Dear Members,
First, some sad news. John E. Landau died on May 22. Many of you knew him through Friends of Foote’s Pond Wood, Rutgers Environmental Stewards, the Great Swamp Watershed Association’s native plant sale, the Going Native for Northern New Jersey guide, or the steady stream of articles and encouragement he sent to anyone working on behalf of native plants. John and Susan Landau received the inaugural Bob Swain Native Plant Leadership Award at our March Annual Meeting, and we will print Kim Correro’s tribute to them, delivered at that event, in our next newsletter.
Foote’s Pond Wood shows why John’s work matters. It was restored by people showing up, removing invasives, planting natives, teaching neighbors, mentoring volunteers, and returning until a neglected Morristown park became a living civic landscape. John understood that restoration is not only about plants. It is about building the human capacity to care for a place. Foote’s Pond Wood received one of our conservation grants in 2025, the first year NPSNJ offered that category. John’s work helped define what such a grant should support: sustained ecological restoration rooted in place, science, volunteers, and public education. To learn more or donate, visit fofpw.org. Morristown Green has published a remembrance of John here.
John’s example is the sort of work we are trying to support statewide. This month, the Society expanded our 2026 grants program from $16,000 to $18,500, allowing us to fund eighteen mini-grants totaling $12,500 and three science/conservation grants totaling $6,000. The mini-grants will support public demonstration gardens, pocket forests, school gardens, municipal plantings, rain gardens, pollinator beds, library gardens, youth stewardship projects, and restoration work from Atlantic County to Sussex County.
The science/conservation grants matter even more. Mini-grants change a schoolyard, library, pocket park, or municipal site. Conservation grants work at the level of habitat, rare species, and restoration strategy.
We will publish the full list of 2026 grant recipients soon. For now, I want to thank everyone who applied, everyone who reviewed applications, and everyone whose membership makes this program possible. Membership dues alone do not cover the cost of this program, so if you want to help us fund more work like this, please consider making a donation at npsnj.org/make-a-donation
I also want to point you to a film: WILD in the Garden State, by Sarah Galloway. Shot over ten years, it follows Sarah and her husband Dave—neither of them gardeners when they began—as they turn a conventional suburban lawn into living habitat. It is honest about its missteps: proof that caring for a place is something you learn by doing, not a skill you need before you begin. You can watch it now on our YouTube channel. Share it with a neighbor who thinks native gardening is beyond them.
Kazys Varnelis, Ph.D.
President, the Native Plant Society of New Jersey