YOUR YARD CAN HURT/HELP CONSERVATION
“Nature’s Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation That Starts in Your Yard” by Douglas W. Tallamy (Timber Press, 256 pages, $29.95)
Climate change is real; it is happening fast. Are you concerned? Do you have a lawn? You can do something to reverse what is happening.
The ways we choose to landscape our yards impacts our environment.
In his book “Nature’s Best Hope” Douglas Tallamy provides simple plans that can help homeowners create habitats for wildlife while helping to reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
Our wild bird population is in a severe decline and that is due in large part to massive declines in insect populations that provide food for our feathered friends. Tallamy explains that one big problem which is contributing to these frightening losses is due to our lawns, which do not provide the essential plant life that nurtures the insect life that then provides food for the birds.
Our lawns and the non-native plants and trees that dominate our landscapes are essentially dead zones. The author explains how certain birds feed on particular plants and insects and how the caterpillars,
which are crucial to the survival of so many of our birds, can only feed on certain native plants and trees.
All those non-native plants and trees in our yards provide virtually nothing in the way of sustenance for the insect life that is required for many birds to survive.
Tallamy describes which kinds of native trees will attract caterpillars to our overstories and the native bushes, flowers, and weeds, yes, weeds, that we will want to plant beneath those trees to form understories that will also feed caterpillars, butterflies, moths, native bees, and ultimately, the birds.
We are facing a climate crisis along with a pollination crisis.
Our native bees are in trouble and if we don’t have bees to pollinate our flowers and our crops then the threat of extinction that is very real for so many types of flora and fauna will eventually extend to us, the one species that could have done something to reverse the damage we already did to the only planet we have.
Tallamy lists native trees that support the most caterpillar life; white oaks are the best. He suggests planting lots of young trees. And those native plants in our yards, the goldenrod, the milkweed, all those unloved plants so many of us want to eradicate, those weeds, are some of the best plants for sustaining insect and bird life.
Those bright lights that some of us leave on all night are another lethal threat to insect life.
The author suggests ways that we can have lights without exterminating our insect allies. While this reviewer is no fan of mosquitoes, he did find many excellent justifications in this book to encourage habitats for insects.
The Wright Memorial Public Library in Oakwood is sponsoring a community-wide read of this important book. Contact the library for the listing of events and to obtain a copy.