Article from the National Wildlife Federation:
“…Beginning in the 19th century, however, suburban Americans took to lawns like fish to water – and both fish and water have been adversely impacted ever since. Approximately 50-70 percent of our residential water is used for landscaping, most of it to water lawns, which total approximately 20-30 million acres in the United States. And the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that nearly 70 million pounds of active pesticide ingredients are applied to suburban lawns each year, helping to make polluted runoff the single largest source of water pollution nationwide, affecting ground water, lakes and streams, wildlife, and human health. A 1995 EPA compilation of state data collected in 1994 showed that urban runoff contributed to damage in more than 26,000 river and stream miles. And the use of gas-powered lawn mowers contributes five percent of the nation’s air pollution. A gas-powered lawnmower emits 11 times the air pollution of a new car. The average American homeowner spends 40 hours a year mowing the lawn. Maintaining the “perfect” lawn – close-cropped, green, weedless, insect-free – requires our own time and energy (consider those blue-sky summer weekends spent mowing, edging, and moving hoses!), vast amounts of natural resources such as water and oil, and the use of a wide array of poisonous chemicals…”
when will Americans wake up , at lease in the 50’s we had clover, buttercups and dandelions growing in our yards and we had bees visiting our little flowers. We as children were able to lay in the unfertilized grass and look up in the sky and dream, I would never let my children lay in the chemical laden grass and we have spend all our weekends getting rid of our grass. we now have a pesticide and fertilizer free and grass free front back and every inch we won yard…. Instead we planted trees, shrubs wild flowers and vegetables, put in a pond and now we have a miniature zoo of birds, butterflies, bees dragonflies, frogs, chipmunks, foxes, hawks, wood peckers and squirrels…… all this on a teachers salary ! It can be done with a little effort , imagination, and love. Bring back nature !!!!! Nature is in decline !!!! Wake up and smell the flowers…. we even have a small bunch of buttercups growing in our yard and you don’t see buttercups any where any more. I bet todays kids have never heard of them… thats a very sad thought ….
It really is a different environment now – my dad grew up in southern California and talks about how clear the waters were back then and now it’s anything but in some places!