Yard by yard, property by property, Dr. Doug Tallamy, Entomology and Wildlife Ecology professor at University of Delaware, believes it’s possible to reverse the damage that wanton, unthinking ‘development’ has wrought. He believes it because he’s seen it on his own property. When he and wife Cindy moved into a house on a swathe of virtually uninterrupted lawn, he began to plant. Years later, it’s a wealth of wildlife, fragrance, beauty and habitat that proves that ‘if you build it, they will come.’
Author of several books, including Bringing Nature Home, that detail the needs of wildlife and the benefits to humankind, Tallamy’s latest effort to reverse the damage and with it mitigate climate change is Homegrown National Park, an idea whose time has definitely come.
The Homegrown National Park program encourages every property owner to plant and steward their property for the sake of the lives of the food web on which we all depend for our own lives.
He reminds us that each of us manages a corner of the earth that when joined to our neighbors’ properties is part of a larger landscape. His point is that together we can create a national park of naturalized spaces everyone can enjoy that also hugely benefits the environment and mitigates the damage that has produced climate change. The Homegrown National Park program, which offers human connection, science-based information and sources, gives both concrete (she said ironically) steps to take and encouragement for what those steps will produce. Planting for pollinators, which draws a wonderful parade of butterflies and birdlife (something that many in Pandemic 2020 unexpectedly reveled in) and produces not only a more beautiful property but also a more valuable one. It also helps to diminish ambient temperatures while beginning to replace the millions of acres of habitat lost to the food desert that is created by unbroken expanses of chemically sustained lawn. It’s win-win, and it all starts with a commitment to improve your own little piece of earth. Visit https://homegrownnationalpark.org. (There’s also a spiffy sign you can put in your property to wow the neighbors!)
I grew up sailing and building boats with my dad, married a tugboat captain, (who I'm still happily married to) and embarked on a life of adventure, challenge and fun. My first book, Woman in the Wheelhouse, told the sometimes harrowing story of working on an old coastal tugboat as cook/deckhand then worked in Mexico in the Campeche oil fields on a supply boat. I was one of the first women in the country to earn a tug operator's license. I'm the author of three other books, Course of the Waterman, which won the Fred Bonnie Prize for the novel, the historical novel, A Love Like No Other: Abigail and John Adams, A Modern Love Story, and OK Now What? A Caregiver's Guide to What Matters, which I wrote with longtime RN and hospice nurse, Sue Collins during the time my mother-in-law was moving to the end of her life.
My second, Course of the Waterman, the coming of age novel of a young Eastern Shore waterman, won the Fred Bonnie award in 2004. My third book, second novel, A Love Like No Other: Abigail and John Adams, A Modern Love Story, takes readers into the lives of the new nation's strong-willed second First Lady and her stubborn, often-absent and adored husband, John, our second US President. I wrote the book because I'd spent big chunks of time raising children alone while my husband was at sea and felt an affinity for Abigail, but also looked to her life as a MUCH bigger challenge that informed and encouraged my own. My fourth book, OK Now What? A Caregiver's Guide to What Matters (Head to Wind Publishing, 2014) was written in collaboration with Sue Collins, RN and longtime hospice nurse and has received heartwarming feedback on how helpful it's been to many caregivers.
A freelance writer for many years, I've published personal essays, features, maritime reporting and analysis, travel, garden and more for such places as The Washington Post, Yachting, House Beautiful, The Baltimore Sun, the Christian Science Monitor, Southern Living, Sailing, and more. I'm also a University of Maryland Master Gardener who grows and cans the family's fruits and vegetables, and a Bay-Wise program certifier. I write, sail, race sailboats (occasionally), walk the German Shepherd dogs, and cook for friends and family.
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Nancy Taylor Robson 