The Mequon Nature preserve recently shared this link on their Facebook page. It’s a link to a sobering story, one that speaks of the destruction of bee and butterfly populations all over the world.
Fortunately, if you have a yard, you can help. As your thoughts start turning to your spring garden you can think about planting native plants.
Many people focus on pesticides as the culprit for insect loss. But loss of habitat is also playing a huge role in the decline of these populations.
That means reversing the hegemony of chemically green lawns. “If you’ve got just lawn grass, you’ve got nothing,” said Mace Vaughan of the Xerces Society, a leading organization in insect conservation. “But as soon as you create a front yard wildflower meadow you go from an occasional honeybee to a lawn that might be full of 20 or 30 species of bees and butterflies and monarchs.”
First and foremost, said Dr. Tallamy, a home for bugs is a matter of food security. “If the bees were to truly disappear, we would lose 80 percent of the plants,” he said. “That is not an option. That’s a huge problem for mankind.”
Of course, native plants carry advantages for you as a homeowner, too. They require a lot less water. They require a lot less maintenance.
And they’re even quite beautiful!
They are just as important to the birds as the bees, something we covered on our Bird City Wisconsin post several months back.
Every spring offers a fresh start. Give it some thought as you start planning for that fresh start. Even a few native plants could make a big difference.
