America’s Newest National Park–And Guess What? You Can Be a Part of It!

Sending out a warm welcome to all of those new subscribers who came out to one of my blue ghost firefly tours this spring. So glad to have met you and thanks for joining me here on the World Wide Web. I’m happy you’re here!

Not sure if you’ve ever heard of the new movement started by Biologist and Professor Doug Tallamy. It’s called Homegrown National Park. Homegrown National Park® is a term coined by Doug and is the key to our call-to-action: “Our National Parks, no matter how grand in scale are too small and separated from one another to preserve species to the levels needed. Thus, the concept for Homegrown National Park, a bottom-up call-to-action to restore habitat where we live and work, and to a lesser extent where we farm and graze, extending national parks to our yards and communities.”

The mission of Homegrown National Park is TO REGENERATE BIODIVERSITY AND ECOSYSTEM FUNCTION because every human being on this planet needs diverse highly productive ecosystems to survive.

Doug Tallamy says, “In the past, we have asked one thing of our gardens: that they be pretty. Now they have to support life, sequester carbon, feed pollinators and manage water.”

The idea of this movement is simple–that every landowner in North America re-wilds a part of their yard or garden. Instead of just choosing flowers, trees, shrubs and grasses because they’re pretty, let’s pick plants that are native, and offer something to the wildlife that shares our spaces. Once you start to do a bit of research you’ll see that there are many, many choices and that you CAN have pretty flowers AND also give something back to wildlife. Instead of always taking from the wildlife around us, let’s actively give something back so that they can survive and thrive.

When people choose non-native plants to add to their yards, it’s like adding a stone statue. (Plants like burning bush, butterfly bush, nandina, Japanese barberry, Oriental bittersweet, etc) These may look nice, but they offer little or nothing to wildlife. And then, to make matters worse, some non-native species are invasive, choking out native species and rapidly taking over because there are no native animals that have evolved with those species. Did you know Mother Nature has evolved complicated relationships over millions of years between plants and animals? Monarch caterpillars eat only Milkweed. Spicebush swallowtail caterpillars feed on the leaves of spicebush. Acorn weevils use acorns to lay their eggs. And on and on. The list of examples is infinite! Plants and animals have very complicated relationships with each other that most of us know nothing about. If we want to help the bees, the butterflies, the birds, the frogs, turtles, and other animals, we must start to give back. And we can do this by actively planting native species of flowers, shrubs, trees, grasses and other plants.

It’s easy to join this movement! And from now through June 18th there is a Biodiversity Dash happening, pitting one state against the others. Will your state have the most land added to it? Will YOU transform some of your yard or garden to a habitat that is welcoming and appropriate for native plants and animals? NC is currently one of the TOP TEN states!! Let’s keep it that way!

You can get started here! Or learn more here. Or get on the map here. I hope you’ll join me in adding to this ever-growing, and amazing, National Park. Together, we CAN make a difference!

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