Newtown Conservation Commission, in association with Monroe Conservation, has prepared a native plant resource guide to strongly encourage developers, landscape architects, municipal workers, landscapers, and homeowners to use plants that naturally occur in this area. Readers will also find guidance on plants and their benefits, landscape uses, and local sources for native plants.

For commercial, municipal, and residential landscapes, the group recommends using 70% native plants, trees and shrubs to help mitigate habitat loss — a higher percentage is encouraged and essential for commercial and municipal properties. Herbaceous plants, trees, and shrubs should be straight-species or wild-type, not cultivars that have been crossbred or hybridized.

Breeding plant cultivars may change attributes of flowers and leaves, often eliminating what makes a plant attractive, recognizable, and beneficial to pollinators as well as to caterpillars who innocuously feed on the plants and are a critical food source for birds and other animals.

Newtown Conservation Commission Chair Holly Kocet says habitat loss is one of the main causes of insect-pollinator decline.

“More and more of our natural spaces are lost to development, replaced by hardscapes, introduced ornamentals, and lawns – dead zones for wildlife,” according to Kocet. “It has become critical to provide indigenous plants, especially our native trees, to help our struggling pollinators, birds, and other animal species… including we humans.”

Non-native plants, also known as exotic or alien plants, are not naturally found in the local area. They were introduced by human intervention, either intentionally or accidentally and include agricultural crops, ornamental plants, naturalized plants (including lawn grasses) and “of course those nasty imports proven to be invasive,” Kocet noted.

“Unlike our native plants, non-native plants did not evolve along with our native fauna for mutual benefit. Of course, there are exceptions, especially for closely related species. And while many non-native plants are benign for aggressive spread, they now dominate our landscapes,” Kocet said.

As with plant cultivars included those described above, most offer little or no benefit to pollinators, birds, or other wildlife. Doug Tallamy, professor and author of Bringing Nature Home, has noted that humans are replacing native plants with alien species “at an alarming rate,” especially in the suburban garden on which wildlife increasingly depends.

While most people do not cultivate invasive plants that are banned by state statute and listed on the Connecticut Invasive Plant List — which can be viewed at cipwg.uconn.edu/invasive_plant_list — several plants listed as having invasive tendencies are still being sold, e.g., Norway maple and black locust, the commissions point out.

Native alternatives are many.

“It is extremely important to understand how inherently destructive invasive plants are and to take action to remove them. They are negatively impacting our environment by competing and displacing native plants in our wild places and altering natural ecological processes,” said Kocet.

The Newtown and Monroe conservation commissions have partnered to bring this important issue to their town representatives and commissions. The guide’s creators expect it to be a helpful tool as both towns move forward with native plant policies.

The Native Plant Resource Guide is posted on the Newtown Conservation Commission website, newtownconservation.org.