Book Review: Nature’s Best Hope
By Franja Bryant, Education Chair of the Central Puget Sound Chapter of the Washington Native Plant Society
Nature’s Best Hope: a new approach to conservation that starts in your yard by Douglas W. Tallamy
Doug Tallamy, an entomology and wildlife ecology professor at the University of Delaware, has done it again!
As an entomologist it is not surprising that Tallamy’s work focuses on the important contribution insects make to our environment. However, Nature’s Best Hope goes on to explain the vital connection between insects and native plants, the role both of these play in the survival of declining bird populations, and eventually their importance to our own welfare.
The subtitle gives us a clue as to the book’s true message – what we, as private citizens, can actually do to support the native plants, pollinators and birds crucial to the biodiversity and sustainability of our planet. Its last chapter, titled “What each of us can do,” not only suggests what we can do, but provides guidance on how we can do it.
Tallamy’s ideas are creative, inspiring and practical. After explaining the scientific facts behind the need for action, he comes up with ideas! How about using our yards, patios and neighborhoods to establish conservation corridors for birds and pollinators? How about shrinking our lawns (which are essentially biological wastelands) and filling the space with native plants to support a diversity of creatures including the microorganisms in the soil? How about turning our yards and pastures into “homegrown national parks” free from the need for approval from outside agencies?
Nature’s Best Hope is well-illustrated with numerous color photographs. It is fact-filled and science-based, including a 12-page bibliography of articles and studies, many of which could provide interesting further reading. As its title suggests, Nature’s Best Hope is a helpful, encouraging and hopeful book. Read it! Act on a few of its ideas! You will be glad you did - and our plants and animals will thank you.