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There are, by some estimates, more than 40 million acres of green lawns in the U.S., making turf grass the largest irrigated crop in the country. A new book suggests that landowners repurpose some of their landscaping for another purpose: creating a \u201cHomegrown National Park,\u201d a connected network of more natural gardens that could help stave off the insect apocalypse and the collapse of broader ecosystems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe have data showing we\u2019re deep into the sixth great extinction,\u201d says Douglas Tallamy, a professor of entomology and wildlife ecology at the University of Delaware and the author of the new book, called Nature\u2019s Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation That Starts in Your Yard. \u201cThings are disappearing on a regular basis. And those are the things that run the ecosystems that support us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A recent U.S. report on biodiversity found one million plant and animal species at risk of extinction, and insects are at particular risk. Another paper in 2019 found that insects face a rate of extinction eight times faster than mammals and birds, and the mass of insects is dropping so quickly that they could disappear within a century; because insects are essential for nature to function, their loss could trigger a \u201ccatastrophic collapse of nature\u2019s ecosytems,\u201d the researchers wrote. The species at imminent risk include those that are well-known, like varieties of bumblebees and dragonflies, and those that are obscure, like the Ohlone tiger beetle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Industrial agriculture, and pesticides, bear much of the blame. But habitat loss is another part of the problem. By repurposing parts of lawns as native habitat, and ending the use of chemicals on lawns themselves, insects would have a better chance of survival. So would birds and other animals that rely on insects for food, and plants that rely on insects for pollination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf we\u2019re going to have any birds, any life around us\u2014and we need to, because those are the things that run our ecosystems\u2014you have to have the food webs that support them,\u201d Tallamy says. \u201cLawn is terrible at that. It\u2019s not making any food for wildlife.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A typical American lawn made of non-native grass, modeled originally on landscaping that wealthy European landowners used on their estates to signal that they were rich enough to avoid growing food on vast swaths of land. In American suburbs, there\u2019s an expectation, often codified in local law that specifies how grass should be maintained, creating an unbroken sea of green across front yards. Lawns require huge amounts of water\u2014by an EPA estimate, nine billion gallons a day\u2014more than native plants adapted to local regions. They also don\u2019t absorb carbon as well as other plants. \u201cThe cool season European grasses that we have as our primary turf grasses have very short root systems,\u201d Tallamy says. \u201cCompared to any other plant, they\u2019re the worst at carbon sequestration.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He calculates that if homeowners converted just half their land to native plantings, it would collectively create an area larger than all national parks in the lower 48 states combined; it would also create better connections between existing national parks and preserves so that animals would have a better chance at survival. Even the smallest animals, like insects, struggle when their populations become fragmented, limited to the range of a preserved area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s challenging, of course, to make changes to how Americans use yards, especially when some communities strictly enforce community. In some cases, people may need to change the rules. \u201cHomeowners associations have been a barrier,\u201d he says. \u201cWhat I tell people to do is infiltrate them, you know, join them: become the president and an educator. They\u2019re going off rules that were made in the \u201970s. They were made to keep the status of the neighborhood up. It had nothing to do with the local ecology.\u201d Native plants, he says, can be used in landscaping in ways that look more formal and not wild and overgrown, especially in front yards. One of the simplest ways to start is by planting a native tree, and then using the area around the base of the tree to grow other native plants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One or two mower widths of manicured lawn provide an ideal cue for care, demonstrating that the associated landscape is intentional and not a product of neglect. [Photo: Doug Tallamy\/courtesy Timber Press]\n\n\n\n
Companies can also make changes in landscaping, as some are beginning to. Google, for example, has worked to restore wildlife habitat around its corporate headquarters, and has suggested that companies and cities could work together to create larger networks of native habitat. Tallamy suggests that native planting could happen on many types of land, including roadsides, golf courses, and land beneath power lines. He calculated that there\u2019s an area of land available larger than 13 states combined, including California and Texas. \u201cFinding a place to do this isn\u2019t the issue. It\u2019s just having the will to do it,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The idea of abandoning the lawn isn\u2019t new; Michael Pollan wrote about the case against lawns, including the ecological argument, as long ago as 1989. But there\u2019s growing interest now in making changes. In California, for example, after a years-long drought that may be returning again now, many homeowners did shift away from lawns to drought-friendly plants. And others are becoming more aware of the potential benefits for nature of making the change. \u201cMost people know there are problems, but they don\u2019t know what the solutions are,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd when they hear that there\u2019s something they can do that will actually make a big difference, they get excited about it. That big cultural shift where this is the norm hasn\u2019t really happened yet, but we\u2019re headed in that direction.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Excerpted from an article in Fast Company by Adele Peters – <\/em>https:\/\/www.fastcompany.com\/90471396\/why-we-need-to-kill-the-lawn<\/em><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"