Resources

Invasive plants aren’t bad plants, but due to deliberate and inadvertent human action, they are in the wrong place and can wreak havoc to native ecosystems. Invasive plants are adapted for other areas of the world in which they have other natural competitors and environmental pressures that don’t exist here and thus can run rampant. Deer generally avoid invasive plants and focus on native plants which, over the millennia, they have adapted to eat.

New Jersey is one of only two states in the country that don’t have statewide bans on the sale of some of the worst invasive plants such as Japanese Barberry, Norway Maple, Callery Pear, English Ivy, Butterfly Bush, Phragmites, and Chinese Silvergrass.

You can fight invasive plant spread by not planting invasives, removing them from your property, and learning to recognize, identify, and report invasive plants throughout the state.

For more resources, check out:

• The Native Plant Society of NJ

• Rutgers' Take on Invasive Plants 

• Jersey-Friendly Yards on Invasive Plant Alternatives

• The Department of Environmental Protection's List of Invasive Plants

• An Overview of NJ Non-Indigenous Plant Species

Invasive animal and pest species are wildlife (invertebrates, fish, amphibians, reptiles, and mammals), either aquatic or terrestrial, that are:

1. Non-native to the ecosystem under consideration and

2. Whose introduction causes or is likely to cause economic or environmental harm or harm to human health” (NJSMPIS 2009).

Through aggressive reproduction, environmental endurance, and lack of predators, these species can outcompete native wildlife for food, habitat and other needed resources. In the worst case, they can even cause the extinction of local native species.

Non-native wildlife species have been introduced to our state both directly (e.g., stocking, release, biocontrol) and accidentally (e.g., hitchhiking in shipping material and other goods, escape from captivity). In some instances, invasions have occurred through range expansion (species expand their natural range when obstacles are removed or other opportunities arise). However, not all non-natives become invasive or cause harm. Many of these non-native animals are well established in New Jersey, some of which are now common. The ones that do cause harm and spread beyond control are considered “invasive”.

For more resources, check out:

• The Department of Environmental Protection's List of Invasive Animals

• Guide to Invasive insects

• List of Non-Native Animals in NJ

• Information on Aquatic Invasive Species

• Department of Agriculture on Pests and Diseases