being introduced at Overpeck are spicebush, violets, and false indigo.

Gil Hawkins, the tireless and devoted Director of the Overpeck Preserve, said, “Metamorphosis is one of the great lessons of scientific education.  Nothing speaks more to the conversion of a municipal landfill into a 125-acre wildlife preserve than the addition of a butterfly garden.  Our patch of wild milkweed, a learning station for our school field trips, will be enhanced with the additional plants that attract the many species of butterflies at the preserve.”

BCA’s main purpose of this project is to restore biodiversity back to Overpeck.  Also, we hope to have butterfly walks and more educational programs at the preserve as more plants are added and the habitat matures. 

Beth Goldberg, President of BCAS, is very proud of the chapter’s efforts.  “This is another example of the volunteers of Bergen County Audubon giving back to the community and coming together for a worthwhile project,” said Beth.  “It reflects one of our primary goals to restore and enhance the natural habitat that is constantly being threatened in our densely populated county.  The butterfly habitat will give many opportunities for enjoyment for years to come.”