Art, Business & Culture in the 6th Borough
Native Plant Law Struggles to Take Root
2024 Municipal Ordinance for Native Species Re-Integration Sees Slow Enactment
By Charley Cano, 06/27/25; Updated 06/28/25
An ambitious new municipal law passed by City Hall last Spring aimed at returning native plants to Jersey City’s landscape has stalled in the rollout and enforcement of mandates set forth within its wording. A lack of certainty about definitions, responsibilities, practices, and interpretation emerges as a one-year milepost has come and gone.
In April of 2024, the Jersey City Municipal Council unanimously (with one absence) passed Ordinance 24-015, in order to “maximize the use of appropriate native plants on municipal properties to help mitigate the effects of habitat loss and fragmentation from development, and in order to combat the climate crisis, stormwater overflow, species extinction, global warming to promote the public health, safety, and welfare…” [sic][Section 2. PURPOSE AND INTENT]
The original bill was authored and sponsored by community activists Lorraine Freeney and Carol McNichol, both of Jersey City. The municipal council approved the ordinance on April 10th; speakers on the record in support of the measure were Ms. McNichol and Eleana Little, an environmental engineer and currently a candidate for the Ward E council seat in this year’s municipal elections. No objections to the measure were recorded. Mayor Steven Fulop approved the ordinance on April 11th and it took effect sixty days later, on or about May 27th, as stipulated.
Carol McNichol left the corporate world to work with non-profits advocating for animal welfare and native plant landscaping. She is the Vice President of the Gateway chapter (covering Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Middlesex, Passaic, and Union counties in New Jersey) of the national environmental conservation organization Wild Ones, which “promotes environmentally sound landscaping practices to preserve biodiversity through the preservation, restoration and establishment of native plant communities” [mission statement on Wild Ones NJ Gateway webpage].
Lorraine Freeney was honored by the city of Jersey City on March 13th of this year as one of the 2025 Women of Action at its annual award ceremony for her work with birds and nature. In 2020 she founded Jersey City Birds, a popular organization/club that educates the public about wild birds and the need to protect them and their homes. She is also the founder of the Hudson County chapter of the Native Plant Society of New Jersey.
Section 2 of the ordinance continues: “The purpose of these regulations is to establish minimum standards for the design, installation, and maintenance use of native vegetation by the City, to promote the preservation of native plant communities.”
For the sake of brevity, below are Section 5 in its entirety and part (a) of Section 6:
Sec. 5. APPLICABILITY.
This ordinance shall be a minimum standard and shall apply to all public buildings, public land and parks within the incorporated and unincorporated areas of the Municipality.
Sec. 6. NATIVE PLANTING REQUIREMENTS.
(a) In the first year, a minimum of 50% of new plantings [with a subsequent increase to 70% in the third year] of (shrubs, groundcovers, and flowers) installed by the City in parks, public lands, and other municipal properties shall be native, in order to: [A list follows therein. – ed]
A full copy of the ordinance is available here: Ord. 24-015
Such an endeavor is sweeping in its vision and daunting in scope, but it can certainly be accomplished or the city wouldn’t have passed the ordinance. Right?
A map of city-owned properties would include:
- Affordable Housing/Public Housing: Properties owned or managed by the Jersey City Housing Authority.
- Municipal Buildings: City Hall, police stations, fire stations, public libraries, community centers, and other administrative offices.
- Public Parks and Green Spaces: All city-maintained parks, community gardens, and open recreational areas.
- Public Works Facilities: Depots, sanitation facilities, water treatment plants, and maintenance yards.
- Schools: Public school buildings and their grounds.
- Transportation Infrastructure: Roads, sidewalks, and some public transit facilities (though some transit properties might be owned by NJ Transit or other authorities).
- Vacant Lots/Undeveloped Land: Parcels of land owned by the city that are currently vacant or awaiting development.
An interactive map of all properties owned and maintained by the City of Jersey City (images) is accessible through the city’s Open Data website. However, unless there is a newer such site, the site I reached does not appear to have been entirely updated in a few years.
The Jersey City Department of Instructure was created by the Fulop administration a little over three years ago in May of 2022 and is made up of the Divisions of Architecture, Engineering, Sustainability, Traffic Engineering, and Transportation Planning, as well as the Office of Innovation.
On Thursday, May 8th, I reached out via email to Infrastructure Director Barkha Patel “for available details about the implementation of the above-cited ordinance passed last April as it applies to this year's mandated planting of native plants in the city's landscaped plots and municipal properties.”
I sent courtesy copies of the email to the Jersey City Division of Sustainability (general mailbox), the Hudson County chapter of New Jersey Native Plant Society (general mailbox), Environmental Commission Secretary Andrew Fenwick, and Kimberly Wallace-Scalcione, Press Secretary at the Mayor’s Office.
As per the city’s official website, the Division of Sustainability “[was established] in 2018 for the City of Jersey City to oversee sustainable efforts.
[The division] works with other City departments and community groups to advance policies, programs and initiatives to advance the City's climate action goals.”
Also per the website, the Jersey City Environmental Commission “is comprised of volunteer city residents who are appointed by the Mayor to serve three-year terms.
[It]… was re-established [sic] in 2011 to promote the protection and conservation of land, air, water and other natural resources within the City, and to educate the public and advise city government about the best methods for protecting and conserving these resources.
Promote long-range environmental planning based on the capacity of the land and natural resources
Inventory plans and preserve open space”
The next day, Friday, May 9th, Secretary Wallace-Scalcione responded with an offer to help find answers to my questions.
The following Monday, May 12th, I submitted the following questions:
1. What percentage, even if estimated, of conversion has been achieved from traditional/customary plants to native plants used for landscaping on city-owned and managed properties.
2. If full conversion was not completed, what impediments and/or delays has the city encountered in its efforts?
[ed. note: “full conversion” refers to the fifty percent changeover stipulated in the ordinance for the first year of enactment, a point that should have been made clearer]
3. Who was/is tasked with the conversion process?
4. Where in the city would be a good place to see (and take pictures of) the conversion in action?
On May 21st, Secretary Wallace-Scalcione returned the city’s official response along with timeline photos (all included here) of the pollinator garden(s) installed at the intersection of Jersey Avenue and York Street and information forwarded from Infrastructure Director Patel:
“In an effort to clarify, the intent of the ordinance is to incorporate native plantings on any and all new/future projects as opposed to conversion. Examples of this include creating an inventory of native species that the city recommends to developers during the site plan review process, selecting native species for park projects, and any other planting areas within public right of way when we do streetscapes.”
Adjacent to Van Vorst Park, the four-corner installation, “designed [to insure] that the species selected were native plants that would thrive in Jersey City’s climate and help support its biodiversity”, is most definitely a pleasant addition to the neighborhood when seen in person. Equally, the pollinator garden recently created at Pershing Field is an exemplary collaboration of volunteer area residents working with the city and grassroots organizations.
But what about the other sixty or so parks? Or that slate of new parks slated for creation downtown announced by the city earlier this year?
And what about the new private developments currently in the early stages of construction work or scheduled to break ground? Are they complying with the new laws or planning or promising to comply? And is anyone keeping track of any of this?
Although I’m anything but a botanist, I am an avid gardener and I seem to recall that some flowers need to be planted every year, that it’s often a good idea to till the soil, at least a little, every year, and stuff like that.
If in fact and practice the ordinance applies only to new development projects, does that mean only new municipal buildings, new parks, and new high-rise residential towers? If that’s the case, the intended impact of the ordinance would be greatly diminished.
Logically, there is a finite amount of applicable land. That is, unless the plan is to just demolish more buildings, raze the land, and the heck with historic preservation. Though given the phenomenally rapacious rate of development in the city just in the past year alone, that’s not an entirely implausible scenario.
While no one is envisioning a Plant Patrol division of the police (as wacky as environmentalists are routinely portrayed), the ordinance also stipulates considerable penalties, from $100 to $2000, for infractions. Though reporting requirements are still being determined, it might not hurt to have at least one code enforcement officer versed in the ordinance's contents.
On Saturday, May 22nd, I spoke with Ms. Freeney and Ms. McNichol in a ten-minute phone conversation during which they diplomatically expressed a certain frustration with what they see as a weak flow of information from city officials regarding implementation of the new ordinance. I asked them if I could submit a few formal questions to them for the story. Their answers appear (mostly) unedited at the end.
In reply to my question about who is charged with oversight of the ordinance’s implementation, Secretary Wallace-Scalcione stated in the same email:
“The ordinance doesn’t prescribe who is tasked; however, the Department of Infrastructure is responsible for parks, tree planting, sustainability, public spaces, etc. along with their partners at the JCMUA, City Planning, and Forestry.”
Since the Municipal Utilities Authority (JCMUA) would deal mainly with the heavy infrastructure for major projects (and not landscaping operations so much), I temporarily exempted the agency from any line of inquiry.
On Friday, June 6th, I spoke briefly with Jersey City Senior Forester Michael Di Ciancia, who took the time to explain that the Forestry Division was mainly responsible for the care of existing trees in the city and that new tree plantings would likely be the province of the Division of Sustainability. Forester Di Ciancia also alluded to a slight fissure within the preservation community regarding what species qualify as being native.
On June 13th I reached out to Laura Skolar-Gamarello, trustee and former president at Jersey City Parks Coalition, for comments or insight but have not yet received a response.
Over the course of about four or five weeks while writing this article (allowing for the seasonal transition) and armed with a cheat sheet of local native plants, I conducted a wholly unscientific and random survey of the city’s parks and municipal facilities through a series of morning or afternoon runs, lazy walks, and grumbling footwork. Though I didn’t find any official planting projects, I did encounter a whole lot of guerilla gardening going on around town.
Some might argue that any focus or energy spent on the re-integration of native plants is trivial, indulgent, or even privileged when there are so many potholes to fill, jobs to create, and shameful literacy rates to address. But consider that the money saved by eliminating and reducing labor, material, and shipping costs for higher-maintenance customarily used “exotic” plants would add thousands, if not tens of thousands, to taxpayer coffers yearly and millions over the long run; the health benefits to citizens by reducing and eliminating pesticides used with such plants is immeasurable; and, oh yeah, climate action, because the earth is, you know, burning.
Lastly, Section 8 of the ordinance (COMMUNITY EDUCATION) provides for an official program to inform residents about local native plants and why they matter. It reads:
“The public shall, though various means, be educated about the importance of native plants to the Jersey City landscape. The City will promote the use of native plants by creating educational information on its website about the importance of native plants, including a list of the keystone plants native to the City ecoregion and the nurseries that sell them. City may also make referrals to local nonprofits for further information and design suggestions.”
Happily, I found an open spot right on the landing page of the city’s website in the section for resident resource links (images) where a curious or concerned individual might begin to find information about just such an initiative.
Immediately prior to this posting, I reached out via e-mail to Buildings and Street Maintenance Director Douglass Carlucci, Division of Sustainability Director Amanda Diamond, Department of Parks and Recreation Director Keith Donath, and Department of Public Works Director W. Greg Kierce for any information or feedback about native plant initiatives or projects underway or scheduled within their respective departments or divisions. Mr. Carlucci also serves as a Commissioner on the Jersey City Redevelopment Agency Board of Directors.
Following is the e-mail interview with Lorraine Freeney and Carol McNichol dated June 12th-13th:
(LW): Please tell us a little about yourself and the kind of work you do.
(LF): I was born in Dublin and moved to the US in the mid-90s. I’ve lived in Jersey City since 2005. I was a music journalist in Dublin, and now work in book publishing as my day job. For the last few years, birding, native plants, and all things related to nature and the environment have taken up increasing amounts of my time. I formed Jersey City Birds in 2020, at the start of the pandemic. It’s now a 501c3 with a very active community behind it.
Through birding I learned about the importance of native plants. The ecology and author Doug Tallamy famously talks about how a brood of young chickadees needs at least 5000 caterpillars to survive to adulthood. Non-native plants don’t support insects or provide habitat to the same degree as natives that evolved here—they may be pretty, but they’re not nearly as beneficial. I started adding few native plants to my yard, and the difference in the number of butterflies and birds I saw was remarkable, so I started adding more…and now they’ve become a passion.
(CM): I have lived in Jersey City for 30 years and retired from the corporate world nine years ago. I heard about native plants and their importance about four years ago and that inspired me to add a pollinator garden on my property as soon as I could.
(LW): Please tell us a little more about Native Plant Society of New Jersey and Wild Ones and the local chapters.
(LF): In 2021, two friends (Kim Correro and Dawn Giambalvo) and I learned about the Native Plant Society of New Jersey. We realized that Hudson was one of the few counties in New Jersey that didn’t have a local chapter, and Kim reached out to them about the possibility of forming one. Basically, we were looking for ways to spread the word about native plants in the community, and to find others who shared the same vision. Within a few months the chapter was official and we organized our first native plant sale in fall of 2021. Since then we’ve organized many other plant sales, plant swaps, winter sowing workshops, garden tours, tree walks, and other events around Jersey City and Hudson County. Lauren Morse came on board as a co-leader two years ago and she is another wonderful advocate.
Between us, we’re involved with many different parks and pollinator gardens all over the county. Our goal is to encourage people to discover just how amazing native plants can be and to gain confidence in adding them to their yards and green spaces. It can feel daunting at first, and we want to make this an enjoyable and inspiring experience for people.
Our chapter’s focus is a little difference to other chapters, mainly because Hudson is very different. We’re urban and industrial, and if people here are lucky enough to have a yard it’s usually a small one. Many of our members don’t have a yard at all, but maybe they have a container garden or a few pots on the patio, or maybe they want to volunteer with us and get their gardening fix that way.
Where the statewide organization focuses more on the appreciation and study of native plants, we try to skew our activities toward making the community greener and better for wildlife using native plants. In that way our chapter’s focus is closely aligned with Wild Ones.
(CM): After installing my native garden, I heard about Wild Ones, the national non-profit located in Wisconsin and wanted to learn more about them. Its’ mission is to promote environmentally sound landscaping practices to preserve our declining biodiversity through the preservation, restoration, and establishment of native plant communities. This is achieved through education and community engagement. Our chapter, Wild Ones New Jersey Gateway, was founded in 2022.
(LW): How did you become inspired to champion local native plants all the way to City Hall?
(LF): I read about native plant ordinances being passed in other New Jersey towns and cities, including Montclair, and started thinking—well, if they can do it there, why not here? If anything, the need seemed so much more pressing here, because of the scarcity of green spaces and the lack of wildlife habitat. We have many wonderful parks in Jersey City, but they are often dominated by active recreation—which is very much needed, obviously! But we need to provide pockets of natural green space too and to provide a way for insects and birds to survive as they journey through the city. Not to mention the importance of native plants in helping keep our air and water clean.
I brought the issue up to then-Councilwoman Mira Prinz-Arey, who expressed interest in supporting an ordinance. The mowing of the rain garden in Riverview also provided another incentive—to protect existing pollinator gardens and rain gardens from being destroyed, either intentionally or accidentally.
Carol and I were already friends and we began collaborating and doing our research. Our aim was to create an ordinance that would be a win-win for everyone; it was a pragmatic approach with reasonable goals. Beyond codifying what Jersey City was already doing in terms of planting a certain percentage of native plants, the ordinance asks the city to provide public education about native plants and their benefits, to protect existing pollinator gardens, to prioritize the use of straight species and to use plants that have not been treated with neonic pesticides.
(CM): I always had it in my mind that an ordinance would be a great way to get our government, and then the community, to recognize natives for the critical role they play in supporting our rapidly declining biodiversity.
Following an accidental mowing-over of a public native rain garden in Riverview Park, I knew that was the opportunity to advocate for an ordinance. At that point, I begin collaborating with Lorraine Freeney of the Native Plant Society Hudson Chapter, in writing the ordinance. Over a few months, we honed it down and then we were ready to share with a few of the City Council members. From there, the process was relatively easy.
(LW): How well, do you think, did the city manage to interpret and implement the new law(s) as codified in the ordinance?
(Joint Reply): We’re not informed about everything the city has been doing to implement the new law(s), so it’s a little hard to answer that question. We know about the rain garden that was installed at Jersey and York, and we have seen the Pollinator Gardens signs, which are great. And last year, the Jersey City Environmental Commission (JCEC) received a grant from ANJEC to design and plant a model pollinator garden, which was launched this May in Pershing Field by Pershing Field Garden Friends, with help from JCEC, NPSNJ Hudson, Wild Ones NJ Gateway chapter, Parks Coalition, and the city. That’s a wonderful collaboration that we hope will inspire other parks to create more native plant gardens. We’re hoping that there is more planned for the coming year, especially by way of public education.
(LW): Did anyone from any city office or agency reach out to you at any time in the past year for consultation, general information, or feedback regarding the enactment of the new ordinance?
(LF): I’m on the JCEC and discussions come up involving the Department of Sustainability or some issue where I’ll offer advice or information relevant to the ordinance, in a more informal capacity. We would welcome an opportunity to formally develop an educational program and increase public engagement (through the city website, for example).
(LW): What are some ways that the city administrators can better achieve a more thorough and committed effort to combat the climate crisis?
(LF): I’ll answer from a plants/trees focus!
Keep increasing the tree canopy, and especially keep planting native trees. They capture carbon and air pollutants, they provide shade and cooling in this urban heat island, their large root systems help reduce water runoff as well as filtering water. The forestry department led by city forester, Mike DiCiancia, is great and should get lots of support and funding.
We also need to engage the public more. Education and community involvement are really key. Passing ordinances and changing citywide practice only goes so far otherwise. But if people see, say, a monarch butterfly laying eggs on milkweed, or a bird gathering caterpillars on a native tree to feed its young, and if you can show them how what we plant really matters, then these plants and trees that help combat the climate crisis also become more valued by the public and we get homeowners and developers making better choices too, and the city as a whole will become greener, healthier, and better.
(CM): We know that native plants and trees help with climate resilience through carbon sequestration and flood mitigation. They also help to reduce heat islands in urban settings. It makes sense that the City should make a concerted effort to scale up and plant native trees and plants in significant numbers.
(LW): What are some other local projects you’re working on that you’d like to share with the public?
(LF): NPSNJ Hudson takes part in Hudson Gives each year to help local parks, schools, and other orgs raise funds for gardens. We’ve supported over 30 projects over the past few years and we encourage local groups to join us each spring for that.
Hudson County Improvement Authority provides NPSNJ Hudson with 1000 native plant plugs each Earth Day which is a wonderful way for us to provide free native plants to the community and to local parks and organizations.
The Pershing Field Pollinator Garden mentioned earlier is just one of many pollinator gardens that we’re involved in. And all of these gardens and pollinator areas need volunteers so please reach out to us! We have a WhatsApp group for volunteers and there are lots of opportunities available.
A big focus for us as a chapter is connecting different local groups so that we can support each other. There are a lot of wonderful groups with an environmental focus all over Jersey City, and if we work together we can amplify all our efforts.
(CM): Wild Ones New Jersey Gateway has planted native gardens in Braddock Park in North Bergen, Hackensack, Allison Park on the Interstate Palisades Parkway, and Hoboken.
Pollinator garden at Jersey Ave. & York St.
Photo courtesy Jersey City Department of Infrastructure
Jim Joustra Makes Music for Grown Ups
New album ‘ART FOR ADULTS’ is playful, sexy, and cerebral
Natural born and Berklee-trained jazz and blues master Jim Joustra does some serious adulting on his debut solo recording, taking time away from his numerous group projects and stepping into his own with a long-awaited collection of songs that explore an early fascination with America’s original music genres and ponderous, celebratory musings of myriad guitar stylings.
The 5-song EP jumps right in with ‘(Here Comes) the Soho Momo!’, a funky, greasy, gritty, and jubilant walk through the arts district with a little change in your pocket, a chance for adventure, and the whole night ahead of you.
‘A Jersey City Nocturne’, a swift, lusty affair complete with post-coitus cigarette, evinces an adventurous (but of course doomed) summer dalliance in the sixth borough, with flirting glances at flamenco, tango, and salsa, and the distinct taste of bittersweet lament.
The solid, pensive guitar work on ‘Aimer, c’est s’aimer, Soi-Méme’ suggests a self-reckoning and a quiet resolve, with an ending that also sounds like a beginning. For, after all, To Love, is to Love Oneself.
The laid back and brief ‘An Early Rain>’, an ambient, ponderous piece coincidentally heard with a Saturday’s morning drizzle, sparked memories of an afternoon spent with old vinyl records in an attic in Portland, Oregon, and of teenage tragedies with soundtracks by Cocteau Twins and Ulrich Schnauss. The song then happily eases into ‘Petrichor’, a lush, intricate, and intimate work that marches triumphantly, if bloody-lipped, to a hard-won peace, like the scent of dry earth revived by a long absent rain, the mythological blood of the gods.
The artist’s website: Jim Joustra Guitar
The full EP on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/1PQ3p8odhKNgrjQOi7MtZV
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Jersey City Live Wire was created to offer readers in New Jersey's
second-largest city and the surrounding area a new source of independent reporting and a wide spectrum of perspectives.
Founded July 4th, 2024
Editor-in-Chief: Charles E. Cano