Update: this bill passed the Assembly on a vote of (74-0-0).

We just learned that the New Jersey Assembly is scheduled to vote this Thursday, May 25 on a bill to ban the sale of invasive species in our state. A NJ Senate vote should follow in the coming weeks. We have a real chance of banning the sale of invasive species in our state.

Please ask your NJ Assembly and Senate representatives to vote YES on bill S2186/A3677, which would regulate the sale of invasive plant species and establish an Invasive Species Council that will develop an invasive species management strategy.

Background:

Last December, NPSNJ endorsed a New Jersey Forest Stewardship Task Force Invasives Species Subgroup proposal to strengthen the original version of this bill, and the NJ Senate Environment and Energy Committee advanced the bill out of committee with amendments, including to reinstate the NJ Invasive Species Council. But the revised text of the bill still did not address key concerns.

Since then, the Invasives Subcommittee and collaborating stakeholders—including the NJ Nursery and Landscaping Association (NJNLA) and the NJ Farm Bureau—have achieved agreement to request further amendments to:

1. Expand the strategic intent to include all invasive taxa, not only plants
2. Clarify the role and functioning of the Invasive Species Council
3. Include a clear role for the NJ Department of Environmental Protection (in addition to the NJ Department of Agriculture, already named in the bill), for implementation and enforcement
4. Seek a clearer process to regularly add to the initial list of banned species—so that emerging species can be addressed.
5. Include regulatory exemptions for specific non-invasive cultivars of certain regulated plant species.

Politics involves compromise and negotiation and while many of our members may be unhappy with #5, this is a compromise that was worked out with NJNLA. 

Please let your legislators know that you support this bill. Spread the word! Share this message with your friends, family, and social networks, encouraging them to join our cause.

Find your representatives for your district here: https://www.njleg.state.nj.us/district-map

You can personalize the following text to email your representatives, although it’s even more effective to call them, write them a postcard, or write them an e-mail you have crafted yourself

Dear [Senator/Representative’s Name],

I am a constituent and urge you to vote “Yes” to enact S2186/A3677 that “Prohibits purchase, sale, distribution, import, export, or propagation of certain invasive species without permit from Department of Agriculture or Department of Environmental Protection; establishes NJ Invasive Species Council.”

Invasive species are considered the second greatest threat to biodiversity after outright habitat destruction. New Jersey has been severely impacted by a wide variety of invasive species causing harm to agricultural, forest and natural lands, leading to economic and ecological losses.

Enactment of this legislation will make New Jersey the 46th state to regulate invasive plants and establish a permanent council of qualified and experienced stakeholders to evaluate, develop strategy, and make management recommendations to manage the serious and growing threat of invasive species of all kinds more effectively and efficiently.

This law will be effective, efficient, flexible, and fair. It incorporates amendments developed by the New Jersey Forest Task Force (co-chaired by NJ Audubon, the NJ Conservation Foundation, NJ Sierra Club, and the NJ Forestry Association) in collaboration with the New Jersey Nursery and Landscape Association and the New Jersey Farm Bureau, in consultation with NJDEP, NJDA, and the NJ Board of Agriculture. 

More than 40 conservation organizations across all of New Jersey cosigned a May 15, 2023, request to legislative leaders and bill sponsors to move this forward.

Thank you for your consideration and action,

[Your signature]

Dear Members and Friends of the Native Plant Society of New Jersey,

The bipartisan Recovering America’s Wildlife Act (S.1149) is before Congress again. In 2022, it passed the House 231-190, but didn’t make it through the Senate due to disagreements about funding. As a rare bill with bipartisan support, it has a real possibility of passing both houses this year, but we need your help to ensure its passage. This transformative bill, widely considered the biggest piece of environmental legislation since the Endangered Species Act of 1973, aims to protect and restore both native wildlife and plants, with a particular focus on those of greatest conservation need, including endangered or threatened species.

We need your help to make this vision a reality on this go around. 

Contact your Senators and urge them to support the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act of 2022. Find their contact information here: https://www.senate.gov/senators/senators-contact.htm.

Contact your House Representative and ask them to support this bill Find Your Members in the U.S. Congress | Congress.gov | Library of Congress. Be sure to thank them if they supported it on the first go around (you can see their vote here: https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/2022262).  

Spread the word! Share this message with your friends, family, and social networks, encouraging them to join our cause and contact their Senators.

You can personalize the following text to email your representatives, although it’s even more effective to call them, write them a postcard, or write them an e-mail you have crafted yourself.

Dear [Senator/Representative’s Name],

I am a constituent and urge your support for the bipartisan Recovering America’s Wildlife Act (S.1149). 

This transformative bill, considered the biggest piece of environmental legislation since the Endangered Species Act of 1973, aims to protect and restore both native wildlife and plants, with a particular focus on those of greatest conservation need, including endangered or threatened species.

The legislation will provide significant funding for states, territories, and tribal nations to develop and implement conservation and restoration programs. By supporting innovative recovery efforts, we can protect the native plants that serve as the foundation for our state’s diverse ecosystems, ensuring their survival for future generations.

The Recovering America’s Wildlife Act is a game-changer for both the country and New Jersey’s native plants and the countless species that depend on them. With its passage we can expect up to $1.4 billion of funding annually for:

Improved habitats for native plants, promoting biodiversity and supporting the intricate relationships between plants, pollinators, and other wildlife.

Increased populations of endangered or threatened plant species, securing their future in our state and contributing to the overall health of our ecosystems.

Greater collaboration among state agencies, tribal nations, and nonprofit organizations, fostering a unified approach to conservation and restoration efforts.

A vast number of organizations support this bill (according to the Senate summary of the bill, over 1,500 organizations and 60 Tribes support it), including the National Wildlife Federation, the Nature Conservancy, the Wildlife Society, the National Audubon Society, Ducks Unlimited, Sierra Club, and the American Fisheries Society. 

This bill is in the best interest of not only NJ but the whole country. I hope you will agree and take action to ensure it passes.

Best regards,

[Your name]

The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities is seeking public comments (see the request here: https://publicaccess.bpu.state.nj.us/DocumentHandler.ashx?document_id=1294000) by March 29 on PSE&G replacing streetlights to LEDs. In principle, this is good as it reduces energy use and thus mitigates climate change.

The Native Plant Society of New Jersey is concerned about the color temperature of the proposed LED lights and requests that future installations of LED street lights have temperatures of 3000K or lower.

Existing Sodium-vapor street lights have a temperature of around 2200K whereas new LED street lights are around 4000K, a “cooler” temperature much closer to daylight. There is scientific evidence that this is bad for pollinators, for example, https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abi8322, which in turn will be bad for native plants. Although the direct impact of these cooler color temperatures on nearby plant life is under-researched, evidence suggests that there are adverse effects from street lights on plants, which need darkness to anticipate the seasons, for example, to anticipate that fall and winter are coming and that it is time to lose their leaves and cooler lights, which are closer to “daylight” temperatures are more likely to impact this process. The American Medical Association also notes the disruption cooler temperature LEDs have on human health: https://policysearch.ama-assn.org/councilreports/downloadreport?uri=/councilreports/a16_csaph2.pdf.             

You can make comments at this page. Select the comments tab: https://publicaccess.bpu.state.nj.us/CaseSummary.aspx?case_id=2111607