Nature's Best Hope by Douglas Tallamy

We’re pleased to share with you a wonderful, uplifting presentation entitled, Nature’s Best Hope, by Douglas Tallamy, Professor of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware.

Some of the highlights and key takeaways:

When planting native species, concentrate on those that contribute most to ecosystem function - i.e., that grow caterpillars! Apart from the hands-on winner, oaks, you can find a list of these in rank order at the National Wildlife Foundation Native Plant Finder website listed below by inputting our zip code. 5% of plants make 75% of caterpillar food and 14% make 95% of caterpillar food, so "keystone plants" can be very effective. (Note: we planted 330 white, chestnut and black oaks in the forest restoration area.)

  • Light pollution at night is one of the biggest causes of decline in the insect (read 'pollinators') population. If you don't want to get rid of your outside lights, put them on a motion sensor so they are not on all the time, use yellow bulbs ("bug lights") that are less attractive to insects, or even better, use yellow LED bulbs.

  • Landscape in a way that allows caterpillars to complete their development. Some reach maturity on leaves, but others go down into the ground. If you have lawn coming right up to tree trunks, those are likely to get killed. Put an understory below your trees and leave some leaf litter.

  • Think about replacing part of your lawn with native plantings to be part of a homegrown national park. If everyone reduced their lawn by half, we would have the equivalent of a new, 20-million-acre natural area - plus less toxic runoff from fertilizers and herbicides.

When you watch the video, you will be amazed both by what Professor Tallamy and his wife have accomplished on their 10-acre property that used to be a degraded field, and what can be accomplished on lots as small as .1 acre.