Bergen-Passaic Chapter of Native Plant Society of NJ to Meet in Paramus Jan. 22

The next meeting of the Bergen-Passaic chapter of the Native Plant Society of New Jersey (NPSNJ) will take place on Thursday, Jan. 22, at 7 p.m. in the Auditorium of the Bergen Regional Medical Center, located at 230 E. Ridgewood Avenue in Paramus.

The speaker will be Linda Rohleder, Director of Land Stewardship at the New York-New Jersey Trail Conference and coordinator of the Invasives Strike Force volunteer program and of the New York State Partnership for Regional Invasive Species Management (PRISM) in the Lower Hudson Valley. She will speak about regional efforts to remove invasive plants and replace them with native ones.

NPSNJ is a statewide nonprofit organization dedicated to the appreciation, protection, and study of the native flora of New Jersey. Founded in 1985, the group has hundreds of members across the state organized into county and regional chapters. Members include gardeners, horticulturists, naturalists, landscape designers, students, and native plant enthusiasts from all walks of life.

In 2013, Linda received her PhD in Ecology from Rutgers University, where she studied the effects of deer on forest understories. While attending graduate school she worked as a park ranger in Monmouth County and taught beginning biology labs at Rutgers and wetland plant ID for Rutgers’s Wetland Delineation certification series. She has spent more than 10 years creating a native plant wildlife habitat in her backyard.

NPSNJ conducts regular lectures and presentations with featured speakers on topics ranging from introduction to native plants, gardening with natives, identification and appreciation of the beautiful flora and ecosystems of New Jersey, ecological landscaping, and much more. The Bergen-Passaic chapter holds 8 meetings per year. The next meeting will be on Thursday, February 19, and the speaker will be horticulturist Elaine Silverstein, who will talk about creating a wildlife habitat with native plants.

For more information about NPSNJ, go to https://www.npsnj.org/.

Photo Caption: Linda Rohleder

Photo by Georgette Weir