Welcome! We are highly motivated Long Island volunteers concerned about the overwhelming growth of non-native  plants that are out-competing our native heritage and diminishing the value of our rich and complex ecosystems. All of us have a love of native plants and a passion for working to conserve and foster biodiversity both on Long Island and throughout New York State. We started this website to share our ideas and experiences and to create local connections.

We hope to inspire you to GO NATIVE LI and join us in this learning process! Areas we explore include:
– identifying and removing non-native invasive plants that can spread and cause harm in our own yards
– methods to safely remove invasive plants in the garden
– beautiful native plants that can replace the invasives, and the many benefits they bring to our gardens.

We also feature guest articles by native plant and wildlife lovers and others. Interested? Click here to email us.

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I’m Julie Sullivan, author of GoNativeLI and latecomer in life with discovering my love of nature.  After receiving my Master’s Degree in Environmental Science, over the next twenty years I founded and ran a Long Island based 501(c)3 non-profit organization dedicated to solid waste reduction.

Now I serve on the Town of Huntington’s Conservation Board, and through it, pilot a park restoration program to restore native grasses and herbaceous plants at 6 acres of old fields — land that was formerly grazed — while addressing another 6 acres of otherwise disturbed land and woods. My first lesson was to learn about removing the invasive plants overtaking the property. This website is about my journey through my experiences with the restoration and lessons learned. Hope you like the trip as much as I do.

Please join me anytime to volunteer at Carpenter Farm Park.