No Mow May
Monoculture lawns, and the traditional care necessary to maintain them, have significant negative environmental impacts. Lawn increases volume and speed of storm water runoff carrying eroded sediments, fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides into local waterways. Also, compared to perennial vegetation, lawns do not provide food or habitat for many insects, and contribute to a decrease in native insect populations, which in turn impacts bird and wildlife populations. Overall, lawns harm our waterways and local wildlife.
| This is an example of a monoculture lawn. This is a prime example of monoculture (where one crop or species dominates a given area). We often see this type of lawn everywhere, so it seems natural, however what you may fail to see is the loss of biodiversity. Biodiversity represents the variety of life in a given ecosystem. From birds and bugs to flowers and field mice, a biodiverse landscape looks more like the photo below. A consequence of lacking biodiversity is eliminating food or habitat for many insects, which then impacts up the food web to birds and other fauna. | |
| And this is an example of a biodiverse lawn. As you can see, the variety of species promotes more resiliency within the ecosystem. Biodiversity also encourages new species to thrive where they otherwise would have migrated elsewhere. Another benefit to biodiverse lawns is they minimize some of the negative environmental impacts on a bioregion. For example, lawns make storm water runoff worse and erode sediments, fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides into local waterways. |