The State We're In

Nov 7, 2025

 

By Alison Mitchell, Executive Director, New Jersey Conservation Foundation

Hidden in the wet, shady woods of northwest New Jersey blooms a remarkable and rare plant – Yellow Hammond’s Spring Beauty. Found nowhere else on Earth, it’s just one example of the many plants that make our landscape special. We have a natural heritage that exists in no other state!

Protecting the plants that make the Garden State unique shouldn’t be that hard. But we’re not giving them the attention they deserve. New Jersey’s official list of endangered plants hasn’t been updated since 2013. In the intervening twelve years, the landscape and climate have changed dramatically, but the legal protections designed to safeguard native flora are stuck in the past.

The state’s Endangered Plant Species List Act, passed in 1989, directed the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to identify and maintain a list of rare native plants. The list guides conservation planning, informs development reviews, and should ensure that managers of state parks and wildlife management areas take special care to protect vulnerable species.

Inside the DEP’s Office of Natural Lands Management, a small team of five scientists – just one of them a botanist – maintains a database tracking 862 rare plant species. Forty percent of New Jersey’s 2,100 native plant species are considered rare, and 355 species are officially listed as “Endangered” (threatened with extinction)!

Species in the database represent an incredible diversity, from trees like the swamp birch to grasses like Pine Barrens reedgrass. There are many rare flowering plants, including the breathtaking wild lupine, swamp pink, and bog asphodel. There are even carnivorous plants on the verge of disappearing from New Jersey. One – the dwarf white bladderwort – has only been found in one place in the state.

Unfortunately, since the official list of endangered species hasn’t been kept up, it no longer reflects reality.

Some species we know are imperiled aren’t listed as endangered, according to Bob Cartica, executive director of the DEP’s Office of Natural Lands Management. “And others that are listed as Endangered are actually secure,” he adds. The result is a misleading disconnect between science and regulations that fails to protect the plants in danger of disappearing.

The DEP has done its part to fix that. An updated Endangered Plant List has been drafted and internally reviewed, and is now sitting in the Governor’s Office, awaiting sign-off. Until that approval comes, however, the process is frozen, and so is most progress protecting New Jersey’s rarest plants.

Every day of delay matters. Cartica notes that habitat loss and invasive species are rapidly erasing what’s left of the state’s unique flora. “Many of the known locations of these species are underneath shopping malls and warehouses,” he says. “They’ve been paved over.” When the list isn’t updated, imperiled species can disappear before we even know they need protection.

The other side of the coin is that developers and city planners may avoid disturbing or destroying plants that are listed as endangered when, in fact, their populations have increased and are no longer in need of protection.

Plants are part of New Jersey’s living legacy, a record of the ecosystems that shaped this land long before we did. But many are in trouble. To let them vanish is to lose part of the state’s identity.

Before Governor Phil Murphy transitions out of office he should release the revised list for public comment and adoption, ensuring that our laws reflect today’s science

You can help by contacting Governor Phil Murphy’s office by phone, text, or email. Visit https://www.nj.gov/governor/contact/all/ and speak up for protecting our plants! Tell the Governor to ensure these native plants have legal protections moving into 2026.

The flora of our state cannot afford to wait!

To learn more about how you can help preserve New Jersey’s natural resources, visit the New Jersey Conservation Foundation at www.njconservation.org or reach out to us at info@njconservation.org.