Tallamy offers readers an opportunity to actively participate in solving the greatest challenge in human history, climate change. He cites echoes from the past from the likes of Aldo Leopold, who in his 1949 classic, A Sand County Almanac identified climate change. Aldo also stated that we… “are only voyagers with other creatures in the odyssey of evolution” (p.117). Tallamy reinforces this idea by citing E.O. Wilson’s warnings about extinction that threatens humanity. Tallamy also reminds the reader that human overpopulation still remains a major threat to our ability to survive.Tallamy alerts the reader to the fact that successful conservation must be expanded beyond the isolated islands of nature like parks or refuges. It also has to expand beyond geopolitical boundaries. Conservation must go beyond the emphasis of saving a particular animal, bird or plant. It has to be a complete commitment to saving the entire biodiverse ecosystems. He also believes it is a mistake to simply wait until a species is on the brink before acting as required by the Endanger Species Act. symbolically, he uses the monarch butterfly to illustrate this. From 1976 to 2014 there has been a 94% decline in their population. Such a small population is now extremely susceptible to catastrophic environmental events or genetic maladies.
Industrial cultures have tended to isolate themselves from nature in their concrete and paved clusters. Nature should be brought back into our own back yards and neighborhoods. Adults and children need to rediscover the benefits of a healthy ecosystem. No doubt this will require major cultural shifts in our thinking. First, we have to overcome our fabricated fear of nature. After all, there are snakes, wolves, and spiders. But he points out riding in a car we must again embrace how nature actually enhances our health, children’s learning, and how it cures our minds and bodies.
Another stumbling block is those cookie cutter lawns. They are biodiverse waste lands that consume too much water and pollute our rivers and streams with fertilizer run off. Turf grass lawns have been Florida’s biggest crop, consuming 60% of our fresh water. Rather, yards should include at least one keystone tree like an oak, plus bushes and flowers that are all native. Think of xeriscaping or links golf courses of Scotland.
In essence, he is proposing folks turn their yards into what he calls ‘Home Grown National Parks’ that would help reestablish natural corridors and breeding environments. According to Tallamy, “By far the most important and abundant specialized relationship on the planet are the relationships among the insects that eat plants and the plants that they eat” (p.100). Since 90% of insects feed on only specific plants, not just any plant or tree will do. As expected, this affects the birds dependent on those insects. Nonnative plants fail to provide the nutritional needs for the ecological food chain. Of course, this principle would also apply to other areas of the world where our plants may invade other ecosystems. He outlines many studies that demonstrate the importance of having native plants in the mix. By building ecologically healthy yards and neighborhoods we will help to reverse the trend of extinction that threatens insects, birds, and humans. Protecting and rebuilding healthy biodiverse ecosystems in our yards also becomes a vital tool in fighting climate change by building biomass that sequesters greenhouse gases.
