James M. O’Neill , Staff Writer, @JamesMONeill15:54 p.m. ET June 14, 2017
As peak gardening season lures North Jersey homeowners to landscape supply centers, they buy and cart home many shrubs and trees that — just over the state line in New York — are prohibited in suburban yards.
Many Northeast states have cracked down on the sale of non-native plant species because they out-compete and suffocate native plant species that birds, butterflies and other insects rely on for food. Some environmentalists describe these invasive non-natives as if they were thugs marauding through area forests.