by Mary Morgan
I recently had the pleasure of hearing Doug Tallamy speak at Poquatuck Hall in Orient, thanks to North Fork Audubon. What a turn out! It was a full house, and for good reason: Tallamy is captivating. His talk was a mix of inspiration and urgency, a reminder that the natural world we love on the East End is not guaranteed to persist without our help. Doug had several books for sale and I picked up Nature’s Best Hope: How You Can Save the World in Your Own Yard, a children’s edition I plan to send to my niece and nephew at Christmas. (And read first.)
Pictured Above: Butterfly Weed at the Changehampton meadow that is beginning to grow around East Hampton Town Hall.
Tallamy, a professor of entomology and wildlife ecology at the University of Delaware, has become one of the country’s leading voices for “rewilding”—the act of restoring nature in the places we live. His vision is at once simple and world-changing: replace grass (sterile, ecologically empty landscapes) with plants that are native specifically to where you live. These plants provide the best food and shelter for the birds, bees, butterflies, beetles, and frogs we share our neighborhoods with.
Why Not Attract the Hummingbirds?
We often think of conservation as something that happens elsewhere—on a wildlife refuge, in a state park, or along a faraway migratory flyway.
Tallamy challenges that idea. He points out that most of the land in the United States is privately owned, much of it dominated by lawns and ornamental non-native plants. Here on the East End, we have five times more land in lawns than farms.
Lawns, though tidy and traditional, are ecological deserts. They provide little to no habitat for insects or birds, and maintaining them often requires herbicides and pesticides that do more harm than good.
His answer is what he calls “Homegrown National Parks.” The idea is that each of us can turn a patch of lawn—or even a container garden—into productive habitat by planting native species. And we can all help recharge our sole source aquifer by conserving water with rain barrels and creating rain gardens.
If enough people do this, the result is a vast, interconnected network of habitat that can begin to reverse biodiversity loss, aquifer depletion and support struggling populations of pollinators and songbirds.
The strategy is both practical and deeply hopeful:
• Plant natives. Native plants have co-evolved with local insects and wildlife. Oaks, milkweed, goldenrod, coneflowers, and countless others support life– unlike non-native ornamentals.
• Cut back on chemicals. Reducing pesticides and herbicides allows pollinators and beneficial insects to thrive. Why not say “No” to the poisons, and “Yes” to the pollinators?
• Minimize disturbance. Less mowing, tilling, and trimming creates stable conditions where wildlife can flourish. Join the national trend of NO MOW MAY, and LEAVE THE LEAVES in autumn. And rain gardens require no mowing!
• Celebrate biodiversity. A native garden is alive with activity—enjoy the hummingbirds at the bee balm, monarchs on the milkweed, fireflies at dusk.
Reimagine Beauty, Get Inspired
This isn’t about messy yards or giving up aesthetics. It’s about reimagining beauty—finding joy in a meadow alive with buzzing and fluttering wings rather than a carpet of turf grass.
As Tallamy often says, the ecological future of our planet depends not on a handful of national parks but on the millions of small decisions we make in our own yards.
Here on the East End, the movement is already taking root. ReWild Long Island, with active chapters on both the North Fork and South Fork, is spreading the message and helping residents learn how to transform their landscapes.
Coming up soon: ReWild Long Island’s Fall Sustainable & Educational Garden & Meadow Tour on Saturday, September 13, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. (rain date Sunday, September 14).
This self-guided tour invites participants to explore five unique sites across the North Fork—three residential meadows, a 20-year-old farmstead, and a teaching native garden planted and cared for by children.
Locations include Cutchogue, Southold, Greenport, and East Marion. Each site offers inspiration, from backyard-scale plantings to larger fields bursting with late-summer blooms and buzzing with pollinators.
Registered participants will receive a garden map with descriptions and addresses, along with after-tour perks and nursery coupons to help kick-start their own rewilding journey. Details and registration are available here.
The Greater Westhampton Suffolk Alliance of Pollinators is also holding a self-guided Pollinator Garden Tour in the Quogue/Westhampton Area on Sept. 13 from 9 a.m. to Noon. Here’s More Info.
Rewilding is Empowering
What struck me most about Tallamy’s talk is how empowering his message is. For so long, environmental news has left us feeling helpless in the face of climate change and mass extinction. Rewilding reminds us that we have real agency. Every native plant we add, every square foot of lawn we convert, every pesticide we forgo—these choices matter. They ripple outward, feeding caterpillars, sustaining birds, and helping restore balance to ecosystems right here in our community.
Standing in that packed hall in Orient, I felt the energy of people ready to take part in this transformation. We don’t need to wait for government policy or large-scale restoration projects. We can begin at the edge of our own driveways, in the corner of our own yards. Imagine the North Fork stitched together with lovely thriving meadows, beautiful buzzing gardens, and cooling, shady oak groves. It’s not only possible—it’s already happening.
So this fall, go see the beauty for yourself. Get inspired. And consider how your little patch of earth might become part of a much larger park—a Homegrown National Park—one milkweed, one oak, one wildflower at a time.
Where to buy natives? North Fork Audubon has a Fall Native Plant Sale, Saturday and Sunday September 13 and 14 in Greenport. Here’s More Info.
And if you are willing to drive to Manhasset or Lake Grove to pick up your plants, ReWild Long Island has a ReWild Online Fall Native Plant Sale September 12 to 28 (order online). Or come to the Native Seed and Plant Swap coming up November 8, a partnership of ReWild North Fork and Group for the East End. Check their websites. northforkaudubon.org, ReWildLongIsland.org, groupfortheeastend.org.
Climatarian, sailor and beachcomber Mary Morgan lives in Orient with her husband Tom, naturalist and mushroom forager. Together, they were founders of the local chapter Slow Food East End in 2004.
Climate Local Now is a partnership between the East End Beacon and two leaders of a grassroots group inspired by the science of Project Drawdown to advance local climate solutions.
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