By Elizabeth Collaton, Extension Master Gardener
Citizen science has a trusted advocate in Doug Tallamy, the noted University of Delaware entomologist and author of groundbreaking books like Bringing Nature Home, Nature’s Best Hope,and The Nature of Oaks. Master gardeners and other naturalists have embraced Tallamy’s message for years, largely because he so effectively marries the twin missions of science-backed environmental sustainability goals with a common-sense approach to landscape management. Provide habitat. Reduce chemical inputs. Remove invasives. Plant wave after wave of native plants for pollinators and other wildlife to access year-round. These are his simple instructions to help humanity restore ecological function in an increasingly crowded and diminished biosphere. In his latest venture, Tallamy urges citizen scientists everywhere – even those with just a few pots on their balcony or patio – to embrace the concept of the Homegrown National Park as a way to commit to everyday, small-scale, and neighborhood-based biodiversity restoration. It’s almost as though he thinks the future of the planet depends on it.
Students of Tallamy will quickly recognize this new effort as a clever way to leverage what he’s provided in his books and lectures into a ready-made public education tool with potential for immediate impact. Building on key concepts meant to restore biodiversity to our nation’s barren urban and suburban – and even certain farmland – landscapes, the Homegrown National Park (HNP) sets an ambitious goal of restoring 20 million acres in the U.S. to productive landscapes capable of conserving and managing water, providing food to wildlife, supporting ecologically significant plants with minimal use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and liberated from invasive plants. Not coincidentally, 20 million acres constitutes about half of all the private land in the U.S. currently tied up in turf lawns, the mirror opposite of what Tallamy believes land stewards can achieve by supporting the mission of HNP. To date, over 37,000 people across the U.S., Canada, and Mexico have answered his call to action. Tallamy describes HNP as “the largest cooperative conservation project ever conceived or attempted.”
It is worth delving into some details of HNP’s website and navigation tools, so that users can compare them with their experiences with other legacy habitat certification programs available through Audubon at Home, Xerces’ Pollinator Protection Pledge, or the National Wildlife Federation, for example. These programs are also based solidly on science and conservation policy and should be credited with bringing thousands of gardeners, birders, and other citizen scientists into the conservation movement.
Equally rewarding, though, is pausing to internalize the impact of some of the habits informing Tallamy’s mindset as he conceptualized HNP along with entrepreneur and brand strategist Michelle Alfandari. Indeed, the co-founders have registered the tagline, Start a New HABITAT, to instill the idea that the goal of restoring ecosystem function on a broad scale is within reach with small changes in behavior. Much as the late E.O. Wilson urged us to think of ourselves as a part of nature, as opposed to being outside of and separate from it, Tallamy invokes an intimate, observation-based, slow-paced, and continuous interaction with our natural surroundings as the path most likely to lead people to address our looming biodiversity crisis. First covered in Nature’s Best Hope, he argues for a paradigm shift in how most Americans often experience “nature,” embodied in the classic summer vacation at a crowded, over-used, and trampled National Park, visitors jostling for a view of fireflies or buffalo or a thundering waterfall, while the minor miracles in most of the landscape go unnoticed and, therefore, unvalued. Indeed, Tallamy argues these miracles and a multitude of lessons and revelations lie under our feet in our own backyards, every day of the year, if only we could slow down to appreciate them. It is this intimate and continuous connection with nature that Tallamy believes can translate into stewardship, responsibility, and empowerment, and help humanity avoid a sixth extinction.
Get on the Map!
Since its inception in 2020, the Homegrown National Park team has steadily improved the platform to encourage more people to join the effort and track their progress on the map by state, county, and zip code. It is simple to create an account and to “Get on the Map.” A new Plant Calculator button then helps users add their species of herbaceous plants, shrubs, and trees to establish a total measurement of land planted to support wildlife. Next is the task of identifying the Name of your planting area (e.g., west-facing balcony), and listing the native species you are growing in the Description box (e.g., goldenrod, beebalm). HNP plans to add taxonomic functionality to this step shortly but, for now, common names to identify your plants is fine
For gardeners just starting to work with native plantings, check the Resources section of the website to identify the native plants that might grow best in your EcoRegion. Entering your address identifies you with your EcoRegion, which links to handy PDF Keystone plant descriptions suitable for container gardening, as well as native shrubs and trees and native herbaceous plants for larger spaces such as yards. Users can also search the site for vendors, companies, and nonprofits offering a variety of services in the native plant space, including design, consultation, installation, and education. Finally, a helpful video walks users step by step through the site’s navigation.
Extension Master Gardener Denise Dieter, one of the lead gardeners at the Simpson Demonstration Garden in Alexandria, VA, was an early adopter of Homegrown National Park, overseeing an intern project during COVID that positioned Simpson to enroll in the program. Working with the Alexandria parks and recreation department, Dieter was even able to secure local ecotype seeds to grow native pollinator plant beds (a city service she believes did not survive the disruption of COVID).
At least 20 Simpson volunteers have joined the program, which Dieter argues has the potential to become a major neighborhood-based movement. As a demonstration garden, Simpson is certified by most of the big backyard habitat groups mentioned earlier. HNP prioritizes accessibility and a friendly, welcoming vibe that Dieter thinks sets it apart from the other programs. And the fact that Doug Tallamy and his family have walked the walk by overhauling their own property in Pennsylvania to prove the potential to restore ecosystem function is a real win for her.
Citizen science, a mainstay of environmental action and education since Earth Day in 1970, has inspired direct action on many problems. Bucket brigade activists in Cancer Alley capture air samples to pressure regulators to enforce emissions standards in black and brown communities living next to chemical plants and oil refineries. Waterkeepers collect samples to make the case for stringent water pollution limits and better stormwater management practices. And, of course, Audubon’s annual Christmas Bird Count has been useful in tracking plummeting bird populations.
Homegrown National Park brings fresh energy and optimism to the potential for local action to stave off the worst outcomes of climate change, pollution, invasive species, and biodiversity loss. It’s good news for master gardeners that Doug Tallamy’s solutions-oriented approach to these problems are how we prefer to spend our time anyway. So Get on the Map and #startdigging! And encourage your neighbors to do the same.