[PCA] ARTICLE: Meet the ecologist who wants you to unleash the wild on your backyard

[De Angelis, Patricia]

Fed up with invasive species and sterile landscapes, Douglas Tallamy urges Americans to go native and go natural
BY JERRY ADLER; PHOTOGRAPHS BY MATTHEW CICANESE AND ERIKA REITER
SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE | April 2020

The land is ten gently sloping acres in rural southeastern Pennsylvania, at one time mowed for hay, with a handsome farmhouse that Douglas Tallamy bought around 20 years ago. It isn’t much to look at, by the standards most Americans apply to landscaping—no expansive views across swaths of lawn set off by flowerbeds and specimen trees—but, as Tallamy says, “We’re tucked away here where no one can see us, so we can do pretty much what we want.” And what he wants is for this property to be a model for the rest of the country, by which he means suburbs, exurbs, uninhabited woods, highway margins, city parks, streets and backyards, even rooftops and window boxes, basically every square foot of land not paved or farmed. He wants to see it replanted with native North American flora, supporting a healthy array of native North American butterflies, moths and other arthropods, providing food for a robust population of songbirds, small mammals and reptiles. He even has a name for it: Homegrown National Park.

Link to article: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/meet-ecologist-who-wants-unleash-wild-backyard-180974372/

SEE ALSO: Dr. Tallamy was among the distinguished panelists at the November 2018 general meeting of the Plant Conservation Alliance, exploring the development of planting design technologies to support biodiversity and ecological benefits. See more on the PCA Meetings page: http://www.plantconservationalliance.org/meetings

SEE ALSO: The PlantAgents is now developing a computer tool to assist landscapers and gardeners to make better informed planting decisions with locally appropriate plants. Read more about this at: https://www.plantagents.org/overview


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