Fed up with invasive species and sterile landscapes, Douglas Tallamy urges Americans to go native and go natural
All the flowers, birds and butterflies you see on my Tumblr feed and http://rosemarydanielis.com come from the front and back yard of my house. Welcome nature in - it is soooo worth it!
"Homegrown National Park is meant to bring about not just a horticultural revolution, but a cultural one, bridging the human-dominated landscape and the natural world. “If you do this at your house or in your local park, you don’t have to go to Yellowstone to interact with nature,” Tallamy says. “You won’t have bison, you won’t have Mystic Falls, but you can have nature outside your door. Isn’t that what you want for your kids—and for yourself?
Suggestions:
1. Shrink your lawn.
2. Remove invasive plants.
3. Create no-mow zones.
4. Equip outdoor lights with motion sensors.
5. Plant keystone species.
6. Welcome pollinators.
7. Fight mosquitoes with bacteria.
8. Avoid harsh chemicals."
Fed up with invasive species and sterile landscapes, Douglas Tallamy urges Americans to go native and go natural
Excerpt from this Smithsonian story:
The land is ten gently sloping acres in rural southeastern Pennsylvania, at one time mowed for hay, with a handsome farmhouse that Douglas Tallamy bought around 20 years ago. It isn’t much to look at, by the standards most Americans apply to landscaping—no expansive views across swaths of lawn set off by flowerbeds and specimen trees—but, as Tallamy says, “We’re tucked away here where no one can see us, so we can do pretty much what we want.” And what he wants is for this property to be a model for the rest of the country, by which he means suburbs, exurbs, uninhabited woods, highway margins, city parks, streets and backyards, even rooftops and window boxes, basically every square foot of land not paved or farmed. He wants to see it replanted with native North American flora, supporting a healthy array of native North American butterflies, moths and other arthropods, providing food for a robust population of songbirds, small mammals and reptiles. He even has a name for it: Homegrown National Park.
Tallamy incorporated his thinking into “Homegrown National Park,” an aspirational project to repurpose half of America’s lawnscape for ecologically productive use. That would comprise more than 20 million acres, the equivalent of nearly ten Yellowstones. The intention is to unite fragments of land scattered across the country into a network of habitat, which could be achieved, he wrote in Bringing Nature Home, “by untrained citizens with minimal expense and without any costly changes to infrastructure.” The plots wouldn’t have to be contiguous, although that would be preferable. Moths and birds can fly, and you’re helping them just by reducing the distance they have to travel for food.
“Every little bit helps,” Tallamy says. “Most people don’t own 50 acres, so it’s not going to be that hard. The minimal thing is, you plant a tree and it’s the right tree. Look at what’s happened at my house.”
The idea was picked up by the writer Richard Louv, who coined the term “nature-deficit disorder” in his jeremiad Last Child in the Woods, and by the Canadian naturalist and philanthropist David Suzuki, whose foundation is supporting an effort to implement the project on a limited scale in Toronto.
The amphibians could actually be five separate species, some of which may already be extinct
Despite (or perhaps because of) their formidable size, the Chinese giant salamanders are in trouble. They’re a prized food in their native country, with some creatures selling for more than $1,500 apiece.
The amphibians could actually be five separate species, some of which may already be extinct
Excerpt:
There’s no other way to say it: the Chinese giant salamander is a cutie. Like the charismatic axolotl, this amphibian’s limbs are adorably stubby for its size, and a smug smile constantly plays at the corners of its slimy black mouth. But unlike most salamanders, Chinese giants can grow to nearly six feet—yes, six feet—long.
Despite (or perhaps because of) their formidable size, the Chinese giant salamanders are in trouble. They’re a prized food in their native country, with some creatures selling for more than $1,500 apiece. This human demand has devastated wild populations, leaving them critically endangered. To assess the state of these wild populations, an international team of researchers recently conducted the most exhaustive survey of wild populations to date. In a related study, researchers teased out the genetics of a large sample of the salamanders.
The results reveal some surprises. For one thing, genetics suggest that what was once thought to be one species may actually be five species. But no matter how you count them, one thing is clear: Chinese giant salamanders are heading for extinction.
Throughout the exhaustive search, the researchers only located 24 Chinese giant salamanders in the wild. But it gets worse: After analyzing their genetics, says Turvey, it appeared that these salamanders were escapees or releases from commercial salamander farms, where millions of the creatures are grown for food.
Fed up with invasive species and sterile landscapes, Douglas Tallamy urges Americans to go native and go natural
2022.03.26 | Our environment is important and the animals in it even more so.
“The truth is that we need invertebrates but they don’t need us. If human beings were to disappear tomorrow, the world would go on with little change....But if invertebrates were to disappear, I doubt that the human species could last more than a few months. Most of the fishes, amphibians, birds and mammals would crash to extinction about the same time. Next would go the bulk of the flowering plants and with them the physical structure of the majority of forests and other terrestrial habitats of the world.
Despite making up 5 percent of the world's population, indigenous people manage large swathes of land, two-thirds of which are still in a natural state
The darker the purple, the more Indigenous control. (Garnett et. al.)
Excerpt:
Three years ago, an international team of researchers set out to find out just how much land the world’s indigenous people controlled.
After pulling together data from 127 sources, including state records, census data, public maps and other studies, they published the first reliable data on the topic in the journal Nature Sustainability. The new paper estimates that indigenous people, who make up approximately 5 percent of the world’s population, use or have management rights to more than a quarter of the earth’s surface—roughly 14.7 million square miles of land in 87 political regions. What’s more, the authors suggest that empowering these people to make more decisions about land use could be a big step in conserving, restoring and protecting ecologically valuable habitat around the globe.
“Understanding the extent of lands over which Indigenous Peoples retain traditional connection is critical for several conservation and climate agreements,” lead author Stephen Garnett from Charles Darwin University in Australia says in a press release. “Not until we pulled together the best available published information on Indigenous lands did we really appreciate the extraordinary scale of Indigenous Peoples’ ongoing influence.”
That influence is usually for the best when it comes to conservation. Co-author James Watson of the Wildlife Conservation Society says that indigenous-controlled lands are usually more ecologically sound than other areas. “We found that about two thirds of Indigenous lands are essentially natural,” he says in the release. “That is more than double the proportion for other lands.”
