Welcome to No Mow May Ridgewood! No Mow May is a grass roots effort to help our pollinators and raise awareness of their importance for our environment.     The goal of No Mow May is to let your grass grow for the entire month of May, creating habitat and food sources for early season pollinators. The benefits of letting lawns go undisturbed for the month of May include: Increased habitat for pollinators and wildlife Cutting down on pollution and reducing CO2 emissions Making yards safer for kids and pets by reducing the amount of harsh chemicals (Pesticides and Herbicides) used in on our lawns. Promoting sustainable landscapes for healthier neighborhoods Create a safe environment for learning and observation Showing solidarity that you care about our environment and our Village Interested in participating in No Mow May Ridgewood? All you need to do is sign up here and watch your lawn become an optimum environment for pollinators. Everyone who signs up will get a No Mow May Ridgewood sign for their yard, so all your neighbors will know that you’re helping the environment.  No Mow May Ridgewood – BEE Ready and sign up today!  No Mow May Ridgewood

FAQs

Join the Village of Ridgewood as we participate in No Mow May! By leaving your property unmown and pesticide-free for the month of May, you’re creating habitat for pollinators and other wildlife. The start of the growing season is a critical time for hungry, newly emerging native bees. Floral resources may be hard to find, especially in urban and suburban landscapes. By allowing lawns to grow longer, and not applying pesticides to flowering plants in your lawn, you can provide nectar and pollen to help your bee neighbors thrive. No Mow May is a small step towards making our yards more natural, environmentally friendly, and healthier for people, pets and pollinators. 

First and foremost you are creating habitat and food sources for pollinators. These pollinators are why our flowers, plants, trees, and gardens look so beautiful.  Thanks to pollinators, we are able to enjoy the outdoors, and without pollinators our flowers, plants, and trees would cease to exist.  By not mowing your lawn for the month of May, you are helping pollinators survive, which in turn will ensure they continue pollinating our flowers, plants, trees, and gardens.  A recent experiment explored whether different lawn mowing frequencies influenced bee abundance and diversity, and the results found that bee abundance increased when lawns were mown less frequently.  Lawnswith a three-week mowing treatment had significantly greater floral abundance than the one or two-week treatments.  The researchers documented a staggering 93 species of native pollinators, with supplemental observations bringing the total number to 111 species⁠—nearly a quarter of all bee species native to the area!    You can read the full study at: https://www.fs.usda.gov/nrs/pubs/jrnl/2018/nrs_2018_Lerman_001.pdf  

The United States Forest Service puts it simply: “Without pollinators, the human race and all of earth’s terrestrial ecosystems would not survive.”  You can read more at: https://www.fs.usda.gov/wildflowers/pollinators/importance.shtml

Full yard, backyard, front yard, or sections of your yard all work!  Every little bit helps, and if you can only keep some of your lawn unmown that too will work.  The goal of No Mow May is to raise awareness and get as many residents as possible to participate. So whatever you can do will make a difference! 

All you have to do is sign up here  It is important to sign up, as the Village of Ridgewood needs to know the address of everyone who is participating, exempting them from the traditional lawn care ordinances. It’s free to sign up and you will get your own No Mow May sign to put in your front yard!  

No.  All mosquitoes like water because that’s where they breed and mosquito larvae and pupae live in the water.  Having longer grass will not increase the mosquito population. 

May is only 31 days.  For mammals that is a short period of time, and they are not going to appear out of nowhere, move into someone's yard and reproduce in just a few weeks. The rat's gestation period is 21-23 days, and for mice, it’s 20 days. Therefore it's unrealistic to think that their population will increase simply by not mowing grass for the month of May.     In Suburban and Urban areas, rats and mice live where there is an established food source.  (garbage, etc.).  Having longer grass for a total of 31 days will not change the amount of food in the area. It’s important to think about where rats and mice are currently living.  Having long grass will not make them suddenly appear.  Meaning, if there is an established  rodent problem, then it should be dealt with immediately regardless of someone's stance on mowing their lawn or not.

Yes!  You can read the following New York Times articles: In Wisconsin: Stowing Mowers, Pleasing Bees Click Here Are Butterflies Wildlife? Depends Where You Live Click Here How (and Why) to Use Native Plants Click Here For the Butterflies — and the Rest of Us Click Here 

Xerces Society https://xerces.org/ No Mow May https://beecityusa.org/no-mow-may/ Bee City USA https://beecityusa.org/ Project 1000 Acres https://project1000acres.org/ Green Ridgewood https://www.greenridgewoodnj.org/ Ridgewood Parks and Recreation https://www.ridgewoodnj.net/departments/recreation

CLICK HEREto Register For No Mow May

     Pursuant to the requirements of the Open Public Meetings Act, Chapter 231, P.L. 1975, notice is hereby given that the Village Council of the Village of Ridgewood will be holding both in-person and online Work Sessions and Public Meetings, via a Zoom webinar. The dates and times of the meetings are listed below.

     The meetings listed below will be held in-person in the Sydney V. Stoldt, Jr. Court Room, on the 4^th Floor of Ridgewood Village Hall, 131 North Maple Avenue, Ridgewood, NJ.

     The information for the public to be online or call into the Zoom webinar for all meetings, is as follows:

URL:https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82592799142?pwd=aUlFVTBiditwbEsyRXJFcUFnd3ovdz09

Passcode: 07450

Phone Numbers: 1-646-558-8656, 1-646-931-3860, 1-309-205-3325, or

1-312-626-6799

Webinar ID: 825 9279 9142

     Formal action may be taken by the Village Council at any of the meetings listed below.

Date            Time         Type of Meeting

1/25/2023       7:30 p.m.     Public Work Session

2/1/2023        7:30 p.m.     Public Work Session

2/8/2023        8:00 p.m.     Public Meeting

2/22/2023       7:30 p.m.     Public Work Session

3/1/2023        7:30 p.m.     Public Work Session

3/8/2023        8:00 p.m.     Public Meeting

3/22/2023       7:30 p.m.     Public Work Session

4/3/2023        7:30 p.m.     Public Work Session

4/12/2023        8:00 p.m.     Public Meeting

4/26/2023       7:30 p.m.     Public Work Session

5/3/2023        7:30 p.m.     Public Work Session

5/10/2023       8:00 p.m.     Public Meeting

5/24/2023       7:30 p.m.     Public Work Session

6/7/2023        7:30 p.m.     Public Work Session

6/14/2023       8:00 p.m.     Public Meeting

6/28/2023       7:30 p.m.     Public Work Session

7/12/2023       7:30 p.m.     Public Work Session

7/19/2023       8:00 p.m.     Public Meeting

8/2/2023        7:30 p.m.     Public Work Session

8/9/2023        8:00 p.m.     Public Meeting

9/6/2023        7:30 p.m.     Public Work Session

9/13/2023       8:00 p.m.     Public Meeting

9/27/2023       7:30 p.m.     Public Work Session

10/4/2023       7:30 p.m.     Public Work Session

10/11/2023      8:00 p.m.     Public Meeting

10/25/2023      7:30 p.m.     Public Work Session

11/1/2023       7:30 p.m.     Public Work Session

11/8/2023       8:00 p.m.     Public Meeting

12/6/2023       7:30 p.m.     Public Work Session

12/13/2023      8:00 p.m.     Public Meeting

                             Heather A. Mailander, RMC/MMC/CPM

                                Village Manager/Village Clerk

House of Representatives

Pallota - 2950
Gottheimer - 4527

County Executive

Caliguire - 3007
Tedesco - 3932

Board of County Commissioner

Holden - 3065
Lin - 3041
Paul - 3044
Sullivan - 3875
Amoroso - 3869
Ortiz - 3671

Municipal Election

Van Goor - 2060
Winograd - 3274
Weitz - 3390
Knudsen - 2466

CLICK HERE for a PDF of results by district.

All Village offices and departments will be closed on Friday, November 11^th,  in observance of the Veterans Day holiday.

There will be no garbage or recycling pick up on this day and the Recycling Center will also be closed. 

The Recycling Center will be open on Saturday, November 12th, from 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

All Village offices and departments will reopen on Monday, November 14th, at 8:30 a.m. 

As always, the Police Department, on the Second Floor of Village Hall, will be open on this holiday.