By Susan Whitsell, CSJP
Since our founding, we CSJPs have been concerned about the health of Earth.
“The ancient forests have been hewn down with little profit to the spoiler and to the injury in many ways of the native. ... The country which was in ‘God’s keeping’ then has but little improved since it came into the keeping of man.” Mother Clare, The History of Ireland, Acts of the 21st General Chapter, p 18
Every six years, we gather as a community to evaluate our past achievements and plan for the next six years. We have continued Mother Clare’s commitment to care for Earth and named our interconnectedness and kinship with Earth (Chapter Acts of 1996, 2002, 2008). At the 2014 meeting we created a Land Ethic that will guide our choices about future acquisition, sale and use of land.
It is this background that inspired and empowered many of us who returned to the St. Michael Villa (SMV) campus, which had been our home when we entered the Congregation over 60 years earlier, to creatively make changes to the property situated on prime land on the Palisades of the Hudson River in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. We saw the potential to add some color to the newly created pathway to a beautiful gazebo at the north end of our property on the place we call “The Point.”
We worked with Karen LaPara, the current administrator of SMV, and Mindy McDonald, CSJP, and began to implement the dream. The very capable maintenance staff of Antonio Rivera, Pedro Merly and Alex Rodriguez provided the energy and rototilled the 5’ x 550’ piece of land that ran parallel to the path. We discovered the Vermont Wildflower Farm online and, with the help of their staff, chose two native wildflower packages to grow on the patch. The Eastern US Native Plants package consisted mainly of perennials, and we quickly learned they took a year to flower, so we added the Hummingbird/Butterfly mix, which consisted mostly of annuals that gave us a first year of beautiful color! The second year, the meadow was alive with black-eyed Susans. We were delighted and meticulously watered and weeded the area. Huong Nguyen and Thanh Do, two sisters from Vietnam temporarily residing with us, helped the staff lovingly care for the area.
In 2024, with the encouragement of Andrea Nenzel, CSJP, our Congregation Leader, we began the process of enlarging the area of native flowers. When we searched the web, the majority of companies we found showed beautifully manicured gardens, but we knew that was not what we wanted. Then we found Wild Ridge Plants, a small native plant nursery in western New Jersey, owned by a young couple, Rachel and Jared. Rachel Mackow is dedicated to the restoration of native plant communities that sustain both people and wildlife. Her husband, Jared Rosenbaum, is a botanist with extensive experience in stewardship and monitoring of natural communities. We contacted them and met via Zoom twice. When Rachel’s response after reading some of our documents was “… the language that we're speaking is the same language. And as a lay person, I have often been really encouraged when people of spirit see environmental action or ecology or caretaking of the Earth as in alignment with stewarding this gift that we were given,” we immediately knew we had a perfect match.
After we hired them, they walked the property. Jared was excited to see some native trees were growing well and that the soil could be easily seeded. They created a proposal with a multi-phased process to “Restore Harmony with Earth’s Inhabitants at the Campus of the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace.”
In January 2025, Rachel gave a presentation to both the residents and staff of St. Michael Villa to educate and enable each person to be part of the process. That same day, we inter-seeded the three lawn areas on the property that we had chosen to convert to native wildflower meadows and thus greatly enhanced plant diversity on the campus as well as provide significant support to pollinators, songbirds, and other wildlife.
The schedule for maintenance of the three wildflower meadows consists of various tasks each year. We are now in the second year and when Rachel and Jared came for their site visit in July, they were extremely happy with the growth they found in the three meadow areas.
The process and progress we have described is only a beginning. We will continue with ensuing phases of the project as time goes by!
PROJECT GOALS
To create peaceful, thriving, visually beautiful natural areas that reflect the CSJP’s mission and ethics.
To create a network of natural areas and gardens based upon native plants that will provide for a variety of wildlife, including birds, butterflies and other pollinators.
To create natural landscapes that are places of reflection and therapeutic value to residents and staff.
To reduce emissions from regular mowing practices, to create a better habitat for native flora and fauna and effectively naturalize the campus so that it connects with surrounding natural areas.
To emphasize the campus’ connection to its geological and natural context and engage in plant conservation that reveals the ecological character and unique landscape.
This article appeared in the Autumn 2026 issue of Living Peace