They Fought the Lawn. And the Lawn’s Done.
The New York Times
December 14, 2022
*Please note this is an excerpt from a NY Times article, a subscription is required to read the full text of the article.
COLUMBIA, Md. — Janet and Jeff Crouch do not know which flower or plant may have pushed their longtime next door neighbor over the edge, prompting him to pen complaint after complaint about the state of their yard.
Perhaps it was the scarlet bee balm that drew hummingbirds in darting, whirring droves. Or the swamp milkweed that Monarch butterflies feasted upon before laying their eggs. Or maybe it was the native sunflowers that fed bumblebees and goldfinches.
Whatever it was, their neighbor’s mounting resentment burst to the fore in the fall of 2017, in the form of a letter from a lawyer for their homeowner association that ordered the Crouches to rip out their native plant beds, and replace them with grass.
The couple were stunned. They’d lived on their quiet cul-de-sac harmoniously with their neighbors for years, and chose native plants to help insects, birds and wildlife thrive. Now the association was telling them that their plantings not only violated the bylaws, but were eyesores that hurt property values. “Your yard is not the place for such a habitat,” the letter read.
The Crouches were given 10 days to convert their front yard into a lawn that looked like everyone else’s. But instead of doing what they were told, the couple fought back, and ended up paving the way for a groundbreaking state law.
Lawns continue to polarize Americans, with traditionalists prizing manicured emerald expanses and environmentalists seeing them as ecological deserts that suck up excessive amounts of water and pesticides. The locus of power in many of these disputes are community or homeowner associations, which, by one measure, govern some 74 million people nationwide.
Generally these associations are tasked with making sure that yards are maintained, but there are growing questions about what exactly that means.
Insect, bird and wildlife populations are plummeting as a result of human activity, pollution and habitat destruction, prompting scientists to predict mounting mass extinctions in the coming years.
As diplomats from nearly 200 nations meet in Montreal this week to try to hammer out an agreement to stop hundreds of species from disappearing, homeowners in the United States are increasingly planting native plants that provide sustenance to local and migratory butterflies, birds and bees.
According to the National Wildlife Federation, in 2020 there was a 50 percent increase in people creating wildlife gardens certified by the organization. And a growing number of localities and states are enacting pollinator-friendly laws, and in 2020, Taylor Morrison, a major homebuilding company, partnered with the National Wildlife Federation in a plan to plant native species in its communities nationwide.
Still, native gardeners wanting to “naturescape” often face pushback from homeowner associations, whose primary interest is to protect home values by ensuring a consistent appearance across property lines. Associations can dictate everything from house paint colors to the location of driveway basketball hoops.
But in Maryland, homeowner associations can no longer force residents to have lawns, thanks to the Crouches.
Read the full article here
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Suggested Holiday Reading
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Nature's Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation that Starts in Your Yard
Douglas W. Tallamy’s first book, Bringing Nature Home, awakened thousands of readers to an urgent situation: wildlife populations are in decline because the native plants they depend on are fast disappearing. His solution? Plant more natives. In this new book, Tallamy takes the next step and outlines his vision for a grassroots approach to conservation. Nature’s Best Hope shows how homeowners everywhere can turn their yards into conservation corridors that provide wildlife habitats.
Purchase Nature's Best Hope here
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Suggested Holiday Viewing
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What’s the Rush? Doug Tallamy,
Co-Founder Homegrown National Park®
Doug Tallamy presents the grassroots science-based solution to the biodiversity crisis and explains why it's so urgent.
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In case you missed our latest virtual presentations
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Building Community Online!
 We've created a Woodstock Pollinator Pathway Community Facebook group. The Woodstock Pollinator Pathway Community group was created as a way for folks who have joined the pathway or are interested in joining the pathway to communicate with each other. A way to share ideas, offer suggestions, make friends, share plants, share pictures, and offer encouragement. This is meant to be a place of positivity and information sharing for those who wish to manage their own landscapes with special attention paid to creating healthy ecosystems.
You can find the Facebook group here
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Don't forget to get your pollinator pathway yard sign to let everyone know you have joined the pathway!
Yard signs can be purchased online here, or you can pick one up at The Catskills Visitor Center in Mt. Tremper.
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The Map
Woodstock Pollinator Pathway Committee Member Dan Snider-Nerp of the Catskill Center recently updated and improved our map to be more inclusive of Woodstock hamlets and surrounding areas. If you have not yet added your property to the map or are unsure if you have in the past click here to be added.
Why is the map so important?
The map shows the pollinator areas created by people who have joined the Woodstock, NY Pollinator Pathway. We hope to have pollinator-friendly yards as close together as possible so that pollinators can fly easily from one to another. So, encourage your neighbors to create pollinator habitat and join the pathway!
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