Nature's Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation That Starts in Your Yard QUOTES

1 " Trees evolved to grow together in a forest. They intertwine their roots, forming a root matrix that is nearly impossible to uproot. Forest trees with interlocked roots may snap off in big winds, but they typically don’t uproot. Because aesthetics have trumped function for so long, we have planted large, isolated specimen trees ready to blow over nearly everywhere. If we change our goal from creating majestic specimen trees to picturesque groves of trees, the interlocking effect of root matrices will be strongest. "

― Douglas W. Tallamy , Nature's Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation That Starts in Your Yard

2 " Few arborists would suggest planting trees on a three-foot center, but if we planted our trees in groups of three or more on ten-foot centers, the resulting root matrix would keep them locked in place through thick and thin. None of the trees would develop into a single majestic specimen tree, but together they would form a single grove of trees that the eye will take in just as if they were one large tree. Planting tree groves will also protect against the domino effect. Every time we take down a tree, we make the remaining trees more vulnerable to straight-line winds. There is one catch to this approach, however: the trees must be planted young, so their roots can interlock as they grow. "

― Douglas W. Tallamy , Nature's Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation That Starts in Your Yard

3 " Gardening is like cooking. It is tempting to cook only with the goal of achieving great taste, with no thought of healthy eating, but that often results in tasty concoctions so full of fat, sugar, and salt that they are deadly in the long run. Similarly, it is tempting to garden only for beauty, without regard to the many ecological roles our landscapes must perform. All too often, such narrow gardening goals result in a landscape so low in ecological function that it drains the vitality from the surrounding ecosystem. "

― Douglas W. Tallamy , Nature's Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation That Starts in Your Yard

4 " ...humans now occupy or have seriously altered nearly all of the spaces outside our parks and preserves. Each of us carries an inherent responsibility to preserve the quality of earth's ecosystems. When we leave the responsibility to a few experts (none of whom hold political office), the rest of us remain largely ignorant of earth stewardship and how to practice it. The conservation of Earth's resources, including its living biological systems, must become part of the everyday culture of us all, worldwide. "

― Douglas W. Tallamy , Nature's Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation That Starts in Your Yard

5 " Aldo Leopold had a dream. He dreamt of a time when people accepted their roles as citizens of the natural world rather than its conquerors, a time when the land was not viewed as a commodity to be exploited but as the source of our continued existence. He longed for a time when people appreciated and respected wilderness, not just as a hunting ground or a recreational playground, but as a truly awesome and unimaginably complex machine that required all of its parts to function well. "

― Douglas W. Tallamy , Nature's Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation That Starts in Your Yard

6 " in 1620, when the pilgrims landed at what is now Provincetown at the lower tip of Cape Cod, they found the potable water they had been looking for, but they also found a near continuous span of well-spaced mature trees. By the early 1800s, however, the entire cape had been clearcut for settlement and sheep herding, with nary a tree remaining. "

― Douglas W. Tallamy , Nature's Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation That Starts in Your Yard

7 " My point is this: each of the acres we have developed for specific human goals is an opportunity to add to Homegrown National Park. We already are actively managing nearly all of our privately owned lands and much of the public spaces in the United States. We simply need to include ecological function in our management plans to keep the sixth mass extinction at bay. "

― Douglas W. Tallamy , Nature's Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation That Starts in Your Yard

8 " Few arborists would suggest planting trees on a three-foot center, but if we planted our trees in groups of three or more on ten-foot centers, the resulting root matrix would keep them locked in place through thick and thin. None of the trees would develop into a single majestic specimen tree, but together they would form a single grove of trees that the eye will take in just as if they were one large tree. "

― Douglas W. Tallamy , Nature's Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation That Starts in Your Yard

9 " Restrict turf to wide paths that guide pedestrians through your landscape, that draw the eye to a featured aspect of your design, or that define beds, tree groves, or various hardscapes as being purposeful and cared for. In their 2015 book, Planting in a Post-Wild World, Thomas Rainer and Claudia West suggest that we think of lawn as an area rug, not wall-to-wall carpeting. Superb advice! "

― Douglas W. Tallamy , Nature's Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation That Starts in Your Yard

10 " Our privately owned land and the ecosystems upon it are essential to everyone’s well-being, not just our own. Abusing land anywhere has negative ramifications for people everywhere. "

― Douglas W. Tallamy , Nature's Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation That Starts in Your Yard

11 " Creating Homegrown National Park will require a collective effort from landowners everywhere. "

― Douglas W. Tallamy , Nature's Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation That Starts in Your Yard

12 " there is hardly a page in this book that doesn’t imply or directly describe something each of us can do to contribute to Homegrown National Park. But no more beating around the bush—in this chapter, I briefly outline ten concrete steps each of us can take to make Homegrown National Park a successful reality. "

― Douglas W. Tallamy , Nature's Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation That Starts in Your Yard

13 " We can no longer afford to consider air and water common property, free to be abused by anyone without regard to the consequences. Instead, we should begin now to treat them as scarce resources, which we are no more free to contaminate than we are free to throw garbage into our neighbor’s yard. "

― Douglas W. Tallamy , Nature's Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation That Starts in Your Yard

14 " Ninety-five percent of the country has been logged, tilled, drained, grazed, paved, or otherwise developed. Our rivers have been straightened and dammed (damned?), and several no longer reach the sea. Our air has been polluted, our aquifers pumped nearly dry, and our climate changed for centuries to come. "

― Douglas W. Tallamy , Nature's Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation That Starts in Your Yard

15 " Conservation biology . . . [is] a discipline with a deadline. —E. O. WILSON "

― Douglas W. Tallamy , Nature's Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation That Starts in Your Yard

16 " Today, however, we must develop a new mindfulness about how our everyday actions affect the physical and living world around us. In this book I argue that we can no longer tolerate actions that degrade our local environment; there are simply too many of us for the earth to sustain the cumulative impact. A neutral impact is not good enough, either, for we no longer have the option of leaving things in their current degraded state. We must now act collectively to put our ecosystems back together again. "

― Douglas W. Tallamy , Nature's Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation That Starts in Your Yard

17 " When Europeans first arrived on the shores of what is now Virginia, they imposed European farming techniques on the New World. This was not the way Native Americans grew crops, but Europeans planted monocultures and did their best to weed out all other plants. Any plant that grew uninvited in cropland was called a weed and became an enemy. "

― Douglas W. Tallamy , Nature's Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation That Starts in Your Yard

18 " knowledge generates interest, and interest generates compassion, "

― Douglas W. Tallamy , Nature's Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation That Starts in Your Yard

19 " we were the product and beneficiary of a vibrant natural world, rather than its master. "

― Douglas W. Tallamy , Nature's Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation That Starts in Your Yard

20 " Our environmental boat has sprung a leak. Many of us are trying to repair the leak; others are bailing to keep us afloat until the leak is plugged. What is baffling, though, is that far too many of us are dumping new buckets of water into our boat, as if sinking it will not be a problem for them. At this point, each of us must decide what role we will play in the future: Will you be a bailer or a dumper? Your choice of plants in your yard will determine what role you have chosen. "

― Douglas W. Tallamy , Nature's Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation That Starts in Your Yard