Conservation Outdoors

Compleat Naturalist: Nature’s Best Hope

By Laura & Hal Mahan

We know you love nature. We all care about the environment. We worry that the environment is being despoiled and is not well enough protected for future generations. We also admit that it is a very helpless feeling at times. The issues are so huge and complex, more than any one person could possibly affect. But we can, argues author Douglas Tallamy in his newest book, Nature’s Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation That Starts in Your Yard.

Compleat Naturalist: Nature's Best Hope

Tallamy is best known for his popular book, Bringing Nature Home: How You Can Sustain Wildlife with Native Plants. This book promotes the idea that using native plants in the landscape helps support the native insect populations that evolved alongside plants, which in turn provide food for wildlife. In his new book, Tallamy takes a broader view, promoting the idea that each of us can make a difference.

But to the beginning naturalist this concept of native plants and ecology can be daunting. How do you know what’s native? How do you find nurseries that specialize in native plants? How do you know what plants are “invasives” that should be avoided? The answer is to begin small and learn and do a little at a time.

For example you could begin by slowly starting to shrink the amount of grass lawn in your yard by expanding planting of shrubs and flowers a bit. Don’t worry; no one is promoting the elimination of lawns. Just, perhaps, have a little less.

Removing the invasive plant species is another noble project, sometimes not so small. In our yard we are constantly battling English ivy, which has gotten out of control. We also watch constantly for vines of oriental bittersweet which seem to climb at once when you are not looking.

There are a few species of native plants that Tallamy calls “keystone genera” that are the backbone of local ecosystems which might be the beginning of your Homegrown National Park. These keystone species are the food that fuels the most insects, which in turn fuel the insect-eaters. The winners are native oaks, cherries, willows, birches, cottonwoods and elms. You can find the plant genera that best support local food webs for your area at the National Wildlife Federation’s Native Plant Finder website (nwf.org/nativeplantfinder).

Talk to your neighbors about your Homegrown National Park. Promote the idea of avoiding insecticides and herbicides in the landscape. Choosing native plants and creating rich organic soils will allow you to avoid adding these chemicals to the environment.

Take the step. Find the local nurseries that specialize in native plants and have knowledgeable staff who can help you get started.

After all, as Tallamy points out, even though this seems like a daunting task to learn, we have learned new things over time, such as programming a VCR back in the ‘80s, email in the ‘90s, and, now, mastering our smart devices. All we need is the motivation.

Laura and Hal Mahan are owners of The Compleat Naturalist, located at 2 Brook Street in the Historic Biltmore Village. To learn more, visit CompleatNaturalist.com or call 828.274.5430.

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