Nature’s Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation That Starts in Your Yard

Readers of Tallamy’s Bringing Nature Home and The Living Landscape (with Rick Darke) will recognize some familiar themes in his most recent offering: How important native plants are to our ecosystems, how our landscaping practices should be more friendly to both wildlife and humans, and how the “renaturing” of our backyards en masse could create a giant wildlife corridor the author calls “Homegrown National Park.” Tallamy (entomology, Univ. of Delaware) accentuates practicality and “fixing problems”—such as biodiversity loss, habitat fragmentation, and climate change, and is candid about the obstacles ahead. His plan relies on individual effort, yet, as he acknowledges, millions of people remain “clueless” about nature. Thus he provides some answers in a down-to-earth, personalized style; the use of his own backyard as demonstration lab—“Tallamyland”—and an emphasis on small steps to local ecosystem recovery (removing alien plants, shrinking the lawn, fostering insects, planting oaks and other “keystone” genera). The book’s solid organization (including FAQs at the rear) and striking photography also aid his cause.