LIISMA is privileged to be hosted by the Long Island Native Plant Initiative (LINPI), a local non-profit organization at the forefront of preserving Long Island’s biodiversity. LINPI cultivates native plant species adapted to the Island’s distinct environmental conditions, contributing to conserving the region’s unique ecosystems.
The LIISMA-LINPI partnership is unique. While LIISMA focuses on managing invasive species to protect local ecosystems, LINPI nurtures native species for restoration. This one-of-a-kind partnership is a testament to our shared commitment to environmental conservation.
LINPI hosts LIISMA with funding from the New York State Environmental Protection Fund, as administered by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.
Founded by Polly Weigand in 2005, LINPI’s mission is to preserve Long Island’s biodiversity by cultivating ethically sourced ecotypic plants to ensure the commercial availability of native plants for nurseries, communities, and habitat restorations.
LINPI aims to establish a commercial source of ecotypic seeds for native plant production, contribute to and manage a regional seed bank, and foster demand for native plants through volunteer efforts, education, and outreach programs.
Led by board president Greg Lowenthal and the board of directors, LINPI cultivates native herbaceous and woody plants at the Sisters of Saint Joseph’s 212-acre Brentwood campus. The campus is an excellent site for LINPI, featuring 75 acres of pine-oak forest, 7 acres of native meadows, dozens of native gardens and rain gardens, 28 acres of farmland under agricultural easement, a solar array, and a sustainable waste treatment system. Guided by the Sister’s land ethic statement and a conservation plan developed with the Peconic Land Trust, the campus exemplifies the finest in environmental stewardship initiatives, aligning well with LINPI’s ethics and mission.
Ecotypic plants are native to our ecoregion, as defined by the EPA. Ecoregions are areas where ecosystems (and the type, quality, and quantity of environmental resources) are generally similar.
Ecotypic seeds are derived from parent plants and adapted to a specific area over time, thus offering numerous environmental benefits. These native plants are best adapted to our climate and environmental stressors such as drought, fire tolerance, and life on coastal Long Island. They tend to be more resistant to pests and disease, more resilient in competition with invasive species, and more supportive of pollinators and other native fauna.
LINPI propagates plants at the Brentwood campus using a greenhouse, two hoop houses, and founder plots. Founder plots are rows or blocks of plants grown in farm fields from diverse wild and ethically collected local seeds.
LINPI grows more than 40 species of forbs, grasses, shrubs, trees, and vines – all of Long Island genetic provenance. These include woody plants such as black chokeberry (Aronia melanocarpa), groundsel bush (Baccharis halimifolia), buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis), and sweet pepperbush (Clethra alnifolia) and herbaceous plants such as big bluestem (Andropogon gerardii), purple milkweed (Asclepias purpurascens), Maryland goldenaster (Chrysopsis mariana), and tall goldenrod (Solidago altissima).
Volunteers provide much of the work needed to collect and cultivate native seeds and plants, supported by LINPI staff Maggie Muzante, Lead Nursery Manager, and Pam Ireland, Nursery Manager.
Several times a year, LINPI hosts native plant sales that are open to the public. The next plant sale will be at the LINPI greenhouse in Brentwood on September 14 and 15, tentatively set for 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., and on September 21 at the Quogue Wildlife Refuge from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
LIISMA is grateful to be hosted by such an environmentally mindful organization. Many thanks to the LINPI board, staff, and volunteers for their hard work and tireless effort in “bridging the gap by going to seed” (Polly Weigand) and providing a valuable native plant resource for Long Island and beyond.’
Read more about LINPI at their website: https://www.linpi.org/. If you have any questions, please email info@linpi.org.
