Lower Makefield breaking ground in mandating native plants

Jim Bray often jokes that when his parents retired to Florida, their idea of a great landscape was green asphalt.

But here he is, at 72, a retiree himself, earning a reputation as a native-plant pioneer in tiny Lower Makefield Township and beyond.

"It just makes sense to use natives," he says of a plant category that includes old standbys like black-eyed Susan and less familiar ones like staghorn sumac.

Bray, a volunteer member of his township's environmental advisory council, researched and wrote a 2007 ordinance requiring new residential and commercial developments in Lower Makefield to use only indigenous plants in their landscapes. Though nowhere near as popular as Japanese maples or Dutch tulips, natives are prized in environmental circles for their toughness, easy maintenance, and crucial importance in feeding the insects and animals that evolved with them in a particular ecosystem and region.

But native-plant laws rarely mandate, as Lower Makefield's does. More often, they suggest, recommend, or merely permit natives, which, though becoming better known, are still considered weeds in many parts of the country.

Since Lower Makefield enacted its law, two other communities in the Philadelphia area have followed Bray's lead: Schuylkill Township, Chester County, in 2009, and Warrington Township, Bucks County, in late 2011.

"I think these guys are on the cutting edge," says Bret Rappaport, an Illinois attorney and a director of Wild Ones, a Wisconsin-based nonprofit that promotes native plants and natural landscapes across the United States.

Rappaport, who frequently represents native-plant-growing homeowners cited under municipal "weed laws," believes that municipalities typically "prohibit that which is bad but they don't mandate that which is good."

That is also the experience of Douglas W. Tallamy, chair of entomology and wildlife ecology at the University of Delaware. He's heard of many communities - Reston, Va., for one - mandating natives on public land, but private property is far more rare.

"But more and more communities are talking about it. People are getting it," says Tallamy, whose 2007 book - Bringing Nature Home: How You Can Sustain Wildlife with Native Plants - has heavily influenced the native plant movement.

It certainly had an impact on Bray, who had a 30-year career in labor relations with U.S. Steel. Bray's now-deceased redbone coonhound Teddy also had a hand - or paw, you might say - in creating the ordinance.

Every day for about a decade, Bray and his wife, Jeanne, took Teddy to a wooded area in the township to run off-leash with other dogs. Bray became so curious about the beautiful flora in the woods, he bought a book about native wildflowers.

That set the course.

In 2002 he signed up for the Penn State Cooperative Extension's master gardener program, and soon after became a volunteer naturalist at Bowman's Hill Wildflower Preserve in New Hope, which showcases native plants. In 2005, he joined the township's environmental council.

The ordinance, Bray says, grew out of a desire to "help restore the natural balance, the intricate web of relationships between insects and animal life, that's been upset by development."

That is no hyperbole.

In 2010, Tallamy and his students studied the landscapes of 66 houses in 22 suburban developments in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Delaware. Fully 92 percent of planting space was covered by lawn, which has minimal value for wildlife. In the remaining area, 79 percent of the plants were nonnatives, mostly Asian, such as burning bush and privet.

"The average homeowner doesn't know any better than the plants the developer puts in," Tallamy says.

In Lower Makefield, developers pick from a list of hundreds of native plants and trees suitable for buffer zones, parking lots, and other open areas. (The law does not affect homeowners' private gardens.)

Working with township officials, civil engineer Jodi Litus installed the landscape for a three-story, LEED Gold-certified office building at 1000 Floral Vale Boulevard completed in 2009. A favorite pick was serviceberry, a native tree with white blossoms in spring and blueberry-like fruit in summer.

"The idea is to encourage birds and insects to live in those areas and provide food for them in winter," says Litus, who describes the predevelopment site as "a barren lot, not much growing on it, just a few rabbits running around and that's it."

Ten years ago, native plants were hard to find and often pricey. Litus says he had no trouble finding anything and prices were competitive. He agrees with Bray's assertion that "native plants are mainstream now."

There's even a national brand - American Beauties - sold by North Creek Nurseries, a wholesaler in Landenberg, Pa. It offers 50 varieties of native perennials, ornamental grasses, ferns, and vines.

There's no question that natives add value to the landscape and they account for 70 percent of what North Creek sells, but nonnatives from Asia and elsewhere should not be dismissed out of hand, according to North Creek sales director Kevin Staso.

He describes those grown and tested at North Creek as "garden-worthy, with high ornamental value and no invasive tendencies or characteristics." Nonnatives may not sustain wildlife, but they can remove carbon from the atmosphere and prevent storm water runoff.

"We are not purists by any means," Staso says.

Nor is Bray, who grows some nonnatives in his own garden.

"We're not advocating for people to get rid of all nonnative plants. That's heavy-handed," he says. "We are attempting to . . . get more natives in the environment and educate developers and our citizens about the environmental advantages in using natives, as well as their outstanding beauty and diversity."

But not all natives are naturally well-behaved or right for every site. And while generally they require less care than nonnatives, they are not care-free, as noted by those municipal weed ordinances and homeowner's association covenants.

Still, native-plant advocates are optimistic about the future. Tallamy borrows a phrase: "This has all blossomed very quickly," he says.