Volunteers sought to help establish new Bridgeville butterfly garden

With plans underway for a butterfly garden in Bridgeville, officials are seeking help from people who are interested in planting and maintaining the space.

Borough officials in November authorized repurposing a lot on Baldwin Street, behind Beer Warehouse, as a butterfly pollinator garden.

Councilwoman Justine Cimarolli said the opportunity to develop a “green” project began after a flood hit Baldwin Street in 2018.

The borough, two years later, partnered with both the federal and state emergency management agencies to acquire grant money to secure up to nine properties on Baldwin Street, Cimarolli said. On July 13, 2021, the borough was awarded a $1.2 million grant to acquire and demolish homes to mitigate future flood damage.

“Around the same time, the Bridgeville Planning Commission recognized the opportunity to improve green infrastructure in the community,” Cimarolli said. “The borough solicited resident feedback on a community survey, and a butterfly/pollinator garden was one of the top three responses.”

Bridgeville public works employees and volunteers will prepare the property — which includes cleaning and removing debris, bringing in topsoil, turning on water and marking the planting area — in early spring, Cimarolli said. The borough will acquire the plants as they become available from local native growers, Cimarolli said.

Planting, by volunteers, will most likely be done over multiple days.

“For this project, the team can use as many volunteers as are interested to help,” she said. “This undertaking is an opportunity for people to learn a bit about native plants and the benefit of bringing the plants into the area.”

Volunteers may help to prep the space by spreading topsoil in the planting bed, marking the design, and planting, Cimarolli said. In the summer, volunteers will water the garden as needed.

“By bringing pollinators to this property, raised garden beds for food can be installed and the pollinators will help the food to thrive,” Cimarolli said. “There are other vacant lots on Baldwin Street that may be developed into community spaces that add a point of interest close to a business area with regular pedestrian traffic.”

Cimarolli also noted that, for the past couple of years, borough officials and residents have earned grants and programs available through local nonprofits to enhance green spaces throughout Bridgeville.

Volunteers planted native trees on another lot, also on Baldwin Street, in 2023. The state’s Department of Conservation and Natural Resources recently planted a wildflower meadow in a former baseball field now used as a floodwater catchment space, to help with ground retention and withstanding some flooding.