In a recent article that appeared in the New York Times reporter Cara Buckley described the legal battle Jeff and Janet Crouch, a Maryland couple, won against their neighborhood association that changed state law.
The couple had chosen native plants instead of grass for their front yard to protect the local wild life. They were sued by their homeowners association after a neighbor’s complaint. They did not only fight back the legal challenge but ended up changing the state’s law.
As described in the article:
According to the National Wildlife Federation, in 2020 there was a 50 percent increase in people creating wildlife gardens certified by the organization. And a growing number of localities and states are enacting pollinator-friendly laws, and in 2020, Taylor Morrison, a major homebuilding company, partnered with the National Wildlife Federation in a plan to plant native species in its communities nationwide.
Lawns make up one-third of the country’s 135 million acres of residential landscaping, according to the ecologist Douglas W. Tallamy, who calls the velvety carpeting of bluegrass or ryegrass “ecological dead zones.”
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Picture by Aurora K at Unsplash
