"The World Conservation Union has estimated that 12 percent of all bird species are threatened with extinction because of habitat loss and invasive species."
-- Doug Tallamy
In one of my favorite cartoons, Dagwood's preference for a nap rather than mowing his lawn prompted what Blonde referred to as his "annual lawn-avoiding history lesson." His questions to his wife ranged from, "Do you think Rome fell because nobody cut the lawn?" to "Can you imagine Mrs. Edison ever saying, 'Tommy, mankind can wait on that whole electricity thing. Go gas up your edger!'" Strangely, our country's addiction to repetitive lawn labor marches on in spite of many of us sharing Dagwood's level of enthusiasm for the job.
There is a way out, but we will need to undergo an upending of our current behavior, experiencing an epiphany that won't come easily. For instance, we would have to abandon our love affair with grass and our investment in the tons of bug fighting/weed killing and fertilizing chemicals that we pour on our lawns annually to make grass grow so we can spend more hours of our lives mowing it down. We need also to come to terms with our practice of choosing plants that are not native to our region, but which often spread because they have no native enemies, requiring battle by humans.
We tend to love the notion that bugs aren't attracted to certain plants we select, forgetting that no bugs (including pollinators) can mean no birds, lizards, frogs or other wildlife that feed on and keep the balance of life going in our yards, pastures, waterways, and woods. The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates "one out of every three bites of food we eat exists because of animal pollinators like bees, butterflies and moths, birds and bats, beetles and other insects," and "three-fourths of the world's flowering plants and about 35 percent of the world's food crops depend on animal pollinators to reproduce." Please remember the food chain before you spread toxic poisons across your lawn, which will also wash into ditches, streams, rivers and onward, including into drinking water resources.
Doug Tallamy, who has written an easily understood book on invasive species, "Bringing Nature Home," described his own epiphany during a college course "that explained why most insect herbivores can only eat plants with which they share an evolutionary history," and "our native insects will not be able to survive on alien plant species."
Look around town today. The green understory of bushes in our urban woods, lining our yards and fencerows, stretching up and down our creeksand following our streets is largely bush honeysuckle with some privet hedge, Japanese honeysuckle vine and other invasives thrown into the mix. We've just passed the Bradford pear blooming period when those thorny mutants should have been attacked while still easy to identify. This ornamental pear was cultivated to be sterile, but (oops!) turned out to cross-pollinate with other pears. Those thousands of white blooming trees you saw along highways last month were not our native service berries or dogwoods, but rampaging alien Bradfords that we humans dreamed up for the yard decoration market. And they will drive out the space needed for native trees to grow, will not provide food for native bugs to eat and native birds will unwittingly spread them far and wide because the small fruit is what's available to them instead of native food.
Invasive plants occupying our properties are not only environmentally damaging, but are an economic cost as well. This spring alone, I've spent several hundred dollars having bush honeysuckle dug out of our yard because that is the best way to prevent its return without poisoning all of us in the process. Until we declare a citywide war on invasives, keeping invasives out will require constant vigilance and removal.
Fayetteville has an on-line invasive species educational packet with native plant alternatives listed at: http://www.fayetteville-ar.gov/3028/Invasive-Plants-and-Native-Alternatives. The site can be temperamental so call John Scott, the city's urban forester, at (479) 444-3470 if you have difficulty.
Luckily for us, Doug Tallamy, who is a professor and chair of the Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware, will give a program at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville on how our yards are an essential part of our overall ecosystem at 7 p.m. April 29. The event is free, but you must register very soon for the limited seating at: http://crystalbridges.org/event/spotlight-talks-dr-doug-tallamy-bringing-nature-home.
Information is also available by calling (479) 657-2335.
Commentary on 04/05/2016