We Are So Vain

Kevin Brown, Ag Resource Specialist, BCCD
We are obsessed with things looking neat and tidy.  We want that golf course look.  Why?  I have said before that the only creatures on earth that want things looking that way are human beings.  Period.  Every other creature wants to have cover and food and prey to eat and the list goes on.  Where do they find that?  Not in well-manicured lawns.
​
We can’t even get people to look at pollinator areas because they look “bad”.  Really?  Once established, they look fantastic.  Ever go out in the middle of a goldenrod field in the fall and just stand there and soak it in?  Wow.  Bees and pollinators everywhere.  Stand under an apple or cherry tree in the spring and watch them work.  It sounds like the tree is going to “take off”.  We have all these theories about why populations of things are struggling.  Bee numbers are low.  Bats, Monarch Butterflies, lightning bugs, insects in general, and the list goes on.  We love to blame things that we don’t do.  It must be pesticides people are using.  It is because there isn’t enough milkweed around.  It’s because ….   Do you ever think it just might be us?  All these creatures need a place to live, to forage and feed, to be protected, and we do our best to take all that away. 

With the weather we have been having, everyone is just beside themselves that they can’t get their lawn mowed.  We tear it up and leave ruts all over in it because if it is too high, we just can’t live with ourselves.  Why?  Let it grow.  Mow enough for you to be able to do what you want to do on it, and let the rest grow.  I know, I mow more than I want.  I may, or may not, have someone else in the household who won’t let me go as far as I want.  LOL.  I take my victories where I can.  We put a pollinator mix in.  I wanted the entire top of my lawn converted.  She wanted a little tiny piece done.  I split the difference, for now.  Once I show what it can do, I will make a plea for the rest of it.

When we work with people who have animals near streams, we like to just fence the stream out completely, if we can.  It is best for everything.  However, we get the same argument- “it looks like crap”.  One day I stood overlooking the worst “pasture” I have ever seen in my life.  There was no pasture there.  It was a muddy mess from one end to the other (10 acres worth).  There was no vegetation anywhere.   It was terrible.  It was eroding the streambank.  Everything was wrong.  I was trying to convince him to fence out the stream, or maybe the whole area.  It needed some serious help.  His comment, “I don’t want to do that.  If I don’t have cows in there, it will look like crap”.  I asked, “What do you mean by that”?  I am thinking, “it can’t possibly look any worse”.  He said, “Well, if I abandon it, it will grow up to all kinds of weeds and brambles and whatever”.  I was speechless.  Really??  And this looks ok?  How is it possible that WE look at things that way?

I had a coworker tell me the other day that when he goes out on calls, he opens up his Merlin app from Cornell University.  It is a really cool app.  It will pick up bird calls and identify them for you.  It is amazing how well it hears things.   He says, “I open it in the middle of an area where it is the golf course looking area and I might get a bird or two.  When I go to somewhere that we have fenced out and it has grown up the way we want it to, I open it up and I can identify 8, 10, maybe 15 different birds”.  I never thought of that.  How do we quantify what we know is true- nature wants things messy and grown up.  That is one really good way.  I would love to come up with more.  If you have an idea, let me know.  In the meantime, go out to a big lawn and listen and look and see what you can find.  Then go to a wooded area, a good buffer area, or even better yet, a wetland.  See what you find there.  WE are the biggest problem that insects and bats and butterflies have- our manicured lawns and vainness are killing them all. 
​
The Bradford County Conservation District is committed to helping people manage resources wisely.  You can visit the Bradford County Conservation District at 200 Lake Rd in Wysox across from the Wysox Fire Hall. Contact us at (570) 485-3144 or visit our web page at www.bccdpa.com.