“The front lines of the battle for nature are not in the Amazon rain forest or the Alaskan wilderness; the front lines are our backyards, medians, parking lots, and elementary schools.” – Planting in a Post-Wild World by Thomas Rainer and Claudia West

Americans love their lawns. Drive through suburbia and you will see acre upon acre of turf grass. There must be some primal pleasure in the wide view of grassland because we certainly strive for it. Unfortunately, a large expanse of turf is both financially and environmentally costly. It is a cost we can no longer afford.

Why? Because scientists are using terms like “insect apocalypse” to describe the decline of insect species around the world over the last few decades. According to the University of California, “The large-scale death of insects poses huge threats not only to the ecosystems they exist in but also to much of our agriculture.” Habitat loss, industrial pollution, climate change, and agricultural chemicals are among the drivers of insect decline.

What does this have to do with the lawn? A perfectly green lawn is not a natural thing. Turf grass is not native to North America, and it contributes little to the overall health of the ecosystem. A lawn is a monoculture that requires extensive amounts of fuel, water, and chemicals, from fertilizer to herbicides and pesticides.

According to Doug Tallamy, professor of entomology and wildlife ecology at the University of Delaware, 40 percent of the chemicals used by the lawn-care industry are banned in other countries because they are carcinogens. The Environmental Protection Agency says that 40-60 percent of fertilizer applied to lawns ends up in surface and groundwater where it kills aquatic organisms. In addition, a lawn is a minimally productive planting in terms of biological activity. It does not support the native food web. It doesn’t feed our pollinators.

The Stats, according to Fine Gardening:

• 63,000 square miles (40 million acres) of US land is devoted to turf grass.

• Lawn maintenance accounts for more than half of the average American family’s outdoor water use.

• 70-80 million pounds of pesticides, primarily herbicides, are applied to American lawns every year.

• Americans burn about 800 million gallons of gasoline annually to maintain their lawns.

In Nature’s Best Hope, Doug Tallamy offers us an alternative to the insect apocalypse. He calls it “Homegrown National Park”. Tallamy urges us to “shrink the lawn” to make our yards better able to support our pollinators. We need to grow the native plants with which our insects evolved. Imagine if just a portion of that 40 million acres devoted to grass were returned to wildlife habitat? It would go a long way toward reversing the trend of pollinator loss.

Do you have a plot of grass in the woods like I do? Create a woodland edge landscape with understory trees such as dogwood, redbud, or serviceberry underplanted with shrubs such as rhododendron, viburnum, or blueberry. Under those bushes, plant shade-tolerant ground covers such as wild ginger, wild phlox, or native ferns.

That is my plan for the northern edge of my lawn where the grass ends abruptly at the tree line. Because it has not been planted like a layered, natural landscape, the edge of the lawn is getting overwhelmed by invasive raspberry, barberry, Japanese stilt grass and nettles. I don’t mind the raspberries because the birds like them, but the rest are completely unpleasant, and there is no point in ripping them out if I don’t put something in their places. Nature abhors bare soil. It is an invitation for weeds.

Scale this model down for a smaller urban yard. Figure how much space you need for the kids, or the dog, or the outdoor dining table. Think about where a little privacy or a little shade would be nice. Then plant one tree and two or three shrubs, replacing the grass around them with ground cover. Once planted, trees and shrubs are easier to maintain than the weekly mowing required by turf grass.

These layered plantings provide food and shelter for wildlife. A tree near your bird feeder provides a safe lookout for a chickadee. A tangled shrub is a good place for a cardinal to hide its nest, while evergreens will protect tiny birds from winter winds. The flowers provide nectar for bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds.

Consider the No Mow May (or Low Mow May) movement. Spring is a critical time for newly emerged insects such as native bees. Limited flower species are available this early in the season. By letting your lawn to get a little longer – and by not treating it with herbicides – you allow a variety of low growing plants to flower. Whether they be dandelions, violets, clover, or ground ivy they are important sources of pollen and nectar. Less mowing will increase the diversity of wildlife your lawn supports.

May is a gift that lifts the spirit, a time so miraculous, so precious, that it is worth all that January and February can throw at us. Surround yourself with birdsong, the fragrance of lilacs, and white dogwoods that glow like promises in the woods.

Once your yard, and your neighbor’s yard, and the land behind you are all blooming with native trees and shrubs, you will be well on your way to a wildlife corridor, supporting and sheltering migrating hummingbirds, monarch butterflies, and dozens of native bee species. Now imagine this across the entire continent. This is Tallamy’s vision of Homegrown National Park.

As the authors write in Planting in a Post-Wild World, “We don’t need to go to a national park to have a spiritual experience of nature; we can have such experiences in our backyards, parks, and rooftops.”

When you hear the song of the wood thrush spilling out of the trees at dusk, you will understand.