Have you ever seriously wondered whether your yard has a positive or negative effect on the environment? Consider the following:
Watering your lawn depletes water resources. Mowing, using aerators, leaf blowers, weed whackers, and edgers add to air pollution and eventually to global warming. To cut your yard one time, your lawn mower emits as much pollution as a car on a 300 mile trip.
Excess fertilizers and pesticides run off into streams and lakes and destroy marine life. Lawn clippings are over 20% of all household waste. Lawn owners use up to 10 times more chemical pesticides an acre than do farmers. In many western states, lawn watering accounts for as much as 60 percent of urban water use. In our country, our lawns cover over 25,000,000 acres of countryside. We spend an estimated 30 billion dollars each year to maintain the vast green blanket. Would you believe grass is the country’s largest single crop?
As bad as the above sounds, we really haven’t touched on the real negative to our perpetual care lawn system. We have created 25 million acres of an essentially sterile environment, totally absent of any wildlife. Nothing can live on our grass carpets.
If we look back on our country’s history, we can see the development of the lawn. Our great grandfathers were determined to win the west, conquer the wilderness, and they did. We won. The wilderness has surely been conquered. In fact, most of it is long gone. It is only natural that we inherited a slash and burn attitude. Our great grandfathers believed when you prevailed over the wilderness, the evidence of such was no trees. In fact, most settlers went as far as no grass. I can still remember my grandmother sweeping her bare dirt yard. Now, as we approach the 21st century, we have moved slightly away from the slash and burn approach. We have started replanting the wilderness, but with controls. In many cities, trees now line the streets, and neatly trimmed yards meet the eye. We are moving back toward a greener country, but in our landscaping, we are ignoring the basic essentials for wildlife habitat. For wildlife to flourish, there must be food available as well as cover for protection. When we remove honeysuckle and blackberry vines that look unkempt and snaky, we remove the animals that depend on the berries for food and the birds and small mammals that hide in the brambles. One cannot randomly remove habitat if the land is to be shared.
Nationwide, our songbird population is plummeting. Worldwide, we are seeing plant and animal extinction at a rate only surpassed by the great dinosaur extinction. There are many reasons for this alarming decline in plant and animal species, but without question, one of the prime causes is loss of habitat due to urban development.
Is there any way we can reverse the trend? Can we individually make a difference? I believe we can if we understand a few basic principles of wildlife management and agree to share our yard with wildlife.
Now, let’s look at a few simple ideas that will let us convert our sterile green yards into an attractive wildlife compatible yard. First, it is not just parking the riding lawn mower or bush hog. After all, we have worked for years to alter the environment around our home. To return it to a wildlife compatible state will require more than letting the grass grow. It doesn’t matter if your house sits on 1/4 of an acre or 10 acres, the principals are the same. When you analyze your yard with an eye toward improving wildlife habitat, the most critical part of your yard is the back yard. Think of the back 20 feet, or 20 yards if you have a big yard, as a wildlife corridor. Wildlife corridors link together to allow animals to move across an area searching for food while protected by the cover it provides. Now, consider your 20 foot wildlife corridor connected to your neighbor’s backyard to form a 40 foot corridor, which connects to your adjacent neighbor’s yard to give small mammals, birds, reptiles, and insects access to food and safety. To continue the concept to create a wildlife friendly yard, focus on the edges of your yard. If your yard is like my yard, I could give wildlife the back 20 yards or the other edges of my yard, and they would still starve to death. When you turn this area into wildlife habitat, you must give Mother Nature a hand. First, we should plant a grove of nut or berry producing trees along the very edge of the lot. Then edge the grove with berry bushes of varying heights and species. Mow and weed this area very lightly. In fact, your goal should be to allow this area to slowly return to its natural state. Next, along the sides of your lot, continue with more hedgerow type plants, along with berry bushes. In the adjacent open areas, allow native grasses and wildflowers to reclaim a portion of the area. In order to achieve the proper balance, you must plant the wildflowers and native grasses. Finally, in a back corner of your yard, create a small pond. When you build your pond, set it in a natural drainage area, possibly one that would receive runoff from your roof. When building your pond, don’t be concerned about the size. A 6 by 10 foot pond is adequate. The pond depth should be around 3 feet in its deepest part and feather out to 2 to 6 inches in depth on one end. I recommend a thin layer of cement to slow seepage. After construction, add 4 inches of dirt and rocks to cover the concrete. Your construction should allow a natural drainage spill point to carry excess water into the wooded back portion of your lot. Stock your pond with minnows and Mother Nature will do the rest.
Finally, leave a mowed strip along the sidewalk to keep your neighbors happy.
Your new yard now has the three criterion that makes for wildlife habitat: Woodland, wetland, and grassland.
Is the natural state ready for the natural yard? Well, let’s be honest, Arkansas usually doesn’t lead the nation in innovative ideas or trends. However, we do focus on our natural heritage much more than most areas of our country. We may be ready to take the lead in restoring our urban landscape to one more wildlife friendly.
I believe, if we consider the tremendous expenditure of our resources to maintain the perpetual care yard, we will change our yards. As our environmental awareness continues to grow, the natural yard will be the yard of choice. Our grandchildren may very well look back on the first half of the 21th century with as much amusement as we had when we watched our great grandparents sweep their dirt yards. So join me, and be one of the first on your block to plant something other than grass and ornamental pear trees. Soon your neighbors will start to admire your woodlands, your berry bushes, your wildflowers, and the variety of wildlife your yard attracts.
Richard H. Mason of El Dorado is a syndicated columnist and author and former president of the Arkansas Wildlife Federation and the state Pollution Control & Ecology Commission. He may be reached by email at richard@ gibraltarenergy.com.