What is a Native Plant Ordinance and How You Can Get One?

Renée Scott and David Falk, both founders of Green & Open Somerville in 2014, were instrumental in getting a groundbreaking Native Plant Ordinance passed to establish minimum requirements for native plants and trees to be planted in city-owned parks, open spaces, and streets in Somerville. They explain why native plants are important and how they advocated for and helped author Somerville’s Native Planting Ordinance. Learn why a native plant ordinance is important, how they did it, and whether the City of Newton could do the same thing.

Renée grew up in rural Vermont and has a degree in Environmental Planning and completed a Master in Public Policy degree from Tufts University. David grew up in Brooklyn. He started with the Audubon Society in Vermont and now works at the Native Plant Trust as a horticulturist.

This presentation was originally given on November 16, 2022 as part of our Fall Webinar Series hosted by Newton Conservators board member Beth Wilkinson.

Here are some additional resources provided by Renée Scott and David Falk:

Link to the presentation slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/...

Website for Green & Open Somerville:
https://www.greenopensomerville.org/

Link to Somerville’s Native Planting Ordinance:
https://www.somervillema.gov/invasive
(Scroll to the bottom of the page.)

Here is some additional information about native plants for our region:

Native Plant Trust: https://www.nativeplanttrust.org/

Native Plant Societies of the United States: https://plantsocieties.cnps.org/

Lexington, MA native plant list: https://lexingtonma.gov/DocumentCente...

If you have more questions for Renée and David, you may contact them directly at [email protected] or send your questions to Newton Conservators at [email protected].

If you are a member of Newton Conservators, thank you for your support that makes projects like our webinars possible. If you are not a member, we’d love to have you join. https://newtonconservators.org/member.... New members receive a copy of Newton Conservators' Walking Trails in Newton’s Park and Conservation Lands, a trail guide to the open-space areas in Newton.

Presenter: Renée Scott and David Falk, Green & Open Somerville
Moderator: Beth Wilkinson
Technical Support: Barbara Bates
Video Production: Ted Kuklinski

Chapters:

00:00 Welcome
01:14 Land Acknowledgement
01:51 Speaker Introduction
02:43 Presentation
03:04 Green & Open Somerville
06:37 Native Planting Ordinance Background
10:10 Native Planting Ordinance
11:41 What we would have done differently
15:51 Recommendations
19:50 Why is a Native Plant Ordinance Important?
24:17 What are we trying to address/create?
27:15 Native Plants and Ecology
31:04 New priorities - new techniques
35:18 Soils and planting techniques
37:44 How we might inspire a new relationship
38:13 Other things to address
45:56 Ground covers
46:53 Important foundations
50:23 Transitioning from popular non-native to native species
53:46 Question & Answer Session
1:13:24 Credits
1:14:29 End