Driving down Hessian Avenue toward the Delaware River in National Park on a sunny July July 13, motorists soon found the parking lots packed as several thousand people celebrated butterflies at Red Bank Battlefield National Park.
“The butterfly festival is our biggest event of the year,” said the park’s director, Jen Janofsky, who was thrilled with the turnout. “It is the perfect opportunity for families to see everything the park has to offer.”
Families lined up to go through the butterfly house – a large, screened structure close to the riverbank – to see Eastern monarchs in a natural habitat.
“Every year the line gets longer,” noted Timothy Bracciante, one of 150 members of the Gloucester County Certified Gardeners program, which started the festival eight years ago. “It’s great seeing the children light up and say, ‘I love butterflies.’ One or two of them know more about monarch butterflies than I do.
“The butterfly house is open from May to September,” he added. “We maintain the flowers and the plants.”
“This festival is a premier event every year,” remarked volunteer Rich Gess, who thanked the Atlanta-based concrete manufacturer Quikrete for donating the bricks and paving stones to create a path when leaving the structure. “More than 1,000 people go through the butterfly house.”
“The kids love it,” visitor Mario Contarino said. “I am amazed by the turnout. The people who donate their time to run the event are real nice. All the volunteers do a great job.”
There were a lot of activities for children to enjoy, including balloon animal figures, watching a person weave on a loom, slurping up ice cream cones and water ice and exploring the large park with friends.
They also learned about butterflies.
“This is our eighth annual festival,” detailed Mary Cummings, the program coordinator for the Certified Gardeners. “I am very happy with the turnout. It is a tremendous volunteer effort.
“One of our goals is to make people aware of the plight of the monarch butterflies.”
Cummings explained that native host plants for monarchs include common milkweed, swamp milkweed and butterfly weed, which naturally grow along many of the roadsides in South Jersey and unfortunately get cut down for aesthetic reasons.
Because of the destruction of their natural habitat, she added, there is a danger that the Eastern and Western monarchs butterflies will go back on the endangered species list. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) plans to make a decision by December on whether to put them there.
The monarchs are currently on the candidate waiting list for Endangered Species Act protection, but the FWS has said other species are of higher conservation concern. Yet recent population counts show that the monarchs might deserve that status.
According to recent studies, the Eastern monarch butterfly population declined by nearly 60% from the previous year, and the latest annual count was the second-lowest ever recorded. The Western monarch population is only 5% of what it once was.
Western Monarchs breed west of the Rocky Mountains and make a shorter migration to the California coast over winter, while Eastern monarchs breed east of the Rocky Mountains and travel to central Mexico during those cold months.
Beautiful monarch butterflies were once a common sight along the East Coast during the spring and summer, and the certified gardeners hope they stay for many years to come.
The Gloucester County Certified Gardeners Association is a nonprofit volunteer organization sponsored by the county board of commissioners and made up of residents interested in gardening and volunteering in their communities.
Located in the Shady Lane Complex on County House Road in Clarksboro, the association welcomes beginner and experienced gardeners to join. The training program is offered once a year, January to May. Programs sponsored by the group include a gardening helpline, education and donation gardens, a greenhouse and the butterfly house.
For information, email [email protected], or call (856) 224-8045.
