“No Mow May“ Won't Fix Our Biodiversity Problems

Reduce the amount of lawn you have. Replant with whatever is native to your area. At least half of our land is native meadow that we mow once in August and again just before Winter.<p>Haul off the mowings, and never fertilize. If you are starting from scratch, the land may take a few years to reach a balance.

I wish localities would issue the same kind of citations for invasive species as they do for an uncut, weedy lawn --- that might start to be a fix, but would require education, something we seem to be short on right now.

One of the things I appreciate greatly about living in a Finnish &quot;concrete suburb&quot; (a decades old, concrete-walled apartment complex) is that actual nature is always a 5 minute walk away in every direction. I can walk from my living room to deep in the quiet of the forest faster than I can listen to the median Dream Theater song.<p>I have to say I like this much better than lawns, or frankly having a yard at all, although actually owning a patch of forest someday would be the ideal.

This seems a bit like nuance trolling[0] to me. The upshot of articles like this is essentially &quot;so we should stick with the status quo&quot; whether it says that outright or not.<p>0: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;citationsneeded.libsyn.com&#x2F;episode-201-the-conservative-faux-erudite-rise-of-nuancetrolling" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;citationsneeded.libsyn.com&#x2F;episode-201-the-conservat...</a>

&gt; Lawns represent one of the largest, fastest growing landscapes in the US. These ecosystems—water-hungry, energy-intensive monocultures…<p>That’s the issue.<p>I recently planted a new lawn in the UK and last year seeded it with some small-leaved clover. This year I bought some vetch seeds, I might add some native daisy seed next year.<p>The result is a nice lawn that is still nice to sit on or play some games, but has attractive flowers.

&gt; Still, the institute’s research has some potentially useful findings. Jackson’s research on seeding milkweed (the host plant for monarch caterpillars) in road ditches with existing vegetation showed abysmal results without applying herbicides, such as Roundup, prior to planting. “You get precisely no plants,” Jackson said. “You use Roundup once, you get a few more, and, if you round it up a couple of times, you get a few more.”<p>Yeah right. People are doing no dig gardening now by simply putting a layer of cardboard over grass or whatever below you want to get rid off, and placing a layer of compost on top and guess what it works fairly well.<p>But sure, we need Roundup for everything so spray it liberally for &quot;nature&quot;. And it&#x27;s &quot;science&quot; based. Horrific.

&gt; Over the course of the one-month study, unmowed plots of Kentucky bluegrass did not substantially support more flowers compared to plots mowed at two-and-a-half inches.<p>Who mows at 2.5 inches though?

What will fix our biodiversity problems are the 3 Ps: powerdown, permaculture, and population control. A much smaller human population living at preindustrial levels, with strong taboos against building too large or becoming too advanced.<p>And no, mass murder is not necessary for the needed population reduction. It&#x27;s simply a matter of incentivizing not having children at a global scale. The best time to do this was a few generations ago; the second best time is now.

People don&#x27;t care about it. If they did we wouldn&#x27;t have stuff like this:<p>&gt;In November 2023, glyphosate received 10 year renewed authorization for use in the EU<p>...and that&#x27;s the EU, which usually plays it safer than other regions

It should be in November and be called “No Mowvember”.

This is ridiculous. Even if it isn&#x27;t useful, what is the harm? Is there some political thing going on?

Last thing I want in my yard is biodiversity.<p>I&#x27;m surprised that is even a thing.