Doug Tallamy believes every homeowner should do their part to protect native plants that grow in their yard.
Tallamy, an entomologist and co-founder of Homegrown National Park, said 44 million acres of lawn in the continental United States do not support local biodiversity, which can harm wildlife. His Massachusetts-based non profit works to educate people about the dangers of perfectly-manicured American lawns and invasive plants.
“It's a different form of littering, we tend to landscape our yards with plants from other countries,” Tallamy told Connecticut Public’s “Where We Live.” “In the Northeast, it's largely plants from Asia."
"The problem with that," he said, "is they have pushed out the native plants."
Native plants can support a variety of caterpillars and insects, a co-evolved symbiotic relationship that can be beneficial for both species.
Take a classic example: monarch butterflies and milkweed. In this symbiotic relationship, the insect uses the plant to lay eggs and is a food source for monarch caterpillars. It’s an arrangement that’s been working for millions of years, according to the National Park Service.
But pesticides, a need for freshly-cut grass and America’s penchant for invasive ornamental plants have broken these types of co-evolutions down, Tallamy said, filling American lawns with plants that don’t support anything.
“We're hammering the nature that supports us, that keeps us alive, that provides the life support that we all need,” Tallamy said.
To help, Tallamy said homeowners should embrace more native plants and consider letting nature make its way a little bit more aggressively into your property. He recommends planting keystone trees, such as white oak or birch, and reducing the use of fertilizer and pesticides.
“We're totally dependent on life support that nature provides,” Tallamy said. “That makes all of us responsible for supporting nature. It's just our personal responsibility.”
Learn More:
Listen to the full interview on Where We Live: “Efforts to clean litter are lifesaving for wildlife”
Connecticut Public's Catherine Shen and Katie Pellico contributed to this report.
