It's the International Day of Biological Diversity!
Theme for 2020-Our Solutions are in Nature.
Hmmm? How about we transform our yards for Nature!

In the midst of preparing for this week's blog, one of my Philly friends, a champion for the Earth since its dawning, sent me a link to a webinar by author, Doug Tallamy. I joined, I watched, my mind is still exploding, and now I try to synthesize this information for families to apply at home.

But first,

Here is an amazing webinar presented on May 4, 2020 to Florida Wildflower Foundation members and friends, in which author Doug Tallamy does a superb job explaining the need to protect caterpillars and how we can do this in your own yards:

Doug Tallamy: A Guide to Restoring the Little Things that Run the World

Doug Tallamy's website supporting his book Nature's Best Hope.

So, in a nutshell, caterpillars are baby butterflies and moths. Butterflies and moths pollinate flowering plants, and the caterpillars are essential food for birds. No caterpillars=no fruit and seeds= no plants= no animals, no humans, no birds,  no life as we know it. 

85% of the property is privately owned, this includes our yards. If we look to "Nature" for our solution, as if it is something separate, something over there, something we drive to, something we pass a bill to protect; we are missing the most important place for us to live in harmony with nature- at our homes and yards, and in our neighborhoods.

So what can we do?

1. Shrink your lawn. 

My son put in a Monarch butterfly waystation as a school project. 

2. Plant keystone native plants. Keystone species hold the ecosystem together because so many other animals depend on them for survival. What is one of the most important keystone plants of all?

The oak tree!

Over 500 butterflies species use the oak tree at a host plant as caterpillars, providing food and shelter. 

Butterfly Tree Hosts

Also, plant native species and remove invasive species. Here is a great link to find Native plant species by zipcode: Native Plant Finder

A great app to use to identify plants and animals is INaturalist. https://www.inaturalist.org/

I love to add wildflowers as companion plants in my vegetable garden and around fruit trees. These cosmos are doing a great job attracting pollinators to my peach blossoms. 

3. Cut light pollution. Light pollution kills moths, and baby moths are caterpillars. Lights can also mess up the circadian rhythms of animals, confusing when they should sleep, eat, migrate, etc. Switch our home exterior lights to yellow LED bulbs and use motion-detecting lights.

4. Don't rake the leaves! Leaves under trees provide an important habitat for insects to pupate,  including most moths.

There is much more we can do to protect butterflies and caterpillars: avoid using pesticides, buy and eat organic; most importantly, learn. Learn what plants butterflies like, which plants are invasive- crowding out other native plants- and should be removed, and fall in love with nature and the wonderment of how everything truly is connected. 

My sketchnotes from Doug Tallamy's Nature's Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation that Starts in your Yard.