Review of Year 2007

- A Northern Chapter was formed. It meets monthly at the Frelinghuysen Arboretum and has scheduled guest speakers. Currently the chapter is working on inventorying and removing invasives from the Kracji Preserve, a 1 acre piece of land the NPSNJ owns in Holland Township.

- We now have a Central Chapter that meets throughout the region for tours, hikes and walks.

- Our members have written Letters to the Upper Raritan River Watershed in support of their Grant Application to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to help mitigate the impact of invasive species.

- We have written Letters to the NJ Dept of Environmental Protection requesting the passage of a bill that will standardize the color of pesticide application flags throughout NJ and hopefully throughout the country

- We wrote letters to the the NJ Department of Environmental Protection requesting the revitalization of the Invasive Plant species Council (which did happen!)

- The board met with the plant buyer for Lowes stores in this regions regarding their sale of native plants. He met with us to discuss what is a native plant and ask our opinions about what they are currently growing and if any of them could be marketed as native.
The board took a look at their list and found a dozen or so that we agreed are native plants. There was some concern whether or not horticultural strains should be considered native. In addition we lack data on where their seed was collected and where the plants were grown.
These plants will be in the stores this spring! We are excited by the fact that Lowe’s is now offering natives and putting up signage extolling the benefits of native plants. This is the message we are trying to get out to people and it is now reaching a much larger audience.

- The NPS was featured in the Star Ledger. VP Isaac Martin spoke to garden writer Valerie Sudol about rain gardens.

- The Press of Atlantic City published an article entitled 'Some of the Rarest Plants are in NJ' which quoted our Society Horticulturist Hubert Ling.

- We had a table at a Morristown NJ neighborhood social promoting the use of native plants in the home landscape.

- We hosted a guided tour through the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge in Basking Ridge, NJ.

- We gave a talk to the Essex and Monmouth County Master Gardeners.

- We hosted a guided winter tree ID hike and participated in the Earthday celebration at the Manasquan Reservoir in Howell NJ.

- We gave native plant talks to the Shrewsbury, Rockaway Valley, Watchung, Mountain Lakes, and Ringwood Garden Clubs.

- We have helped a Girl Scout Camp at Lake Rickabear in Kinnelon NJ design and plant a native butterfly garden.

- The Bayhead Environmental Commission invited Bill Young to a meeting to discuss more organic practices for landscapers.

- We participated in a plant tour of the Pine Barrens with the Torrey Botanical Society.

- We presented a Native Plant Talk for NJ Master Gardeners at the County College of Morris.

- We helped South Jersey Girl Scouts earn their butterfly badge in Toms River.

- In addition we replied to dozens of emails on all aspects of native plants

NPSNJ Assists Junior Girl Scouts with their Butterfly Badge

As part of a program for Girl Scouts of the Jersey Shore, on Sept 8, 2007, Hubert Ling of the NPSNJ went down to Toms River Intermediate School to give a presentation on buttterflies and native plants to two groups of about 35 girl scouts. He discussed the importance of native plants to maintaining the native butterfly population and maintaining all other native animals. He told them without a heathy native plant population, we cannot have a unique ecosystem called New Jersey.

1st Anniversary gathering of the NPSNJ-Northern Chapter

We had our 1st Anniversary gathering of the NPSNJ-Northern Chapter on Tuesday, May 8th 2007 at the Morris County Park Commission’s Tourne Park’s Emilie K. Hammond Wildflower Trail. We had a good turnout of over 20 people, including a few new faces. We toured the Trail, which is a woodland native wildflower trail, and it was at its peak Spring bloom! A wonderful night for all to celebrate the Northern Chapter, the NPSNJ, our collective efforts, and of course, our lovely native plants in a natural environment.
Photo by Diane Nelson.