Why Native Plants Are Key to Saving Our Ecosystems: An Interview with Doug Tallamy

The noted conservationist shares how plants can save the planet—and how lawns are killing it

An appropriate space to interview a man who has spend his life history advocating for the preservation ofnativeecosystems might be a meadow buzzing withpollinatorsor a forest edge teeming with birdsong . Unfortunately , when you ’re also trying to record such an interview for posterity , a quiet conference way at the University of Delaware is the better choice , and that is where we sit down withDouglas Tallamy , PhD , prof of bugology and wildlife ecology to talk over his enquiry into the impact of nonnative plant life coinage on the environment .

Perhaps due to the courtroom - like milieu , there was an anxious tension in what Dr. Tallamy had to say . This was understandable because in some ways the engagement to curb habitat demolition is one of the prominent cases of our life . Tallamy has emerged as a star attestant in this case , with his fieldwork and research playing a critical role in solving the mystery of the plummeting insect andbird populationsseen over the past 50 years . Despite the seemingly larger - than - life problem we confront , Tallamy insists there are ways intermediate gardener can help bring through our ecosystems .

Listen to an extended audio version of this interview via our podcast:Episode 120: An Interview with Doug Tallamy

Should gardeners be planting only native plants?

you could have a landscape be of 100%native plantsand still support petty because you ’ve chosen natives that don’tmake a lot of food . Natives salutary , nonnatives bad ? It ’s not nearly that simple . Nothing in the world is black and white . With almost everything I say , there ’s an elision . I do blab in generalisation , but I imagine the biggest contribution our lab has made is the discovery of the keystone species concept .

Can you explain that concept and why it’s so important?

First , you involve to realize that you ’ve got to supportcaterpillars . Who ’s supporting the caterpillars ? Just a few plants . Only 5 % of our native plants plump for 75 % of those caterpillars . And that ’s anywhere — not just in my yard , but anywhere . And 14 % of our aboriginal plants hold up 90 % of the caterpillars . So I think of plants that support caterpillars as the two - by - fours in the ecological house we ’re building . They ’re of the essence . Your house will fall down without them . These keystone plants are plump for a useable food entanglement .

Why focus on caterpillars specifically?

Most vertebrates do not consume plant life directly . They wipe out invertebrates that eat the plants , and most of those invertebrate are worm . And most of these insects are Caterpillar . So caterpillars are transferring more energy from plant to other animals than any other character of industrial plant eater . you may look at the wellness of an ecosystem by get it on how healthy your cat populations are — how many caterpillar coinage there are and how many there are of those specie .

We require the pollinators to keep the flowering plants around , and we necessitate the caterpillars to take the vim that plant capture and drive home it to other animals . And we require those flora and animate being because they start the ecosystems that hold us . So it ’s not just about saving other specie , although that ’s fine . It ’s about saving us . The more divers an ecosystem is , the more ecosystem services it produces , and the more stable it is .

A study found that several species of native butterflies would be extinct without nonnative plants. Does that mean larvae are adapting, and if so, is that a good thing?

We should instead call for , “ Why is this fall out ? ” It ’s because the aboriginal plants these butterflies rely on have been wiped out . Fortunately , their native works were closely related enough to some foreign-born ornamentals so that the butterflies could utilize them too . It ’s just like the calamitous morning coat here on the East Coast that use [ nonnative ] Petroselinum crispum and dill . That butterfly ’s nativehost plantsare members of the cultivated carrot family unit , which are not common here any longer . So the butterflies recognized that these nonnatives are in the same crime syndicate of plants they eat . And not only that , but they sample salutary .

But these are exceptions . I will not say that adaptation is not happening . It ’s surely happening . And it intend in those cases there has been a theatrical role for nonnatives . But if you take away all the aboriginal plants and just had nonnatives , you ’d have a reduction of 88 % of the mintage of moths and butterfly in the country . And we ’ve got the research composition to show that .

And it’s a problem if people shift focus to the exceptions, right?

Yes , without focusing on the normal . The rule is that most of the time , you ’re run to lose matter by eliminating natives . How many species are eatingginkgo ? How many species are eatingcrape myrtle ? How many species are eatingburning bush ? Almost none .

But what about benign plants like hosta? Should gardeners remove those and replace them with natives?

Can gardeners have functional intellectual nourishment web without getting disembarrass of all their nonnative plants ? Yes , they can . Arehostasgoing to be major diversionist of ecosystem ? No , they ’re not . It ’s not the presence of nonnative plants that ruin food webs ; it ’s theabsence of native plant that does . go back to the family doctrine of analogy , you ca n’t build a house out of wallpaper . It does n’t figure out . So how many two - by - fours do you need ? Anything will be better than nothing .

So don’t growonlyhostas. What about lawns that are just a monoculture ofonlygrass?

Every landscape has to do four things : First , it has to support pollinator , because we take pollinators everywhere . Second , it has to defend a food vane , because we take useable ecosystem with all the beast that run those ecosystemseverywhere , not just in our park and our conserve . Third , it has to manage the river basin . Everybody lives in a watershed . Nobody has the honourable rightfield to destroy that watershed , not that anybody sets out to do that . But the elbow room you landscape determines whether you ’re helping it or wrecking it . Fourth , it has to sequester carbon paper . That ’s what plants do .

If you ’ve pay back four acres oflawn , lawn does none of those things that a landscape needs to do . Lawn wrecks the basin , abide no pollinator , supports no food web , and is the worst industrial plant in term of sequestering carbon . Anything else is better .

remark that I did n’t say get rid of the lawn . I say you should boil down it .

What is Homegrown National Park?

I commence that estimate when I hear the statistics about how much lawn we have — and this comes from a 2005 NASA estimate from satellite imagery — but it ’s 40 million acres . That ’s the size of New England give to lawn , which is an bionomical deadscape .

What would occur if we cut that sphere in half ? That wouldgive us 20 million acres for conservation . How bad is that ? Morethan most national Mungo Park meld . So I said we can create a new national park by planting native plants and removing trespassing plant life from our properties . It ’ll be the biggest home common in the country . And if we do it at plate , we can call it Homegrown National Park .

The construct is crop ; you may watch a map light up on the website ( homegrownnationalpark.org ) and see if you ’re succeed or not . you may see the biological corridor fill in . you may say , “ Oh see , there ’s a vacuous spot . I last there . I can help . ”

You mention that white oak (Quercus alba, Zones 3–9) is your favorite tree. Why?

The hosta sitting there is taking up space , but not that much blank space . If you have an oak tree Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree in the thou , it ’s contributing a lot of plant biomass that ’s helping a set of creature . Nationwide there are 952 specie of Caterpillar alone that eat on oaks . And an oak tree tree will easily make up for the fact that your hosta is not doing anything . call up of your genus Hosta as a little credit card statue . It ’s there and it ’s not wreck anything ; it ’s just not helping anything . So how many plastic statue do you require ? That ’s up to you .

Keystone plants to support wildlife

According to Tallamy , “ nurseryman take to discern that their little piece of the world is part of the future of preservation . ” And he sees that recognition as empowering . One individual can shrivel up their lawn . One person can put in a pollinator garden . One person can take out their invasive industrial plant . And , perhaps most notably , one person can put in keystone flora . These plants are massive ecologic boons to the environment in the legion mintage they indorse . If you ’re look to make a big encroachment on the health of your local ecosystem , weigh incorporate these North American aboriginal plants into your landscape painting .

Top herbaceous plants

1 . Goldenrod(Solidagospp . , Zones 3–9 )

2 . Aster(Asterspp . ,Eurybiaspp . ,Symphyotrichumspp . , Zones 4–9 )

3 . Sunflower(Helianthusspp . , Zones 3–9 )

Top woody plants

4 . Oak(Quercusspp . , Zones 2–9 )

5 . Cherry(Prunusspp . , Zones 3–8 )

6 . Willow(Salixspp . , Zones 4–9 )

7 . Birch(Betulaspp . , Zones 3–9 )

8 . American elm(Ulmus americana , Zones 4–8 )

9 . Cottonwood(Populusspp . , Zones 2–9 )

Christine Alexander is the editor in chief of FineGardening.com .

This interview was edit for length and limpidity . For further indication , discipline out Douglas Tallamy ’s most late books , The Nature of Oaks(2021 ) andNature ’s Best Hope(2020 ) .

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Doug Tallamy

A man whose focus on ecological conservation is unmatched.Doug Tallamy wants gardeners to understand that his message isn’t anti–ornamental plant. It’s pro–keystone plant.Photo: Cindy Tallamy, courtesy of Doug Tallamy

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The Nature Oaks Book by doug tallamy cover

Have a national park in your yard.Through theHomegrown National Park websiteyou can see how planted, or unplanted, your state or county is and sign up to join the conservation effort. Connecticut, whereFine Gardening’s offices are located, logged in roughly 2,000 newly planted acres as of the time this issue went to press.Photo: attstudio/dreamstime.com

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Have a national park in your yard. Through the Homegrown National Park website you can see how planted, or unplanted, your state or county is and sign up to join the conservation effort. Connecticut, where Fine Gardening’s offices are located, logged in roughly 2,000 newly planted acres as of the time this issue went to press.

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