Nature’s Finest Hope: A New Method to Conservation That Begins in Your Yard

An excellent book.
If you are a homeowner, or are looking into becoming one, this is a book that will help you decide how you want to live with nature. You learn how to support native plants and wildlife, but still fit in with your surroundings. It does get a bit pedantic at times, but provides practical guidance.Nicely illustrated and quite informative.Recommended.

A Book for Our Time
Professor Tallamy has a vision for our future that you need to read about. Imagine a world (I’m borrowing from his eighth chapter now) where you may look out of any window in your house and see a view of a national park, filled with wildlife and the vegetation that makes up their natural habitats. This is Tallamy’s call for all of us to consider our properties as potential habitat for the birds, insects, and other critters that have been consistently misplaced by our yards. So what does he claim is “Nature’s Best Hope?” It is plants native to our region, not the exotics we so often plant that can’t be used by our native insects. It is then the native insects that so many birds and animals feed upon and serve to their young. It is then the native birds and animals that eat the insects, and from there the animals that eat them. “Nature’s Best Hope” is returning our neighborhoods to as natural a habitat as we can make it after the bulldozers have left. It’s giving back to our fellow inhabitants a place where they can live, grow and reproduce. It’s returning as much of our property to a natural state as we comfortably can for their benefit. WE, then, are “Nature’s Best Hope.” This is something we all have the power to do. And Tallamy tells you how you can do it in simple steps. I’ve done it, so you can, too. His ideas work!And he doesn’t hate exotic plants, some have their uses, so you need not remove them all. He’s not that extreme. But he does know the benefits of our native plants and tells us how they work for our native ecology. Comparing natives to exotics, he guides us in the right choices for our landscapes.And it doesn’t have to look like a jungle (unless, of course, you already live in the jungle). Tallamy gives lots of advice on ways to create visually aesthetic yards, something to be proud of, as well as something ecologically helpful. In short, he calls this a “home-grown national park,” where nature is simultaneously preserved and enjoyed by people. Picture that right there in your own neighborhood, in your own yard! A place where the kids can walk out the door, explore and learn about nature without driving 300 miles to the nearest park!And, come on, who likes mowing the grass anyway? (I know there will be a few hands raised on this one as it does take all kinds to make a world). But to be fair, Tallamy doesn’t advocate total elimination of grass from your yard either. Just include some natives in your landscape for the creatures that depend upon them for their very survival. Leave the grass wherever you want to: it handles foot traffic fairly well. But recreate some natural habitat for the things that need it, like butterflies, ladybugs, birds, bees and other pollinators. Then, of course, you will begin to realize who really needs healthy natural habitats. The creature we are all the most fond of: us! If the habitats we live in aren’t fit for the bees, they ultimately aren’t fit for us either! Tallamy says this better than I have. His book is eloquent, articulate, and convincing. Read it now, for your own benefit.

Starts very slow but it’s a beautiful book with a great concept
I started reading at Chapter 7 because invasive species are of particular interest to me. And I was not disappointed. In fact, that was the best explanation I have ever read of why we need to eradicate invasive species. It was scientific, but he explained it clearly so a non-scientist like me can understand it. And not just understand it, but be inspired to act.The idea that I can do my part to change the world, in my backyard is very empowering and resonates deeply with me. What a great concept, which is transferable to so many other issues.It’s a beautiful book, very well illustrated.So then I went back to the beginning and started reading from the introduction onward. And I was so glad I started in the middle because the book starts very slowly and it takes several chapters before it starts to become clear where he’s going with it. If I had started on page one, I may have given up after a couple of chapters.For example, he writes bios of two of his environmentalist heroes, and sure they are great guys, but those sections could have been easily omitted without undermining the narrative.Some of his early ramblings are cringe. “We have now explored and colonized all of planet Earth, so we are looking upward, as now, rather foolishly I think, we talk of colonized Mars.” Who cares what you think about Mars? This book is about Earth. He goes on to say, “Most of us still yearn to discover. We have replaced wagon trains with road trips in hopes of satisfying this age-old craving, but we rarely succeed.” Speak for yourself! My road trips are very satisfying and filled with discoveries.Fortunately, he finally gets his act together, and it ends up being and very worthwhile book, in spite of all the excess fat that could have been trimmed by a good editor.

Opened my eyes
This is an eye opening book and created a sense of urgency in me to do the right thing when gardening and which plants/flowers I choose.

Douglas breaks everything down into plain English for anybody to understand, you don’t have to have any knowledge on the subject to understand his writings and message. It is a must read for any person interested on how they can do better with their own property truely no matter the size. It is non-political and jammed packed with shocking facts about the world going on around you that no one’s talking about

Very readable. It’s not enough to feed birds seeds or fat in winter, we need to grow native plants that are food for caterpillars that in turn are food for baby birds, to reduce the loss of birds and insects. Trees such as oaks, native cherries and willows are particularly productive. Reduce the area of your lawn, don’t spray, replace outdoor lights with motion sensitive ones – these are some of the suggestions to reverse the loss of species.

I have gardened for years and this book was an eye opener on how each of us can contribute to bringing our native lands back to what they once were in our own backyards, to restore our ecosystem.