Butterfly Waystation / Ferruggiaro Park

You are at stop #29 on the Belmar Treasure Trail: our Butterfly Waystation. There are many stunning landscape gardens throughout Belmar, but the real beauty behind this group of plantings is two-fold. First, the garden is what is known as a “rain garden,” which means it was designed to reduce pollution in Silver Lake. A major cause of water pollution throughout the industrialized world comes from rainwater that picks up pet waste, fertilizers, road oils and other toxins as it runs across paved surfaces and winds up in waterways. This garden is designed to keep those kinds of invisible – and not so invisible – pollutants out of our lake. It was created by the Belmar Environmental Commission to divert polluted runoff from the road into a vegetative system. The second purpose, as you can probably tell by the lovely sign and bench, is to serve as a breeding area and stop-over for butterflies and other pollinators. In particular, it is a beautiful waystation for monarch butterflies, who lay their eggs on the milkweed plants here. The eggs hatch into very hungry caterpillars that form their chrysalises here before emerging as beautiful butterflies. If you look a walk a little further south, you’ll see the sign for this park, Ferruggiaro Park at Silver Lake. It was named in remembrance of John E. Ferruggiaro, who was a Belmar Commissioner for 26 years. He served with John Taylor and Peter Maclearie, who are also honored with landmarks in our borough. Interestingly, Mr. Ferruggiaro, the son of Italian immigrants, was a member of the first graduating class of Belmar Elementary School, and he threw out the first ball on the town’s ball field across from the school. Sadly, his brother Alfie was one of four Belmar men who died in the sinking of the USS Juneau during World War II, which we talk about in our stops at Monument Row and Borough Hall.