Movements, encouraging people to reduce mowing frequency
and let weeds grow free are gaining traction. The no
mow may and the low mow movements say mowing less h
create habitat and increase wildlife diversity,
including the sustainability of bees and other
pollinators but not everyone agrees with the approach.
Neighbors of a Columbus Maryland couple complained to
the Homeowners Association sayi the Garden of Janet
and Jeff Crouch was an eye sore. The couple said their
space was designed to help the ecosystem. Neighbors
said it violated association bylaws, the case went to
court and the couple won while prompting a change in
Maryland law that allows homeowners to make wildlife
friendly decisions for their property. Meanwhile, in
Maine, state, Senator Mattie Re introduced a bill that
would prohibit certain landscaping restrictions. The
bill has faced no opposition and faces further ac
in committee and as you can see from this map, Maine
along with the other 19 states shaded in white do not
have laws on their books addressing pollinator hea
But as lawmakers examine the topic, condo associations
and neighbors are looking closely as lawn culture wars
blossom. Meg Hilling spoke with experts to break down
the facts myths and mysteries of not mowing our lawns
as the weather warms and your yard comes to life. So,
is the debate over what should be done with America's
lawns No, mo, it's the three word directive, divid
neighbors across the country as grass begins to slowly
creep up in height. Odds are you've seen it popping up
on headlines, trending on social media or setting off
heated debates in your local gardening chat groups So
what exactly is it No mo at its core is such a simple
idea. You don't mow for a few weeks, you have flowers
and you have Happy Bees. And that's Matthew Shephe
with the ZI Society for Conservation, a nonprofit
dedicated to protecting pollinators and their habitats.
Think bees, butterflies, moths and flies. The nomo May
movement was launched in 2019 by the UK Conservation
Group Plant Life. The idea being that if you don't mow
your lawn, the whole month of May, declining pollina
populations in the plants they feed on would have a
chance to rebound in your area. The idea spread across
the Atlantic first being picked up in Appleton,
Wisconsin in 2020 before spreading elsewhere in the
state with environmental groups like sys taking notice,
make it fit what you want. I mean, no moma, it's not
like there's rules. There's no, there's no, no MERS
police sneaking around checking out your lawn and
sighting you. You know, if you would like your lawn to
be longer I mean, let it grow. Maybe it means instead
of knowing it twice a week or once a week, you know, it,
once every other week, you know, but not everyone is
buzzing about a break from yard work, gardening is work.
And if you want to have pollinators visit your gar
all season long, you know, which can be even in Buffalo
from April through October, not mowing your lawn is not
the way to do it. It won't help you. That's Eliza
Licata, an editorial writer for the Buffalo News and
longtime gardener. She's been digging into the No Moma
movement most recently in an op ed where she points out
that consideration for pollinators needs to extend
beyond just a month. If we want our actions have a long
term impact, you have to put a little more thought into
it than that you have to maintain uh perennials and,
and even flowering trees and shrubs that will provide
steady diet for these pollers that they can come back
to month after month. And Lata warns that if you do go
to mow your lawn after taking a month off, don't be
surprised if the grass doesn't respond. Well, when you
do mow that lawn presuming that you still want to have
it, you're really damaging it, you're cutting off about
three quarters of its growth and you're doing, you're
shocking it, you're quite literally shocking your lawn
and you're hurting it. There's also a chance that not
mowing your lawn could set off testy exchanges with
neighbors unhappy with the site or worse violate
homeowner association policies your area. Some of
which have taken residents to court in the past over
everything from the color heigh to even make up of the
lawn. The Washington Post cites 2005 data from NASA
that estimates that there is roughly 40 million acres
of ornamental lawn in the US making up roughly 2% of
the land area of the lower 48 states. And to maintai
all that, the US. Environmental Protection Ag
estimates that Americans spend roughly nine billion
gallons of water each day on landscape irrigation. As a
result, lawns have increasingly come under scrutiny by
state and local officials for water use, especially in
western states. Some have begun encouraging resident
to swap out their grass for more drought resistan
landscapes such as clover, cactus, artificial turf and
even gravel. The ecological I Q of this country is
really low. We don't get it that we are living off the
life support that healthy ecosystems provide. If we
don't support those ecosystems, we don't have that life
support. Doug Tulay is an entomologist at the
University of Delaware and author of Nature's Best Hope,
a new approach to conservation that starts in your yard.
We now need to practice conservation outside o
and preserves and what's outside in parks and preserves
is private property. So the private homeowner is
actually the future of conservation. And my job has
been to tell them that they don't know that and the
group us suited to tackle these conversations migh
be who you would expect. The most powerful people in
the country right now in terms of the environment are
baby boomers. They're retired, they've got money.
They're trying to figure out what to do with their
lives. Um They can be a really powerful source but it
wasn't part of our, our upbringing, nobody was, was
trained in this. So the the biggest hindrance is that
they simply don't know that they are the future of
conservation and that plant cho is the way to go. Sy
says, ultimately, he'd love to see the area of lawn in
the US cut in half. But that doesn't mean getting o
your shovel and digging up your grass right away. The
easiest thing to do is plant a tree, plant two or three
trees and you put a bed around that tree and
immediately you have less lawn and that tree is gonna
grow and then you expand the bed like many
environmental debates. This one is not going away any
time soon. But experts like Mi Lakota and Shepherd say
they're happy that these conversations are finally
getting the attention they deserve. We're a lot farther
along now than we were 20 years ago. Um You're, you're
interviewing me that wouldn't it happened 20 years ago
and you recognize that this is an issue. People
recognize that the 135 million acres we have in
residential neighborhoods counts. We're recognizing
that, that our parks are not enough to preserve the
biodiversity that we need. So we've got to do
conservation outside of the parks. Where's it gonna
happen It's gonna happen in your yard, Mag Elling
scripts, news, Chicago.