“If we hurry, we can catch him,” Marvin Silber says, referring to a butterfly he sees more than 100 yards up the bicycle path in Rutkowski Park. Then he hurries in his motorized wheelchair at a speed no pedestrian on two feet can easily match.
Silber patrols the Bayonne waterfront in his electric wheelchair like he is still in the air corps, only instead of defending his nation as he did in Korea, he’s a watchdog for wildlife, a staunch defender of the environment who is not afraid to pick up a telephone or pay a visit to a public official. He has become a force to be reckoned with if he believes someone is about to destroy a part of Bayonne’s environmental heritage.
Sitting outside the gate to Rutkowski Park at the side of Stephen Gregg County Park, Silber recalls the day nearly two decades ago when he heard the county planned to fill in a local pond in order to expand its soccer fields. He got on the telephone to then-Freeholder Sammy Kaye and protested. He won the battle.
Silber, an avid photographer of birds, has displayed and published his pictures for years and has given lectures on area birds at the local library. A semi-retired window display person, he frequently visited nature areas throughout the state on his way to and from jobs.
Silber hopes the garden will attract monarchs, spice tails, admirals, and buckeye.
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He’s not so sure about Rutkowski Park, saying the numbers of new species have actually declined since the park opened three years ago. He suspects the dredging of the nearby Kill Van Kull may have something to do with it.
Happened fast
Silber is also seeking ways to attract new wildlife to the area, so when he was recently motoring along the bicycle path in Rutkowski Park, he was struck with the idea that this might be a suitable site for a butterfly and hummingbird garden. All he had to do was pick up a phone – and local officials listened.
Gary Chmielewski, director of the city’s Department of Public Works, directed city workers to clear one of the two areas near the path that was best suited for a possible butterfly garden.
The term “garden” is deceptive. Since butterflies generally prefer a varied landscape, butterfly gardens lack the polished feature of what most people expect – no elaborate patterned landscape, no neatly trimmed hedges. The crown vetch variety, for instance, has adopted the ragged areas bordering New Jersey highways.
Plants are selected not so much for their beauty – although many are remarkably beautiful once an observer gets adjusted to them – but because of the plants’ ability to attract specific species of butterfly. Some serve to feed the mature insects; others are designed to feed their larva.
Masses of color tend to attract butterflies, especially bright blue, purple, pink and red. Plants provide nectar for the butterflies and leaves for the larva. Adults seek out food plants where they can lay their eggs.
While New Jersey can boast nearly 150 different varieties of butterfly, one of the most popular, hearty, and interesting is the monarch. It is a species that migrates from Mexico to Canada.
For the birds, too
Silber gave Chmielewski the address of a Georgia supplier of a vine that will attract hummingbirds. It’s a vine that intertwines with a cyclone fence, and the area cleared by the city has an old fence well suited for this. “The vine is an important food source for the hummingbird,” Silber said.
Silber said the park already has a resident hummingbird, something Alan Golias, superintendent of parks and landscaping for Bayonne, said looks like a giant flying insect, but is really a tiny, fast-moving bird.
Silber has seen Red Admiral butterflies in the park in different locations and has documented at least six different butterflies that come to the park.
“When they [the city] developed this park, they didn’t plan for this,” he said. “Having a butterfly garden here would provide an opportunity to teach students of the city about nature.”
Silber, who was born in Ohio, has spent most of the last 40 years living in Bayonne. He said he learned to appreciate nature as a Boy Scout.
Silber is pushing for two sites along the path, although local officials said they will see how the first site works out and move on from there.
Establishing the spot for the garden required the city to rip out a small forest of invasive Japanese bamboo plants that have taken over nearly both sides of the path for the entire distance. Golias said they used a rotary till twice to get the bamboo out of the ground. Now, the city will plant a number plants and place boulders along the path.
The site will include eight butterfly bushes and 12 vines. The cost was $125 plus shipping – a good deal, Chmielewski said.
Silber credited local nature photographer and environmentalist Marion Cooney with playing a vital role in developing the idea behind the garden. Cooney, along with Catherine Adamkiewicz, helped create a sign for the park.
Silber said he hopes the garden will attract monarchs, spice tails, admirals, buckeye, and a number of other butterflies.
Volunteers are needed to help maintain the garden. For more information, call the Parks Department at 201-858-6122.