“We have become accustomed to meeting our needs without compromise. If we need space to live, we take it – all of it – and if that means filling in a pollywog pond or cutting down a woodlot, then so be it. We feel completely justified in sending those plants and animals that depend on those habitats off to make due someplace else…partly because, until recently, there always has been somewhere else for nature to thrive” (No Place to Hide, 23). 

Our ways of replacing nature or what is natural is clearly problematic due to the issues of biodiversity and ecosystem structure discussed by Tallamy. This passage reminded me of an experience on an ASB trip to Maryville, TN. We spent a day volunteering in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The task at hand was to help push the local beaver population out of the park’s border where a resident owned property. The dams created by the beavers were causing flooding in the resident’s yard and home. The park rangers had been working to destroy the dams and even insert a pipe at the bottom of the dam to allow the water to flow out and prevent flooding for the beaver’s habitat. The beavers where able to quickly rebuild there dam and even clogged the pipes that were draining water. The beaver family remained in the area and refused to leave their den behind. I was amazed by the intelligence of the beavers and naturally I was rooting for the beavers to prevail. Unfortunately, the property owner would not accept any payment from the park to leave his wetland property. The owner wanted the beavers out. No compromise.

I also thought the phrase “accustomed to meeting our needs” was an interesting choice on Tallamy’s part. Our society does not function on the basis of need. We have a culture of manifest destiny and desire. We are not Living Like Weasels, living lives based in necessity. Our relationship with nature is marked my greed and exploitation. This reminds me of a paper my EVST 400 class read – Joshua Yates’ “Abundance on Trial: The Cultural Significance of ‘Sustainability.'” This article outlined the history of the term sustainability and the culture prior to this term that focussed on “thriving” and living out of necessity. an idea of progress that is based on nature’s abundance. The concept of progress developed as a shifting response to the question of “what does it mean and take to thrive?” (2012, p. 16). Yates chronicles the change in response to this question over time – from the Puritanical focus on spiritual and community wealth, to the individualistic Victorian approach, to the emergence of mass production and consumption (p. 16 – 17). With the emergence of large-scale consumption came the Malthusian concept of scarcity and the Keynesian counter-argument of abundance (2012, p. 17). With the environmental movements of the 1970s came the influence of the term “sustainability” to question our methods of pursuing “progress” (2012, p. 19). What is really necessary for humans to thrive?

Yates, J. J. (2012). Abundance on Trial: The Cultural Significance of “Sustainability.” The

Hedgehog Review, Summer 2012.

“All too often the first step of suburbanization of an area is to bulldoze the plant assemblages native to our neighborhoods and then to replace them with large manicured lawns bordered by a relatively few species of popular ornamentals from other continents” (Role of Suburban Garden, 21). 

This quote paired with the strikingly eerie picture of a suburban lawn on pg. 20, made me think of how much environmental history and progress was wiped away with the creation of lawns. Why does such pristinely manicured lawn seem so appealing compared to an environment rich in native biodiversity? Perhaps it is a matter of security and community to control your property and see your neighbors. We wipe out the necessary “food, shelter, and nest sites” for species’ survival (21) to create an environment that has been deemed more appealing for us (but not for the insects, birds, and other fauna, according to Tallamy). I think of my father’s anguish with the trees on our front lawn in the burbs of NJ. He is infuriated by the amount of pollen they drop in the spring, like stringy yellow confetti. My mother and I have had to talk him out of removing the tree several times. My dad is a lover of parks and the outdoors, but he is also very particular about his lawn. Suburbia appears to be no place for nature.