Thursday, October 1, 2026
Sea Cliff’s Environmental Conservation Commission, chaired by Fred Black, took input on restoring the village’s Marden Triangle from residents Sue Giordano and Chelsea Dunham at its meeting on Aug. 20. A butterfly garden was established at Marden Triangle, one of Sea Cliff’s many parks, in 2016. Since then, trees around the park have grown, and, according to Giordano, some plants have been removed. The ECC was tasked with maintaining the space.
“We kind of let it go,” Black said at the meeting. “So, we were looking for some ideas of maybe how to rehabilitate it and get that going.”
Here are three things to know from the discussion.
1. Emphasis on attracting more monarch butterflies
Giordano, the landscape designer who designed the butterfly garden, said that some of the plants that act as host plants for butterflies were removed because “it looked like weeds.”
Milkweed, the plant on which female butterflies lay eggs, was planted in the garden in 2016. Dunham, who works with the conservation program Monarch Watch out of the University of Kansas, said at the meeting that the plant should not be mowed and that it does not typically grow to more than a few feet tall.
There was also discussion about native plantings that were incorporated when the butterfly garden was first created. Giordano noted that native plantings still require maintenance.
2. Trees are blocking out the sun
Giordano said that the garden can be reestablished but trees around the perimeter need to be trimmed.
“They can be maintained without hurting them to offer more light coming in and the filtration of the air,” she explained, “which is very important for the monarch.”
There is a beech tree at Marden Triangle that Giordano said should have been pruned appropriately and is no longer contained like it was in 2016.
She added that trimming the tree will also help strengthen it, but that an expert arborist is needed for the job.
“You have to take this on like baby steps for the next couple of years,” Giordano said, “to really bring it in to be strong and thrive on its own into a certain shape.”
3. The space was intended to be educational
Black suggested that signs be added to the garden explaining the native plantings and benefits to pollinators and other insects.
“Along with rehabilitating the plants,” he said, “I’d like to make it an educational opportunity.”
Giordano said that, originally, the butterfly garden was intended to be educational. Dunham added that the garden could be registered with Monarch Watch as a monarch waystation, a place that provides monarch butterflies with the resources they need to survive and reproduce, to deter people from removing plants like milkweed.
“Stick a sign in it so that it’s like, ‘this is a thing,’” Dunham said. “’This isn’t just pretty and gorgeous and perfect, but it’s a thing.’”
A 2016 article by Elizabeth Winchester in the Gold Coast Gazette states that the garden was registered with Monarch Watch as a monarch waystation.
