Mendham Township Joins Movement to Become a Wildlife-Friendly Town
Mendham Township, led by the Environmental Commission, recently registered with the
National Wildlife Federation & NJ Audubon's Community Wildlife Habitat program.
Each certified site within the community provides the four basic elements that all
wildlife need: food, water, cover and places to raise their young, while integrating
sustainable gardening practices like using native plants and not using pesticides.
Native plants are great choices for your garden or landscape. Because they evolved in your
region, they thrive in the local climate, weather patterns, rainfall levels, soil moisture
with little need for extra watering or pesticides or fertilizers and provide green
infrastructure to prevent flooding & storm water runoff. But most importantly, native
plants are the plants that wildlife rely on for survival. If each of us added one new
garden bed filled with native plants each year, the impact on wildlife and essential
pollinators would be huge. We already have 14 homes certified, will yours be next? Visit
https://www.nwf.org/CertifiedWildlifeHabitat to certify your yard.
The Mendham Township Committee supports this exciting new initiative and encourages
homeowners to learn more about the project and consider certifying their yards in order to
make Mendham Township a more wildlife-friendly community. Mayor Nick Monaghan "hopes
that residents will recognize how important their yard is to the health of our town and
its wildlife. Providing habitat and using sustainable gardening practices support our
local pollinators and other wildlife."
Our kickoff event will be participating in the 2nd annual Great Swamp Watershed
Association's Native Plant Sale. From April 1-22 you can order native plant plugs from
https://www.greatswamp.org/native-plant-sale/ Local pickup will be on April 30 from 2-4pm
at the Mendham Township Municipal parking lot at 2 West Main St in Brookside. We hope to
also give away free tree seedlings during this time. All residents are encouraged to come
by and learn more about the project and take home some free trees to help wildlife in
their yard.
Also save the date for a webinar on May 12 from 7-8pm titled "Gardens with Buzz"
by Mary Anne Borge. Mary Anne led Lambertville Goes Wild, which already achieved
certification and is an instructor at Bowman's Hill Wildflower Preserve, a
Pennsylvania Master Naturalist, and the Editor of Butterfly Gardener, a magazine published
by the North American Butterfly Association.
For more information and updates including upcoming webinars, follow us on Instagram
@sustainablemendham<http://www.instagram.com/sustainablemendham/> and on Facebook at
The Nature of
Mendham<http://www.facebook.com/thenatureofmendham>
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