Board passes law banning bamboo, fines up to $500 a day

The Village of Flower Hill is joining a growing list of Long Island communities banning invasive bamboo.

The board at its Aug. 1 meeting unanimously passed a law prohibiting new stalks of bamboo from being planted in the village. Anyone with bamboo already on their property can keep the plant as long as it is maintained and kept from growing onto neighboring properties, the new law states.

Violators face fines ranging from $100 to $500 a day, the law states.

Towns and villages across Long Island have been banning the plant because of its aggressive nature in which roots grow horizontally and its rhizomes spread, creating new shoots that can burrow under a neighbor’s property.

The towns of North Hempstead, Hempstead, Huntington, Brookhaven, Smithtown and Babylon have passed laws restricting the plant. The Village of Roslyn Harbor adopted a ban in June.