Creating a Climate-Resilient Lawn

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This summer, our region has seen weather extremes on both ends of the spectrum – drought in June and frequent heavy rain in July. Not all plants can deal with these extreme conditions; many lawns in particular suffered during June’s scorching heat and sparse rainfall. Traditional lawns, which consist primarily of non-native turf grasses like tall fescue, kentucky bluegrass, perennial rye, etc., are not adapted to a majority of the environments that they are grown in. In addition, lawns are remarkably bad for the environment in a variety of ways. Let’s dive into what makes traditional lawns so harmful, compare lawns to alternatives that utilize native plants, and learn ways you can create a more sustainable, diverse, and climate resilient habitat at home from the local meadow expert working with us to improve Karen Cragnolin Park: Patchwork Meadows.

Why are lawns harmful to the environment?

In fairness, lawns are a more environmentally friendly land use compared to paved, impervious surfaces like parking lots and roads. They do allow some rainwater to soak into the soil, but they are not as effective at capturing rainwater as more naturalized areas. But being better for the environment than a parking lot is a pretty low bar and that is largely where the benefits end. Because lawns have so many ecological downsides, below we’ve attempted to briefly touch on some of these detriments. We encourage you to learn more by checking out the sources provided at the end of this blog and Patchwork Meadows’ website.

Lawns have little value to wildlife

Turf grasses, which largely evolved in Europe or Asia, provide little support for our native species and directly contribute to the decline of our pollinators by inhabiting land that native species could instead be utilizing. In the absence of healthy insect populations to feed on, the vast majority of other native wildlife—birds, bats, land mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and a myriad of other species—cannot survive. The huge expanses of lawn across the United States are essentially biological deserts that are unable to support most species. 

Lawns have shallow roots

The root systems of most turf grasses only extend a few inches into the soil. In the diagram below you’ll see that the roots of Kentucky blue grass on the far left side, are dwarfed by the root systems of various other prairie plants. This creates two major problems:

  • Erosion: The shallow roots of turf grasses are extremely ineffective at holding soil in place. This is especially important when it is grown along a stream and is exacerbated when the grass is mowed right up to the water. With increasingly strong rain events comes faster moving water that can erode streambanks and carry sediment into the water, causing a variety of environmental issues which we have covered in a previous blog.
  • Water Accessibility and Capture: Turf grass roots can only reach a few inches underground and therefore, can only access the water that exists a few inches in the soil. This means turf grass is vulnerable to drought and can go dormant in hot and dry conditions, leaving a lawn vulnerable for invasive species to take hold (and leaves a lawn looking quite aesthetically displeasing). On the flip side, when we have rain, “A typical lawn absorbs only 10 percent of the amount of stormwater that a natural landscape can absorb” (EPA: Know Your Roots Brochure), allowing more water to runoff into our streams. Check out our Resident’s Guide to Stormwater for more information.

Lawns are unsustainable

As anyone with a large lawn knows, these spaces require a significant amount of attention and resources to maintain. These maintenance tasks are not just a burden on us and out time, they also have a noticeable impact on the environment.

  • Frequent mowing, weedeating, leaf blowing, etc.: This equipment requires a lot of gasoline, increasing greenhouse gas emissions and decreasing air quality. Even battery powered equipment requires many rare resources that have their own host of environmental issues. 
  • Irrigation: In many areas, lawns are often irrigated and can use huge amounts of water. Even though our region is known as a temperate rainforest, the past few summers have demonstrated that drought events are becoming more common and frequent as the climate continues to change leading to an increase in irrigation in an attempt to maintain a pristine lawn. 
  • Fertilizers and Pesticides: In order to keep lawns looking pristine, fertilizers and pesticides are commonly employed. If these chemicals are overused or applied during the wrong time (when it is about to rain, for example), these chemicals can runoff into our streams and pollute them. In addition, pesticides are often harmful not only to “pest” species, but to our beloved pollinators as well.

What’s a more environmentally beneficial alternative?

In our region, the highest quality habitat that provides the most benefits for our native species are forests. Native trees and shrubs are incredibly important for our wildlife, but we recognize that forest habitat is not ideal in a lot of human environments. When open space is desired, consider utilizing native grasses and perennials as a significant improvement over non-native turf grasses. And if you have the means, consider replacing at least some of your traditional lawn with native species–whether that is native trees, shrubs, grasses, or perennial wildflowers–to create your own “pollinator patch”.  As described by Patchwork Meadows: “Your Patch is part of the PatchWork that can allow native pollinators to thrive inside of the ever-increasing human occupation of the landscape”. You do not necessarily need to replace your entire lawn if you would like to maintain an area of open space with turf grasses – there are less environmentally harmful ways lawns can be managed (see EPA’s tips here) – but they will still lack the resources pollinators need to survive.

When considering turning your lawn into pollinator habitat while maintaining open space, there are generally two types of habitats to consider: Pollinator Gardens and Meadows. Patchwork Meadows explains the difference: “You might think the only difference is size. It’s true that a meadow is larger than your typical garden bed, but that isn’t the only difference.  A pollinator garden is a well tended space that is generally mulched and has space between individual plants. A meadow is a naturalized space that is not mulched and the space between wildflowers is filled with native grasses. The methods of site preparation and the planting and seeding process are different for a garden versus a meadow”.

You do not necessarily need an expert to transform your own lawn into pollinator habitat. For more information and to help guide your next DIY project, we recommend checking out Bee City Asheville’s Pollinator Gardening Principles web page which has tons of great information. Or if you have the means and would like to work directly with a local expert, we encourage you to reach out to Patchwork Meadows (emily@patchworkmeadows.com) for more information on the services they can provide. 

We hope you will consider transforming your own patch of land from a “biological desert” into a thriving ecosystem full of life, beauty, and environmental benefits.

Sources:

Tags:
Conservation land management Lawn care Pollinators