Bringing nature home -- book summary

At a recent monthly master gardener meeting, our speaker mentioned the book BRINGING NATURE HOME How you Can Sustain Wildlife with Native Plants (ISBN-13:978-0-88192-854-9) by Douglas W. Tallamy. Once I got the book and started reading, it really didn’t take too long to realize that my concept of what a native plant is versus what really is a native is questionable. Likewise, I’ve ignored the link that exists among plants, insects, and animals. And the idea of extinction of species I had in a way relegated to the concept that if they exist even in a tiny area, a zoo, a park, they are not really verging on extinction.
Some of the book’s major concepts are: “the wild creatures we enjoy and would like to have in our lives will not be here in the future if we take away their food and the places they live; all plants are not created equal, particularly in their ability to support wildlife; in too many areas of the country there is no place left for wildlife but in landscapes and gardens we create (p. 9); yet it is “not too late to save most of the plants and animals that sustain the ecosystems” we humans depend on.
The big concern, which seems too obvious yet so neglected, it that when we replace native plants with alien ones, the native insects are put at risk and many animals depend on insects in part or entirely on insect protein for food. Supposedly, 96% of the North American birds rely on insects and other arthropods to feed their young; and “37% of animal species worldwide are herbivorous insects.” (p.21, 24) It really should not be a revelation to us that land without insects could be land without most forms of higher life. (p15) Think how many people still use pesticides, to make a garden or backyard or even the inside of a house “bug free”. But in the long haul, down the road, this may really mean harming or destroying life on earth.
Two poignant stories the author cited brought back similar childhood experiences. In his first example (chapter 3), he mentioned how a pond next door to his home was bulldozed to make way for the yard of new neighbors, a yard he later was paid to mow. He had enjoyed watching the pond’s pollywogs swim, grow legs and eventually hop about as toads. This brought back a similar happy feeling of an area on Coin Street where we 1950’s children played. The creek curved through the empty acre lot; there were clearings enclosed by trees, secret places almost, with pollywogs, snakes, and frogs galore. I caught some pollywogs and tried to keep them alive long enough to become frogs, and I was not the only kid to try that. We neighborhood kids played there often for a few summers until it too became the spot for a new home. His second example was remembering night driving and all the insects in the headlights, splattering on the car’s windshield and lights. He remarked that that doesn’t happen much now and he’s right. I remember numerous trips where the windshield was plastered with “bug guts”. Where have all those insects gone? Bulldozing land is an obvious visual event that says pond or creek good-by, but the night insects just kind of slowly went out of my memory. Tallamy’s answer is that insect disappearance is a direct consequence of alien species which contribute nothing to the native plants, insects, and animals and in fact cause their decline.
In our quest for more plants, more diversity, we may need a wake up call to realize that diversity has caused the ecosystem to collapse. After a discussion of the paperbark tea tree in the Florida Everglades and the problems it has engendered (by displacing native grasses, it has affected native birds, insects, alligators, butterflies, egrets, hummingbirds, etc), the author stresses “how important it is to keep aliens that do not function within ecosystems from displacing the plants and animals that do have critical roles in their ecosystems”. (p45) The idea that there are 50,000 alien species of plants and animals in North America is amazing; what changes their existence has caused is scary.
Chapter 5, “Why Can’t Insects East Alien Plants”, talks about the popularity of pest free ornamentals and the unfortunate experience of many of them “escaping” and becoming invasives like kudzu, English ivy, purple loosestrife, etc. It takes a long time “for insects to adapt to the specific chemical mix that characterizes different plants”. (p50) Most insects are specialists; about 90% eat only vegetation to which they have an evolutionary link. Change, adapting takes time. Chapter 6 covers what is native versus what is not and the next chapter summarizes the costs of using alien ornamentals. The appearance of several diseases like the chestnut blight in 1876 and the impact of the loss of American chestnut trees on the deciduous forest are discussed. Alien plants bring alien insects like the Japanese beetle, the viburnum leaf beetle, etc.
Starting with Chapter 8, the author gives suggestions for creating balanced communities in your garden, backyard, neighborhood, and city. Gardening for insect diversity can keep pesticide usage down as it improves the resource base for wildlife. We can help bring back those missing toads, nights with “in the headlight insects”, the beautiful and plentiful fireflies of childhood and perhaps help restore flora and fauna in the backyard, in the parks, in the cities.
(Appendix One, a list of “Native Plants with Wildlife Value and Desirable Landscaping Attributes by Region” is a good source of plants to re introduce to specific areas in our country, and Appendix two suggests “Host Plants of Butterflies and Showy Moths”.)