The point of the talk, and the book, is that each one of us is Nature's Best Hope. And that by turning lawn in to native plant gardens, each of us can help reverse the tide of ecological suicide our society has been committing.
It is a powerful message of hope, in that individual actions, easily done be each of us, can actually make a difference. And it ties in nicely with what we've already been doing with our War on Lawn.
And one such small thing that can make a big difference is setting aside an area for native bees to nest. I'm sure you've seen the stories about the problems with Honey Bee hives. Our native bees are also facing challenges, mainly pesticides and habitat loss. Well, we don't use any chemicals** in our yard. And now we've added a bit of habitat.
A 2' x 2' square area of bare soil, aka dirt. That's all you have to do. It helps if it is in a dry area, with a slight southern slope. But any bare dirt area should do. The bees, and all other life on Earth, will thank you.
🐝 🦋 🐛 🦋 🐛 🦋 🐝
* Last summer we spent a weekend at our friend Edie's place in the Poconos. And while there did a bit of mothing. Later that summer we went to Mothapalooza (which I'll blog about eventually ...). And at Mothapalooza each night there are multiple mothing stations set up in the surrounding forests. And on the first night, Patty and I drove up to one such station at which there were but two other people, the two guys manning the station. As Patty and I were looking at the moths we spotted one that we had seen at Edie's place. So I said, "We saw that one at Edie's place." To which one of the gentlemen responded, "It is too bad Edie isn't here this year." So I asked, "who should we tell Edie she was missed by?", to which the gentleman replied, "Doug Tallamy". And that is how we met Dr. Tallamy.
** Of course we use chemicals. Dihydrogen Monoxide for example. What we don't use are chemicals to inhibit or kill plants or animals. Nor do we use any fertilizers.
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