Who We Are
We are a coalition of organizations dedicated to promoting and protecting native plants, primarily at the state and local levels of Maryland government.
The coalition includes members of:
As our grassroots efforts continue to grow, we expect additional organizations to join our coalition, so watch this space!
What We Do
We advocate for native plants and their place in our shared world. This means making sure people know the value of plants native to Maryland, and protecting wild spaces where they have evolved to thrive over millions of years.
We do most of our work in the Maryland statehouse, especially during the Maryland General Assembly. We have written bills, found sponsors in both the House of Delegates and Senate, organized write-in and call-in campaigns, and brought several bills across the finish line.
However, no level of government is too small. Change often starts in local communities and city/county governments, and then bubbles up to the state level. Plus, some areas may have unique needs regarding native plant advocacy.
A Few of Our Wins
Maryland Native Plants Program
In 2023, we worked with Senator Ben Brooks (District 10) and Delegate Dana Stein (District 11B) in the Maryland General Assembly to establish the Maryland Native Plants Program, “to encourage and promote the use and sale of plants native to Maryland […] and to educate the public on native plants.”
One of the first benefits of this new program was an assessment of Maryland growers of native plants, which native species they were growing, and what proportion of their total species were natives. That research led to the first comprehensive Commercial Maryland Native Plants List and a new program called Maryland’s Best Native Plants, which recognizes growers who focus on selling Maryland native plants.
The commercial list led to an incredible new resource for both novice and experienced native plant gardeners: the Maryland Native Plant Guides. This series of guides (one for each Maryland ecoregion) are being written and revised by the Maryland Native Plants Program staff and a team of talented volunteers.
New Regulations to Ban the Sale of Invasive Plant Species in Maryland
Loving native plants isn’t just about planting them. Their habitats must be protected from invasive species or we risk losing them forever (and the animals who depend on them).
Under the state law enacted in 2011, plants considered invasive in Maryland were listed in two categories: Tier 1 (prohibited) or Tier 2 (warning signage required at point of sale). Only six species in the state were listed as Tier 1 and only 13 as Tier 2. This law primarily relied on consumers to actively choose to not plant the hundreds of invasive species.
In 2023, the Maryland Native Plant Coalition drafted the Biodiversity and Agriculture Protection Act to revise the law, eliminating the tier system and creating a regulatory path for plant species to be quickly assessed as invasive by experts and prohibited from sale in the state.
State Delegate Linda Foley (District 15) and State Senator Ben Brooks (District 10) sponsored the bill in their respective houses (jointly filed as HB979 and SB915) and shepherded it through their respective environmental committees. We worked with growers in the state to address their concerns and won the support of the Maryland Green Industry Council.
The bill passed at all levels and was signed into law on May 9, 2024.
The wheels of regulation turned a bit slowly after that, but on January 15, 2026, all of the former Tier 2 plants were made prohibited from sale (after the phase out period). Now there is a clear pipeline in place to assess and prohibit invasive plant species in Maryland, and we expect additional species to be prohibited each year!
You can read more specifics about the regulatory updates here:
Join Our Movement
Grassroots advocacy at the state and local level is ever changing. Sometimes we will work quietly for years on an issue, and other times a watershed moment will bring an issue to the forefront unexpectedly.
The best way you can help is to stay subscribed to our newsletter and be ready to advocate to your state and local representatives. We’ll try to make that process as easy as possible.
In the meantime, feel free to recommend us to a friend who also cares about promoting and protecting native plants in Maryland.
