Doug Tallamy, the wildlife ecologist and entomologist who urges home gardeners to join forces and create a pollinator-friendly 鈥淗omegrown 好色tv Park,鈥 is now bringing kids into the effort.
Tallamy has become a leading evangelist for that can support birds, . Anyone with a yard, patio or windowsill can chip in.
And they can encourage parks, playgrounds, schools and colleges, hospitals and office buildings, golf courses and even airports to join in, he urges.
Tallamy's new book, 鈥淣ature鈥檚 Best Hope: How You Can Save the World in Your Own Yard鈥 (Timber Press), is aimed at middle schoolers (and, he hopes, their parents) in time for Earth Day. It follows for a general audience, 鈥淣ature鈥檚 Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation that Starts in Your Yard."
He hopes the book will carry the message into classrooms around the country.
鈥淭he idea is that kids are the future stewards of our planet,鈥 he said in an interview with The Associated Press. 鈥淢y average audience is retired folks, but we can鈥檛 wait another generation. I get contacted by kids all the time, and this is stuff you can do and actually see results.鈥
Little things can make a big difference.
鈥淵ou don鈥檛 have to worry about the entire planet. Just do something about the little piece of the planet that you can do something about. That鈥檚 really motivating for parents as well as kids,鈥 he said.
The new young reader's edition lists easy changes that kids can make at home to . For instance, switch out a white lightbulb on your porch for a yellow one that鈥檚 less attractive to insects. . Or plant some native plants.
The book includes a few easy projects like building a 鈥渂ee hotel鈥 out of an empty metal can and strips of paper, or covering window wells so little creatures don鈥檛 get trapped in them.
鈥淥r just plant an acorn. It鈥檚 free and easy and you can watch it grow, and it makes a big difference,鈥 Tallamy says.
He envisions all the little pollinator-friendly patches 鈥 a proliferation of gardens and public spaces 鈥 sewn loosely together to form Homegrown 好色tv Park.
Spreading the word that what we do at home can improve the environment is important, said Tai Montanarella, who teaches kindergarten through high school kids about native plants as the New York Botanical Garden鈥檚 associate director of school and out-of-school programming.
鈥淎t the heart of Tallamy鈥檚 book is the observation of plants, and the interaction between plants and birds and insects. It underscores the connectivity of our food web and of society,鈥 she says.
鈥淜ids sometimes feel a greater sense of urgency and call to action than adults. Many of these ideas seem sensible and practical for kids, while they can be a heavier lift for adults sometimes.鈥
For younger children, she recommends the picture book 鈥淭he Garden Next Door,鈥 by Collin Pine (River Horse Books), about children who investigate why their neighbor's yard has more birds, fireflies and other natural wonders than their own.
And she recommends the compiled by the New York Botanical Garden's LuEsther T. Mertz Library on its website.
Adults, Montanarella said, can be more receptive to messages when they come from passionate kids.
In Pelham, New York, Anna Simonsen-Meehan had all the English ivy removed from her property border and gently asked her neighbors if they鈥檇 consider doing the same, since it鈥檚 invasive and creeps into her native plantings. Nothing happened.
But when her 7-year-old son, Alrik, recently encountered one of the neighbors on the sidewalk and gave him an impassioned lecture about how invasive English ivy is, the man listened carefully. (鈥淚 mean, what else can you do when a child is speaking with such sincerity and passion?鈥 his mother said.) And now the ivy is gone.
鈥淚 said, 鈥楧on鈥檛 you want to remove that ivy? It鈥檚 invasive.鈥 He was definitely listening,鈥 recalled Alrik, who has been involved in removing invasive plants and encouraging native ones both at home and in the community.
Tallamy, a professor at the University of Delaware, starts his new book by asking kids to take a few minutes to look closely at their yard.
Did you see 鈥渁 single animal 鈥 a bird, a bug, a snake, a mammal of any size 鈥 hop, fly, flutter, slither, crawl, or creep past?鈥 he asks, 鈥淵ou鈥檙e right. You don鈥檛. But you should.鈥
鈥淣ature is everywhere. That鈥檚 a good thing because human beings like you and me wouldn鈥檛 last a day without it,鈥 Tallamy writes. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 what this book is about 鈥 how to create a yard that is a real part of the natural world. The kind of yard where, if you look closely, something is moving.鈥
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