Prince George's County, MD Landscaping Rules: Native Plants (2026)

County Code Sec. 25-121(a)(9), part of the Woodland and Wildlife Habitat Conservation Requirements in Subtitle 25, states plainly that native plants shall be used for all required plantings on an approved Tree Conservation Plan (TCP). Sec. 25-118(61) defines a native plant species as one native to the Mid-Atlantic region, as identified in the county's Environmental Technical Manual, which the Planning Board maintains and amends. The requirement sits alongside Sec. 25-121(a)(8), which directs that wildlife habitat be preserved, maintained, and restored wherever possible with an emphasis on connecting natural or reforested areas, and Sec.

25-121(a)(10), which lets a Forest Stand Delineation or Natural Resource Inventory evaluate invasive non-native vegetation for removal credit toward the site's conservation threshold under Sec. 25-122(d)(5). Sec. 25-118(51) defines an invasive species as one identified in the Technical Manual that shows a strong capacity for reproduction that displaces native plant communities. The planting requirement is triggered on top of the site's woodland conservation and afforestation thresholds set out in Table 1 of Sec. 25-121(c), which range from a 50% woodland conservation threshold in the Reserved Open Space, Agricultural, and Agricultural-Residential zones down to 20% in denser residential zones such as RSF-95 and RMF-48.

The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission's Planning Department reviews TCPs for conformance with this native-planting standard before approval, and the plan cannot be approved if required plantings substitute non-native or exotic species.