Going Native — The Many Benefits Of Creating Habitat In Our Yards

“Planting native plants while removing the invasive ones is the key to Long Island’s environmental future.”

REGISTER HERE FOR THE MAY 18th 7 PM TALK AT SAYVILLE LIBRARY

Marshall Brown, Executive Director, The Long Island Conservancy, will share with us the benefits of using plants native to Long Island in our yards and gardens. Native plants can help with increased water absorption which means less flooding. They help filter water as it travels from land to the bay, creating a cleaner bay, and they also help to bring back the birds and insects we need to re-balance our natural Long Island habitats. Come find out more and how easy it is to make a difference in your own yard and in your community!

You can register for the talk here at the library’s site.

We will begin by discussing what is now growing in our yards and in our public spaces — non-natives and invasive plants like

From there we will talk of what the environmental implications are for having so few native plants, and so many invasive ones, including English Ivy and privet hedge.  How does that effect local wildlife populations?  What happens to our birds, insects, reptiles, fish and amphibians when there is little native vegetation?

We will round out our discussion by suggesting what each of us can do in our own yards to make a difference.   Planting native in our yards and in our open spaces will aid local wildlife, bring natural beauty to your property.   It won’t need all the water, fertilizer, and pesticides that non-natives do.

Kentucky Blue Grass is actually of Eurasian origin and is considered an invasive in the Great Plains where it is driving out native grasses.  Think of what it takes in terms of water, fertilizer, and various fungicides and herbicides to keep that lawn glowing green.   And since the lawn is invasive, you are guaranteed all sorts of weeds that you have to battle constantly and at some cost to your wallet and the environment.

We recommend in particular reading Nature’s Best Hope, or becoming familiar with Prof Tallamy’s central thesis, which is that is essential that we each everywhere seek to rebuild local habitat for our wildlife, beginning in our yards.   The future for our local critters is in the balance, as we are effectively crowding them out, along with invasive plants and animals.

Planting natives at the scale we need to is an enormous task.   We need 70% of our yards native to sustain local wildlife, and particularly in suburbs and in cities we are nowhere near that.   There are a million species set to vanish globally in this Sixth Great Extinction.   Let’s build ours “homes” by restoring native habitat everywhere we can, in our yards, public spaces, green rooftops.   We will need to change how we plant and landscape, how we treat our soil, and do so quickly.

The Long Island Conservancy will be offering native wildflower seeds for your future pollinator garden!

If you would like for us to speak at your library or before your civic group, please use this contact form here:

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