.png)
No Lawns
Doug Tallamy:
Ask Me Anything
Reddit - May 2023
If you'd like to see the original AMA on Reddit you can find the link HERE.
Below is a copy and paste of all the questions and answers during the Reddit AMA
Q.
recto___verso
Hi Doug! My mom was one of your students when she was a pregnant unmarried college kid. She says you were kind to her. Thank you.
Doug Tallamy
A.
I'm happy she had a good experience in my class! Tell her I said thank you!
Q.
therealrinnian
In my small Midwestern town, the local park has several prairie patches that are even meant to be pheasant habitat as part of a conservation coop. However, by midsummer, they'll bushhog it all down, whether there are still plenty of blooms on the later-blooming species or not. They also spray pesticides and herbicides all around it, which kind of defeats the purpose. They also have a fogger truck go by almost weekly in the summer
How do I communicate to a city council that likely has no idea what they're doing when they condone this stuff to stop the harmful practices? What is the best way to go about it, other than just "turn up at a city council meeting and read statistics they'll likely ignore?"
Doug Tallamy
A.
Get them to think about the goal of that pocket prairie, which is to support wildlife. They should be educated that doing other things like spraying is antithetical to the goal of that pocket prairie.
Q.
garden_g
I attended one of your lectures a while back and you briefly mentioned for smaller yard gardening you can cut back a established oak sapling to create an oak shrub, if you will. I have two areas that I might do this based on that lecture. However when looking to the internet for more info on best practice I came up with nothing on the subject. I am so curious if you have more info to direct me to, and possibly photos? I have one spot where I would want the size to be limited to small and one where it can grow into the full tree if it wants, so I might just experiment however any advice is helpful.
Doug Tallamy
A.
It's a practice called coppicing which can be practiced with must trees at around 2-3 inches in diameter. Coppicing is a very old practice that you should be able to find a lot of information online.
Q.
taglay
As a recent convert of native plant gardening after reading "Nature's Best Hope,"" here's my questions:
-
What can I do to be most effective in spreading the word of the benefits of native gardening? Which groups should I join?
-
Where can I find more of the studies backing up your statements in Nature's Best Hope? For instance, the requirements of repeated exposure to nature to reap the benefits
-
Where are some of your favorite public gardens in Chester county for me to check out?
Doug Tallamy
A.
-
A great way to spread the word is to be a model yourself and use native plants in a way that encourages others to garden that way themselves. Homegrown National Park and Wild Ones are both great organizations to join!
-
Homegrown National Park has many of the studies that I reference in my work.
-
Mt. Cuba Center is one of the best examples of how native plants can be used on the east coast.
Q.
Enemy_of_your_enema
Hello from Pennsylvania! I loved Nature's Best Hope and am currently in year 2 of a project to convert my front lawn to native insect habitat.
Do you have thoughts on policies we can advocate for as voters that can have a larger impact than people individually taking action on their own properties? I'm thinking things like restricting the ability of HOAs to fight native plant gardening, encouraging highway departments to use native plants instead of lawn on median strips, and encouraging large landowners to incorporate native landscaping instead of vast, empty lawns in places like suburban corporate campuses. Are there groups advocating for pro-native plant policies?
Doug Tallamy
A.
Incentives work really well as opposed to restrictions. Many states have programs to take advantage of. We need to make it clear that these issues are more important than they used to be and vote accordingly.
Q.
Keithulu
Hi, Doug! I'm a municipal forester and your books/research heavily inform all of our planting decisions. We plant about 95% native along our streets and in our parks.
Many popular street trees are not native, though, (ginkgo, London planetree, etc.) and we still have some stakeholders requesting these species they more commonly see. That, or they want to match the neighbors if each home has the same species planted out front. What would be your approach to suggesting alternatives to someone not as open-minded about the environmental benefits of native diversity?
Doug Tallamy
A.
The problem is that we are turning over ecological decisions to people that do not understand the importance of the ecological value of native biodiversity. Try your best to educate them on the importance of what these native trees do in a landscape from an ecological perspective. Our natives have a much ornamental value as our non-native trees.
Q.
itsgoingdutch
​I have a massive Japanese Yew on my property. It provides shelter for birds and bunnies. I would prefer to remove it and transform that part of my yard into a native pollinator garden. But I am having a hard time facing the fact that I’d be removing a large mature healthy shrub that provides shelter for the local animals. Any perspective or opinion on this matter? Is native always better?
Doug Tallamy
A.
Native is better in terms of the food web, but that yew is important for what it is providing now. You can do productive native planting even in containers or in other areas of the yard.
Q.
Old_Gimlet_Eye
How important is it to find local ecotypes for planting in your yard?
And how can you tell if you have one? Even when a native plant volunteers in my yard it's hard to know. Is it a safe bet to assume that it is?
Doug Tallamy
A.
It's important, but less important than people think. The main thing is to restore food webs. Local ecotypes will thrive better in your environment, but the plant should be fine. If it dies, you have the wrong one. There is no evidence that non-local ecotypes harm populations of local ecotypes. It's extremely difficult to tell if you have a true local ecotype.
Q.
readingaccount251
In my community, nativars are much more widely available than the straight native plants. Is there any reliable way to know if a nativar plant will have similar ecological benefits as the corresponding straight-native? Are there any new general findings with how pollinators interact with nativars?
Doug Tallamy
A.
Mt. Cuba Center has a lot of research on cultivars on how they are used for pollinators. They are a great resource for the latest and greatest information.
Q.
GingerHottie666
Hi Doug! Thanks for lending your expertise! I have a few native pollinator perennials that I purchased from a garden store, and I want to add them to my established wildflower garden.
The wholesaler advised me that they were potentially treated with neonicotinoids.
Should I keep them isolated in pots and prevent them from blooming this year to prevent harm to soil and bees/insects? Is there anything I can do to flush out any insecticide? Am I freaking out for no reason?
Much obliged.
Doug Tallamy
A.
Neonicotinoids are a real problem and they do last for a long time. If you have a herbaceous plant, I would isolate them for a year and it should be fine for the next year. A woody plant would possibly hold on to the neonicotinoids for 3-4 years.
Q.
BirdsNeedNativeTrees
in 25 years of turning my yard into a mini national park, I have been invaded by domestic owned cats hiding out and killing all the birds. My city says cats can roam. My habitat gives an advantage to the cats because it is so dense and layered they have a perfect killing place. What can I do?
Doug Tallamy
A.
I don't believe that a native planting causes any additional predation over other plantings. We should encourage people to keep cats inside.
Q.
Purple_Champagne
Hello, thanks for doing this AMA!
In my previous neighborhood in Texas, the biggest concern from my neighbors regarding native landscaping was a higher potential for venomous snakes- a very real possibility as we often found them in even the most artificial of yards.
Do you have any recommendations on how to curate a native landscape while reducing risk of encountering potentially dangerous native species such as venomous snakes?
Thank you for your time!
Doug Tallamy
A.
It's realistic risk management. The risk of being killed using your cell phone is greater than being killed by a snake. This is a good example of having areas where you can see where you are walking such as paths. Having a landscape devoid of all wild things is not the answer.
Q.
emma20787
What is your opinion on the free Chip Drop Program? Are the benefits out weigh the chance of getting the mulch from a disease tree?
Doug Tallamy
A.
The benefits definitely outweigh anything else. Leaf litter is the best thing to use. If you can switch from woodchips to leaf litter that is the best option.
Q.
Babiriye
I am a new homeowner and have healthy, established non native bushes, including forsythia. Should I remove the non-native established bushes in favor of native alternatives? Should I kill and replant one bush a year so I still leave transitional nesting habitat for birds?
Doug Tallamy
A.
Forsythia is a great example of a non-native that I would not put a high priority on removing due to it not being invasive. I would definitely include native plantings into your landscape as opposed to removing them.
Q.
3BroomsticksBitch
Do you have any “guilty pleasure” plants?
I know your focus is natives and restoring food webs, but from a purely aesthetic point of view- do you have any non native favorites that are so pretty to you that you love them in spite of their lack of ecological value?
Doug Tallamy
A.
I'm an entomologist as opposed to a plant person, but yes, there is room for compromise. You can have 30% of your biomass as nonnative plants as long as they are not dominating the landscape or are invasive.
Q.
jeffreyd00
hi, I was thinking of planting a pollinator garden along a busy road. should I be concerned about traffic harming the Pollinators? what's advised?
Doug Tallamy
A.
We actually did do a study on bee mortality along roadsides. Traffic does kill a lot of bees especially if there is a median strip, especially along highways. On a small country road, it is much less of a problem. The question is if you are producing more bees with your plantings to make up for the mortality, which is hard to measure.
Q.
Terp_Hunter2
Did you have an experience or time in your life that started you on your path as an ecologist? Was there an Aha! moment or was it a gradual course accumulation of experiences?
Thanks for all your work championing biodiversity!
Doug Tallamy
A.
I did have an experience when I was eight years old in Oak Park. There was an undeveloped lot with a pond and it was one of my first true experiences with nature. I was there the day when a bulldozer came to fill in the pond, and all the animals were suddenly gone. If there was an early "Aha!" moment it was that.
Q.
extrasuperkk
A question I have… I am in Colorado. There are some who say that your “plant an oak” advice is not as solid out here, but my understanding is that your lab worked with the NWF on the ecoregion maps and lists and that the keystone tree/shrub/plant lists for us out west are tailored to our needs and are solid. Am I right?
Doug Tallamy
A.
Yes, the NWF ecoregion is tailored to your region. Currently, the ecoregion maps are very general and they are working to have them be more specific to each specific ecoregion in a state or area.
Q.
mrpoopybutthole423
How close are we to hitting your goal of 20 million acres of native plantings and how can we join the cause to make a difference?
Doug Tallamy
A.
Homegrown National Park is expanding quickly and we are around 600,000 acres. Be a part of it and join Homegrown National Park.
Q.
sam99871
A person could eliminate ticks from their property with insecticide. Do you believe people should tolerate some ticks on their property to benefit the ecosystem? Do you think people will accept that trade-off? That seems challenging.
Doug Tallamy
A.
When I grew up there were were black legged ticks and other ticks that transfer lime disease. It's very difficult to get rid of ticks without controlling their hosts like deer. The proliferation of deer is one of the main drivers of tick populations. If we want to reduce ticks we need to reduce what they want which are deer.
Q.
nyet-marionetka
​So we know you want to plant oaks, willows, cherries, and maples to get lots of caterpillars, but are there any species in those genuses that are rock stars in hosting caterpillars, or that are bad hosts that feed fewer caterpillar species than others in their genus?
Doug Tallamy
A.
The native members of those genera will for sure host more than the non-native members. It's difficult to say which oak is the best because most of the research is on the genus level. I wouldn't expect there to be superstars because if a species can eat one native oak, they are likely to be able to eat other oak species.
Q.
LibertyLIzard
Hi Doug, thanks for answering our questions. I hope you don’t mind me asking a tough one!
Do you feel that there is a consensus in the ecology research community about the benefits of native plants? You have published research with evidence showing that native plants are beneficial to native insect abundance/diversity (and therefore birds, etc). However, I’ve also seen research and articles from some very prominent and respected people (Dr. Art Shapiro, Dr. Linda Chalker-Scott and others) that suggest otherwise—that nonnative plants are not substantially worse at supporting diverse insect and bird populations.
How can we as non-scientists interpret this conflicting research? It would be interesting to see some kind of discussion or collaboration between the two sides to help us understand how these results both came to be published. Right now from what I’ve seen, the two sides of the debate mostly talk past one another.
I would love to hear your thoughts on this. I may reach out to some authors on the other side as well to hear their thoughts. Thank you!
Doug Tallamy
A.
Dr. Art Shapiro has shown that 40% of the time when a native is eliminated the hosts are moving to a non-native plant. He is only looking at butterflies and not other insects. We have many, many publications that point towards that a large reduction in inspection populations when natives are absent. The consensus generally is that natives do the best job at supporting wildlife.
Q.
itsdr00
When reading about the damage caused by invasive shrubs like Japanese Honeysuckle, I often see that these plants have the "advantage" of leafing out earlier than native shrubs, to the detriment of woodland ephemerals. From an evolutionary perspective, is this really an advantage, and if so, why don't native shrubs leaf out earlier?
Doug Tallamy
A.
Most of these invasive plants leaf out the way that they do in southern Asia. The competitive balance is shifted even more so because deer do not tend to eat them.
Q.
CharlesV_
​What is your favorite tree?
Doug Tallamy
A.
White oak!
Q.
Human_Reference_3366
​Hi Doug! I have a random question for you. Do you also enjoy more “traditional” gardening endeavors like vegetables and cut flowers? If you do, how do you incorporate them into your bigger passions (oaks/natives)? If you don’t, why not?
Doug Tallamy
A.
We have never done cut flowers, but we have done vegetable gardens for years. But now we have stopped vegetable gardening because we travel so much for work!
Q.
outisnemonymous
​How can our local “home grown” restorations help address the climate problem? I would assume there’s a strong connection, but I rarely see it discussed in depth.
Doug Tallamy
A.
A third in the carbon in the atmosphere is due to us removing trees. We do want to put those trees back, and not just in parks in reserves. These trees and other plants need to be put back on private landscapes as well. Even herbacious plants are helping store carbon. They cannot stop climate change by themselves, but they are part of the solution.
Q.
BigMouseBigAss
Hi Doug, What is your response to the theory that invasive plants are actually healing the earth and making way for native plants? (this is a theory often touted by “naturalist” blogger Marlene Condon and other critics of your work). (I’d like to add that I’m a big fan of your work and a native plant enthusiast - just curious on your views here)
Doug Tallamy
A.
We have more non-native plants then ever and we are in the sixth great extinction event. So, if they are helping, it is not evidence. We know that millions of acres of kudzu has not healed the ecosystems in the south. When kudzu is wiping out hundreds of other species, it is not to the benefit of the ecosytem. Look at the net benefit, if the cost outweighs the benefits then it is not beneficial.
Q.
Grady_J
With the continued expansion of diseases/pests like Dutch Elm Disease and the Emerald Ash Borer, is it worth planting the susceptible trees (especially when the treatments like insecticide may also harm the rest of the insect population)? For example, I live in southeastern Montana where EAB has not yet invaded but is likely to soon. Should I take the risk of planting an ash tree? Being such a cold state, we don't have a ton of species for each ecological niche and It seems a shame to lose an entire species in our ecosystems.
Doug Tallamy
A.
​The EAB is going to be controlled by biological controls via four parasitoid wasps. We hope that these trees can hold on for these biological controls to take hold. It might not make sense to plant any more genotypes that get sick, but you don't know what will get sick until they die. I would plant ask much as possible to help select for resistance for the diseases that have been introduced. This goes for oaks, ash, elm, etc.
Q.
hiking_hedgehog
Do you have any advice for native ground covers that can handle some foot traffic? (Midwestern US, I'm in Michigan.) I plan to make my lawn smaller, but I want to keep a few areas that can be walked on and used for recreation.
A lot of the native alternatives for turf grass can't be walked on, so I'm torn between either using an ecograss or bee lawn mix (which mostly aren't native, but use fewer resources than traditional lawns) or trying to plant low-growing natives that might not hold up as well but that I've read can tolerate being walked on some (like Canada anemone, wild strawberry, and creeping phlox).
Do you have any advice on which to pick or on other species that may work?
Doug Tallamy
A.
This is where grass is great for high traffic areas. Some of the native sedges are great for low traffic areas, but they cannot take high traffic. So I would expand the areas where you don't walk and grass is still viable for those high traffic areas.
Q.
Samdeman123124
Hey there! I'm very interested in grasslands/prairie restoration and creation in the Southeast (zone 7b). This isn't necessarily your expertise, but do you happen to have any tips and tricks for beginning something like a wildflower meadow on small pieces of disturbed land? Eradication of invasives, the addition of natives, etcetera. The biggest issue I've had is definitely getting rid of invasive plants like Japanese Honeysuckle, Bradford Pear, and Privet.
Doug Tallamy
A.
Getting rid of root system is going to be the major challenge. I recommend using a mattock for doing this.
Rick Darke has a saying "addition by subtraction" which means if you control the invasives that you are making room for the natives to take their place and help shift the invasives to natives.
Q.
DentalCarnage
Hey Doug! Do you think Mt. Cuba does a good job of gardening natives. Are they a good resource to model my own garden after?
Doug Tallamy
A.
Design wise they are certainly great. Mt. Cuba shows that if you can see the ground you don't have enough plants. Keep in mind that Mt. Cuba has professional gardeners and spend a lot of time and money on upkeep. But in terms of design, they are one of the best.
Q.
beach_blazing
Hi Doug! We have a large septic leach mound that makes most of our yard un-plantable. We also hate mowing so the plan is to replace it with a wildflower meadow. Have you heard of anyone doing this or do you have any recommendations on plants that won't interfere with the drain pipes.
Also, do you have any recommendations on specific predators we can invite to control our earwig population?
Doug Tallamy
A.
You are restricted from using woody plants, but prairie plants are perfect for them. Their roots can be deep, but they will not interfere with your leach mound.
I'm not aware of specific controls for earwigs, but having the greatest insect diversity will help with control.
Q.
Will_was_taken
I have a few Oaks that started growing in my garden from seeds dropped by my neighbor’s trees. They probably started growing anywhere from 2-5 years ago but they were cut back close to the ground a few times because they were unwanted at the time.
Now there are “trees” growing from where they were cut back. They range in size from 2-4 feet tall, and about 1/2” - 1” in diameter stems near the base. Can I let these grow, even though they were cut back 2-3 times? Or should I replace them with younger volunteers?
Doug Tallamy
A.
You can absolutely let them grow or cut them back again. They will be happy either way.
Q.
Keto4psych
Where can I find / help create species of the genera by zip code for
-
pollen plants for specialist pollinators?
-
ground covers to replace/ reduce lawn?
Looking for FL’s gulf coast, Pacific Northwest (WA), Colorado and central New Jersey. Have family in each place
Builders who clear cut & remove topsoil, level with fill dirt need instruction on landscaping to restore habitat and wildlife corridors. Could changing zoning so that each lot leaves the back 10' help keep wildlife corridors?
How do we create habitat toolkits for builders, landscapers and architects?
What specifics should a master naturalist grandma who regularly attends all zoning & building code related meetings in her county lobby for?
Doug Tallamy
A.
The only resource I know of is the National Wildlife Federations website to search by ecoregion.
We could make a lot of headway if we had builders realize that there is a market for green landscaping as opposed to clearcutting.