By DONALD WITTKOWSKI
Ocean City is getting ready to welcome some monarchs.
But not the type of royalty embodied by the late Grace Kelly, who called Ocean City her second home before gaining fame as the Academy Award-winning actress and Princess of Monaco.
These “royals” are the majestic monarch butterflies that will stop in Ocean City to fuel up on succulent milkweed plants during their migratory journey to Mexico in coming months.
Ocean City is creating a “waystation” for the delicate black-and-orange monarchs by building a new butterfly garden stocked with milkweed and other plants that the insects find delectable.
Volunteers joined by children from the Discovery World Preschool and members of the Ocean City High School Student Environmental Association used both real shovels and toy shovels on Wednesday morning to plant the milkweed in the new garden at the Bayside Center at 520 Bay Ave.
Olivia Heng, 17, a high school senior and president of the Student Environmental Association, noted that the butterflies, a key part of the shore’s fragile ecosystem, are in need of some assistance from humans during their arduous journey to Mexico.
“This is an opportunity for us to give back to them because they are endangered,” Olivia said.
Olivia and other students shoveled mounds of dirt that allowed the milkweed to be planted. Her sister, Madeline Heng, 16, a junior, her brother, Joshua Heng, 15, a sophomore, and fellow senior Chanon Styer, 18, represented the Student Environmental Association that helped to build the garden.
“Living in a beach town, it’s easy to see how the environment affects our lives,” Olivia said of the importance of the students taking a role to protect the monarchs.
The creation of the butterfly garden was overseen by the Ocean City Environmental Commission in partnership with the city’s government. The project was funded by a 2022 Open Space Stewardship Grant from the Association of New Jersey Environmental Commissions. It cost about $500 for the milkweed and other plants.
“This is part of our mission to protect the environment and the natural features of the island,” Environmental Commission Chairman Rick Bernardini said. “This is a tool for doing that.”
Catherine Cipolla, who, along with fellow Environmental Commission member Betsy Lehman, came up with the idea for the butterfly garden, explained that no pesticides will be used on the plants or in the landscaping. That will protect the monarchs from any potentially harmful chemicals.
Cipolla said the garden will be blooming in August and September, just in time for the monarchs’ journey to Mexico.
“The environmental benefit of doing this is that the monarch butterflies can lay their eggs on the milkweed and other plants,” she said. “It sustains the monarch population.”
Milkweed is the host plant for the monarch butterfly. Without milkweed, the larva would not be able to develop into a butterfly, according to the U.S. Forest Service website.
This past October, the Environmental Commission created a butterfly garden on the grounds of the Ocean City Tabernacle, 550 Wesley Ave. In that case, the Tabernacle’s ARK Preschool joined in to learn about butterflies and also help with the project.
The Environmental Commission considered a number of sites for the new butterfly garden, but picked the Bayside Center, in part, because the Discovery World Preschool is located next door. The preschoolers will now have an opportunity to learn about the butterflies and other facets of the seashore environment. Their playground is right next to the garden.
On Wednesday, Cipolla gave a brief lesson to the preschoolers, ages 2 to 5, about the life cycle of monarchs, including their transformation from larva to caterpillars to beautiful butterflies.
“Do you know why we’re doing this? We’re making a butterfly garden,” Cipolla told the children. “They’re called monarchs. Monarchs are orange and black.”
Holding tiny plastic toy shovels, the kids joined in with everyone else to scoop out some dirt while planting the milkweed that will entice Ocean City’s royal visitors.
