Dreaming up solutions is fun AND finding the 'bright spots' (areas of innovation and problem solving) is also uplifting! I would suggest we look for these and support and share the hard work people are doing and the improvements they're making. In my opinion, we may not need more ideas, we may just need to amplify the ones that exist and are working for people, communities and nature.
A small city in Iowa with a population of 100,000 has created an innovative program to support native plantings on private-property residential land called the Native Roots Program. Property owners who register their lawns in the program receive lawn signage to celebrate their urban conservation efforts and educate the community on urban conservation practices that help prevent stormwater pollution and provide habitat. The city also has a 50/50 cost share to help install the native plants. These kinds of programs seem very scalable and a great example other cities can adopt.
Regarding our population growth which creates more and more housing developments, people will need to adopt a different way of life with less square footage. That's an enormous culture shift especially for areas other than large cities, like New York City, where people have adapted. Additionally, in most places the US property taxes are dependent on higher and higher property values, which in many cases means larger and larger homes.
Thanks for such a rich bunch of comments here Angie. And I really like your suggestion that perhaps we "just need to amplify the ideas that already exist and are working for people, communities and nature." Great one.
This Native Roots program, along with property owners receive lawn signage, sounds quite similar to the Groene Buur or Green Neighbour programme I mentioned, but all the writing about that is in Dutch I'm afraid.
And as to the US property taxes driving up both the sizes and the prices of homes... yeah, well that's a cycle we're just going to have to kick, sooner than later, because obviously we simply to not have the endless resources on our planet to keep on making things bigger and bigger!
Excellent initiative Matthew. ‘Why not me? And why not you?’ is spot on in my book!
That photo of the suburbs makes my soul ill. All too common in the US also, where we currently have around 40 million acres of privately owned lawn. Much to your point; if homeowners, developers, business property owners, etc. were required to or awarded for converting a portion of those ‘dead’ lawns to native plantings we could collectively alter the path we are on significantly for the climate and life.
That could help solve a set of serious problems, but my next level concern jumps to space, and how we coexist with larger wildlife. Every house/building requiring a portion of native habitat maintained would be amazing and do wonders for the climate and biodiversity, but those islands, even if only separated by 10-20 yards do not make for sustainable habitats for larger mammals.
In our town of 6,500 people, there are complaints all the time about the amount of deer, fox, coyote, and random bobcats in town, interfering with traffic, eating flower beds, or attacking an occasional dog. Many just want them gone or hidden away into smaller and smaller areas. We’re going to have to learn to be ok with the reality (and sometimes it will be cruel reality) of the wild being more and more a part of our lives. We can continue to push life to extinction or we have to start tending to life, all life—because time is running out. It has already run out for countless life forms
Thank you so much for these comments Chad. I love initiatives like this of converting 'dead' lawns into native plantings and vibrant ecosystems. And I think this issue you raise of how we should best try to help out wildlife is hugely important as well. You shared a great link or two with me on another platform, so for anyone interested, please check out this one for Homegrown National Park:
Thank you. I'm so glad this piece 'landed' with you, Minouk. And 'attention on positive change for a better world' sounds great to me. Let's get that energy flowing!
Matthew thank you for sharing your wonderful mindset with the rest of us.
I admire how you managed to go beyond the anxiety and overwhelm and stepped into creative blue sky thinking instead. This is inspiring to me, -I got so overwhelmed by the climate march last weekend that I couldn't finish it- and I love the invitation. My attention will be on positive change for a better world :)
Dreaming up solutions is fun AND finding the 'bright spots' (areas of innovation and problem solving) is also uplifting! I would suggest we look for these and support and share the hard work people are doing and the improvements they're making. In my opinion, we may not need more ideas, we may just need to amplify the ones that exist and are working for people, communities and nature.
A small city in Iowa with a population of 100,000 has created an innovative program to support native plantings on private-property residential land called the Native Roots Program. Property owners who register their lawns in the program receive lawn signage to celebrate their urban conservation efforts and educate the community on urban conservation practices that help prevent stormwater pollution and provide habitat. The city also has a 50/50 cost share to help install the native plants. These kinds of programs seem very scalable and a great example other cities can adopt.
Native Roots Program, Davenport Iowa: https://www.davenportiowa.com/services/public_works/water/stormwater__water_run-off_/native_roots_program
STORMWATER BMP (Best Management Program) 50/50 COST SHARE PROGRAM:
https://www.davenportiowa.com/cms/one.aspx?portalId=6481456&pageId=15806736
Regarding our population growth which creates more and more housing developments, people will need to adopt a different way of life with less square footage. That's an enormous culture shift especially for areas other than large cities, like New York City, where people have adapted. Additionally, in most places the US property taxes are dependent on higher and higher property values, which in many cases means larger and larger homes.
Thanks for such a rich bunch of comments here Angie. And I really like your suggestion that perhaps we "just need to amplify the ideas that already exist and are working for people, communities and nature." Great one.
This Native Roots program, along with property owners receive lawn signage, sounds quite similar to the Groene Buur or Green Neighbour programme I mentioned, but all the writing about that is in Dutch I'm afraid.
And as to the US property taxes driving up both the sizes and the prices of homes... yeah, well that's a cycle we're just going to have to kick, sooner than later, because obviously we simply to not have the endless resources on our planet to keep on making things bigger and bigger!
Excellent initiative Matthew. ‘Why not me? And why not you?’ is spot on in my book!
That photo of the suburbs makes my soul ill. All too common in the US also, where we currently have around 40 million acres of privately owned lawn. Much to your point; if homeowners, developers, business property owners, etc. were required to or awarded for converting a portion of those ‘dead’ lawns to native plantings we could collectively alter the path we are on significantly for the climate and life.
That could help solve a set of serious problems, but my next level concern jumps to space, and how we coexist with larger wildlife. Every house/building requiring a portion of native habitat maintained would be amazing and do wonders for the climate and biodiversity, but those islands, even if only separated by 10-20 yards do not make for sustainable habitats for larger mammals.
In our town of 6,500 people, there are complaints all the time about the amount of deer, fox, coyote, and random bobcats in town, interfering with traffic, eating flower beds, or attacking an occasional dog. Many just want them gone or hidden away into smaller and smaller areas. We’re going to have to learn to be ok with the reality (and sometimes it will be cruel reality) of the wild being more and more a part of our lives. We can continue to push life to extinction or we have to start tending to life, all life—because time is running out. It has already run out for countless life forms
And this makes for a fascinating read as well:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/sep/28/i-call-it-botanarchy-the-hackney-guerrilla-gardener-bringing-power-to-the-people
Thank you so much for these comments Chad. I love initiatives like this of converting 'dead' lawns into native plantings and vibrant ecosystems. And I think this issue you raise of how we should best try to help out wildlife is hugely important as well. You shared a great link or two with me on another platform, so for anyone interested, please check out this one for Homegrown National Park:
https://homegrownnationalpark.org/
Thank you. I'm so glad this piece 'landed' with you, Minouk. And 'attention on positive change for a better world' sounds great to me. Let's get that energy flowing!
Matthew thank you for sharing your wonderful mindset with the rest of us.
I admire how you managed to go beyond the anxiety and overwhelm and stepped into creative blue sky thinking instead. This is inspiring to me, -I got so overwhelmed by the climate march last weekend that I couldn't finish it- and I love the invitation. My attention will be on positive change for a better world :)