Invasive Plants In New York
In 2012, the Governor of New York State signed into law the Invasive Species Prevention Act,
which prohibits or regulates the transport and sale of certain invasive species
1
, including plants.This act requires the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets and the New York
State Department of Environmental Conservation to develop regulations concerning the sale,
purchase, possession, introduction, importation, and transport of these species.
This Act also directs the agencies to develop both a permit process, and specific lists of
species, which will be subject to varying degrees of regulation. Towards this end, protocols have
been developed to determine the invasiveness of certain species, and the results of running a
species through these protocols will determine how they are regulated.
For purposes of this guide, the City of New York expects to follow the species rankings as
determined by the State. This list does not include all invasive or potentially invasive plant
species, but does include those that are currently listed in the final regulations.
The plants on this list are effectively banned from planting on public land, and it is strongly
suggested that gardeners and landscape professionals use alternative species.
The table in this chapter is excerpted from the list issued with the final adopted New York State
regulations in September 2014. Cultivars of these species are regulated as the parent species
until a separate cultivar assessment is performed.
Invasive Species
An invasive species is defined as an organism that is not native to the ecosystem under
consideration and whose introduction causes or is likely to cause harm to the environment,
economy, or human health
2. Invasive plants harm the environment by displacing native flora,
which in turn, impacts wildlife and other species dependant on the flora. They impact ecological
stability and biodiversity by disrupting such processes as hydrology, nutrient cycling, natural
succession, wildfire regime and soil erosion.
Invasive plants have damaged more than a thousand acres of Parks natural lands. Research
suggests that a number of these invasive plants, particularly vines, will be beneficiaries of
increased atmospheric carbon dioxide, which could make them an even larger problem. By
1
Under the law, invasive species is defined as (a) nonnative to the ecosystem under the consideration; and (b) whose
introduction causes or is likely to cause economic harm or harm human health, Environmental Conservation Law
§ 9 - 1709 as amended.
2
ECL § 9 - 1703 (10).