How to make your yard support more biodiversity!
Do you want to have a back or front yard that is fun for you and other living things? If so, read this article!
What is Biodiversity and Why is it Important?
For people who don't know what biodiversity is I will explain. Biodiversity is the variety of living things on earth like plants, animals, and trees. Biodiversity is important because having a variety of living things will help create a healthy ecosystem. Also a non-bio-diverse world would kill off things like pollinators, clean fresh waterbodies, and some animals. This would be bad for humans because without pollinators we would have no fresh produce so basically no food and no clean fresh water therefore we would struggle to survive.
Why are Lawns Causing a Problem for Biodiversity?
Lawns are a problem for biodiversity because it provides little to no habitat for pollinators. Also, people put too many pesticides in their lawn / turf and this kills lots of living things.
Map showing how much lawn we have in Connecticut. My town West Hartford is highlighted.
Now in some place's like West Hartford, CT where I live there is a lot of lawn/turf. This map shows the amount of lawn we have in Connecticut. The highest amounts of lawn in Connecticut are shown as dark green. This means West Hartford is a town with the one of the highest amounts of lawn in the State. West Hartford land is covered with 20% lawn.
What Can You Do to Help Reduce Lawn and Help Save Biodiversity?
If you’re in a place like West Hartford then here's how to fix it. First you replace some of your lawn with native plants like milk weed, birch, and oak and take all the nonnative plants out. Another way to make your lawn more bio-diverse is to not put fertilizer and instead let all the plants grow naturally so its more enjoyable for animals and plants.
The Town of West Hartford is helping create more habitat for biodiversity in the Town’s parks and public walk ways by planting native plants. The map below shows some of the public places in West Hartford with pollinator gardens.
You can help increase biodiversity in your home town by replacing lawn at your home and in public parks with pollinator gardens!
West moor Park
Pollinator Garden
West Hartford Town Hall
Milkweed, a native plant.
Trout brook Trail
A garden planted where lawn use to be.
Spice Bush Swamp
Native plant garden.
Sources for my article
Homegrown national park. https://homegrownnationalpark.org/
Pebble Go Next. Biodiversity. https://pgnplayer.pebblego.com/articles/8572
Pollinator Pathway. https://www.pollinator-pathway.org/
UCONN CLEAR. CT Eco Connecticut's Changing Landscape. 2015 Town Stats Turf and Grass by Town. https://cteco.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=09da42a8cebe4e5599bb10a56818d21f&extent=-8367481.894%2C4957414.3143%2C-7780445.5168%2C5211796.7445%2C102100