STATE OF NEW JERSEY
219th LEGISLATURE
PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 2020 SESSION
Sponsored by:
Assemblyman ERIC HOUGHTALING
District 11 (Monmouth)
Assemblywoman JOANN DOWNEY
District 11 (Monmouth)
SYNOPSIS
Requires State Board of Agriculture to provide list of environmentally harmful plant species to certain committees of Legislature each year.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative Counsel.
An Act concerning environmentally harmful plant species and supplementing chapter 7 of Title 4 of the Revised Statutes.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. The State Board of Agriculture shall provide annually to the Senate Environment and Energy Committee and the Assembly Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee or their successors, a list of all plant species, which, in the opinion of the board, should not be sold or cultivated in the State because of the plant's detrimental effect on the environment. For each item, the list shall include:
a. the binomial name and all common names of the plant;
b. the life cycle of the plant;
c. the means of reproduction of the plant;
d. the geographical distribution of the plant throughout the State;
e. whether or not the plant is considered by the Department of Environmental Protection to be an invasive species;
f. whether or not the plant has a detrimental effect on the migration and life cycle of animal pollinators; and
g. any detrimental effect on the environment caused by the plant.
2. This act shall take effect immediately.
STATEMENT
This bill requires the State Board of Agriculture to provide each year a list of environmentally harmful plants to the Senate Environment and Energy Committee and the Assembly Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee or their successors.
The list of environmentally harmful plants would include information about the life cycle, means of reproduction, geographical distribution, adverse effects on pollinators, and adverse effects on the environment as whole of each plant.