Review of Nature’s Best Hope by Douglas W. Tallamy
Douglas W. Tallamy’s first book, Bringing Nature Home (2009, Timber Press), awakened readers to an urgent reality–wildlife populations are in decline because the native plants they depend on are disappearing.
of Homegrown National Park
Tallamy’s follow up is Nature’s Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation That Starts in Your Yard. It serves as a practical blueprint for reversing this trend. Published in 2020 (also by Timber Press), it maintains that property owners can reverse wildlife declines by replacing their traditional grass lawns with native plants. By transforming their yards into functional conservation corridors to protect biodiversity, they can create a patchwork of viable habitats he calls the “Homegrown National Park”.
The Homegrown National Park Movement
The central premise of the book centers on the power of individual, decentralized action. Tallamy proposes that if private landowners collectively converted half of their lawn space into native plant zones, they could create a massive network of native habitats. This collective space would exceed the size of all major national parks combined.
Because this movement relies entirely on individual action, it is completely immune to the shifting whims of government policy, making ecological recovery stable and immune to political shifts.
Specialized Relationships
Nature relies on deeply specialized interactions between local plants, insects, and birds. Most plant-eating insects can survive only on the specific native plants with which they co-evolved. So, planting non-native plant species (like those for sale in many commercial garden centers), severely limits the ability of insects to thrive. And without these insects (especially in their caterpillar phase), birds will not have food to raise their nestlings and must move elsewhere.
What Homeowners Can Do
Tallamy outlines four practical strategies that individuals can implement to restore local ecosystems.
First, shrink the lawn. Reduce the overall footprint of traditional grass lawns, which act as ecological deadscapes, and replace them with layered native plant beds.
Second, plant keystone species. Choose high-impact native tree species, especially native oaks, cherries, and willows, that drive the largest ecological gains by supporting hundreds of caterpillar & insect species. And select local perennials & shrubs to support specialized insect and bird relationships. Remove non-native plants.
Third, manage light pollution. Turn off unnecessary outdoor lights that confuse insects. Swap harsh, white outdoor lights for yellow LED “bug lights” or motion activated lights to protect nocturnal insects and pollinators from exhaustion and predation.
Fourth, eliminate harmful chemicals. Stop using broad-spectrum insecticides, which kill beneficial pollinators and undermine the local food web.
Conservation Corridors
Connecting individual yards creates safe pathways for insects, birds, and other animals to move through human-dominated landscapes.
If you’re concerned about doing something good for the environment, Nature’s Best Hope can serve as the blueprint you need to help preserve wildlife, and the planet, for future generations.
Young Reader’s Edition
And be sure to check out the Young Reader’s Edition and share it with someone you know!
