Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
human actions. Actions aligned with these ideals would increase the persis-
tence of biological diversity by increasing the vitality of species that tolerate
our presence. Let's take a close look at each of the nine commandments from
the perspective of apartment dwellers, small homeowners, large landowners,
and those who plan, build, and manage our cities.
Do not covet your neighbor's lawn.
Having a “perfect” lawn is an original sin of
most Americans. Our love of lawn is rooted in our history as a former British
colony, and perhaps even in our evolution on short-grass savannahs, where
ancestral hominids found safety from predators. I mowed lawns for a living as
a kid. So did my brothers and most of our friends. When we weren't cutting
them, we played or relaxed on them. There is nothing wrong with a little
lawn. Frederick Law Olmsted, the father of suburbia, espoused the value of
lawns as giving his neighborhoods a “sense of ampleness, greenness, and
community.” Many suburbanites foster lawns to boost the value of their homes,
as safe havens for their kids, or as i rebreaks. Some see lawns as art, as proof of
our domination over nature, or as a way to gain prestige among their neigh-
bors. Whatever the reason, most ecologists agree that the ubiquity of the lawn
has outstripped its benei ts. Domination of suburbia by lawn constrains the
diversity of birds that could be supported. Robins, starlings, crows, wagtails,
oystercatchers, and a few other birds forage in lawns, but to my knowledge,
not a single species of bird, mammal, reptile, or amphibian reproduces and
carries out its other life functions in the modern lawn. It is the ultimate green
desert, or worse.
In 2005, 2 percent of the coterminous United States, some forty million
acres of land, was lawn. Nearly every bit was “industrial lawn,” composed of
