When bestselling author, entomologist, and ecologist Douglas Tallamy published his third book, I wasn’t sure I would read it. Having read his earlier books and attended two of his talks, I wondered: What more is there to say? Yet as the positive reviews for Nature’s Best Hope (Timber Press, 2019) rolled in, I couldn’t resist. I’m glad I read it.

Tallamy, a professor at the University of Delaware, has a straightforward style that makes complex material easy to grasp. Indeed, his ability to reach a broad audience has earned him numerous communications and achievement awards.

His first book, Bringing Nature Home (Timber Press, 2007, 2009), showed that when insects cannot find food, all other food chains are damaged. His second book, The Living Landscape, written with Rick Darke (Timber Press, 2016), illustrates how to create ecologically healthy landscapes anywhere.

Nature’s Best Hope, published last year, restates some points familiar from the earlier works.

“Plants, in essence, enable animals to eat sunlight,” he writes. “Insects are the animals that are best at transferring energy from plants to other animals.”

Food chains fuel all of life, but food relationships are complicated. Not just any insect can pollinate any plant. And not just any plant can sustain any insect.

“Insects are very fussy eaters,” he writes.

Where We Live and Work

More than in his previous books, Tallamy puts a magnifying glass on the problem of habitat fragmentation. All creatures need access to food and water, and they also need to interact with their kind. When insect populations are separated, they fall prey to genetic isolation. This problem affects insects in particular, many of which live the reproductive stages of their lives in just a few days, entirely within 100 square feet or less.

It’s not enough that we conserve open spaces, he says.

“We must abandon our age-old notion that humans and nature cannot mix,” he writes, “that humans are here, and nature is somewhere else.”

There is no “over there,” where the problem can be handled by “others.” He invites us to create our own “Homegrown National Park.”

“Restoring habitat where we live and work, and to a lesser extent where we farm and graze, will go a long way toward building biological corridors that connect preserved habitat fragments with one another,” he writes.

Tallamy then turns to a discussion of the social barriers to change—a problem too-rarely discussed in environmental literature, in my opinion. Indeed, it’s the elephant in the room.

For instance, in my own design practice, people often tell me they want to “do something” for nature. But when the discussion turns to specifics, such as leaving leaves on site, there is often resistance.

Some worry about their neighbors’ opinions or a spouse’s preferences. Others fear blight complaints or their homeowner’s association rules. Yet others imagine bee stings, tick bites, mosquitoes, snakes, and other wildlife encounters as an excuse to maintain the status quo.

Tallamy acknowledges there are genuine concerns.

Another Path Forward

In the world he envisions, however, we take personal responsibility for avoiding ticks (dressing appropriately, checking for ticks) and also take responsibility for providing habitat where native insects can thrive. We don’t use our personal risks as an excuse to keep lawns.

This discussion reminded me of some research I once did, which presented an irony: Lawns themselves present risks. I learned that lawnmowers send about 90,000 people to emergency rooms annually in the U.S., and some injuries result in amputations. About 85 people per year die of lawnmower injuries. Many of the injured and dead are children. I’ve never met anyone who avoids having a lawn because of lawnmower risk.

Not everyone loves Nature’s Best Hope.

Some say the book is long on preaching, and short on implementation details. Others feel that books such as these just add to the sense of hopelessness one can get for many environmental issues.

Indeed, I thought the early chapters moved slowly. The later pages were more compelling as they looked at the problems of entrenched barriers to change, and provided updates on research.

For those who are already active in environmental causes, the book is another tool to help them reach others as we look for a path forward.

More important, I think the book will energize anyone who is ready to take steps to begin their homegrown national park. I recommend it highly.

Kathy Connolly is a writer and speaker on landscape design, horticulture, and ecology. Reach her through her website, www.SpeakingofLandscapes.com.