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Homegrown Park

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💞 THE JAMES AND ALICE MORRIS MEMORIAL HOMEGROWN NATIONAL PARK

… The extent of our garden space in 2019 was about about 60 square feet… We have added/built at least 20 tons of soil (not dirt) and are up to about 5,000 square feet… Most of it planted with Native Species plants for insects, especially pollinators, and birds…

ARE YOU READY to get rid of AT LEAST A PART of your INVASIVE species, chemically polluting, fresh water wasting LAWN?

💞 At the beginning of our learning about the crises in soil devastation by lawns, chemicals and commercial destruction of natural habitat for no reason but profit based on human whims, our property was an expensive, water hogging, chemical devouring LAWN! And now, at 5,000+ square feet… including compost areas… https://whyagain.org/our-homegrown-park-progress we are eliminating invasive plants and insects, while re-introducing native species in a secure environment.
It is estimated that invasive plants and, animals have caused or contributed to 60% of global extinctions as they ravage native species. At unprecedented rates, much of it because of human greed and, over-consumption, invasive species threaten native plants and animals with extinction while damaging human health and livelihoods.
Their cost to the world economy of some 37,000 alien species documented by the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) is estimated to be at least $423 billion A YEAR, having quadrupled every decade since 1970! These estimates have been described by the authors as “a huge underestimate” and “the tip of the iceberg!”
💞 HOPE FOR BEES! HOPE FOR POLLINATORS! GIVE BEES A CHANCE — GO ORGANIC!
Honey bee colony losses continue at alarming rates.
2020-2021 (50.8%) DEAD! 😭
2022-2023 (48.2%) DEAD! 😭
Legislators have stepped up to address the crisis with legislation to restrict the use of bee-killing neonicotinoid insecticides (neonics). Many states are taking action targeting home lawn and garden use, BUT THE NEW YORK LEGISLATURE MADE HISTORY in 2023 when it passed the Birds and Bees Protection Act to ban neonic coatings on corn, soybean and wheat seeds.
Please take action! Governor Kathy Hochul, of New York has not signed this bill into law.
Call her today at (518) 474-8390, Fax her at (518) 474-1513
Write: NYS Executive Chamber
State Capital
Albany, NY 12224
In 2019 our yard was a lawn with about an inch of soil on top of hard packed red and gray clay. We had to fill our bird feeders about once a week. Now, 4 years later, with about 5,000+ square feet of Native Species and vegetable gardens, planted with about 6 inches of mulch and compost, two trailer loads of wood chips, several loads of rock, soil and mulch, we have 160+ Native Species plants that feed pollinators, (insects that, without them, we are all DEAD) and birds — and we now get to fill the feeders daily. Read on to LEARN why, and how to create such a project yourself and, if you need support we are here to help!
Invasive species — those that aren’t native, but can thrive, in Virginia, are defined as species “whose introduction causes or is likely to cause economic or environmental harm or harm to human health.” Among the potential harms the state has identified are their ability to “damage and degrade crops, pasture and forestlands, clog waterways, spread human and livestock diseases, and destroy street trees. Nevertheless, there are currently NO LAWS in place prohibiting the planting, growing or selling of invasive plants in Virginia — because they are profitable in the nursery and landscaping industries.
💞 Here are the results of our Private National Park… approximately 24 tons of soil and mulch being raked…. a solution that, even if you only have a balcony in an apartment and a couple of clay pots… You can be a part of! Anyone, even on the tightest budget, can take action! 💞 Building Private National Parks…
But wasn’t that a lot of work, you two? Well, yes, but better than paying a gym fee and besides there are many health benefits! https://health.clevelandclinic.org/benefits-of-gardening/, the planet profits! 💞
IS THERE HOPE FOR POLLINATORS? We had better hope so, for, without them, there is no food supply!
“Extinction is the rule. Survival is the exception.” – Carl Sagan
Insects, though we may loathe them on a personal level, are the foundation of all life on earth, including human! Plummeting insect numbers threaten human survival — 80% of the earth’s insect biomass has DISAPPEARED in the last 25-30 years — Globally, 41% of insect species have gone EXTINCT over the past DECADE ! This foretells a life-threatening, catastrophic collapse of nature because, without insects, the global food supply disappears! The rate of extinction of insects, ESSENTIAL for the proper functioning of ALL ecosystems, as food for other creatures, pollinators, soil health maintenance, and reducer organisms that recycle nutrients — is EIGHT TIMES FASTER than that of mammals, birds and reptiles. One scientific paper says: “Insect trends confirm that the sixth major extinction event is profoundly impacting ALL LIFE forms on our planet!”
With chemical agriculture — “Unless we change our ways of producing food, insects as a whole will go down the path of extinction in a few decades,” they write. “The repercussions this will have for the planet’s ecosystems (and humanity) are catastrophic to say the least. The need for an intense and global effort to halt and reverse these dreadful trends is URGENT!” The Diversity of Life, Edward O. Wilson…
Several elements, including the human factor, are urgent restructuring for our global ecosystems to survive! Each needs to be addressed, factors vital to the human ability to thrive include: pesticide use, political policies, banking and credit manipulation, agriculture, abuse of water resources, deforestation resulting in habitat loss, predation by exotic, introduced animals and invasive plant/insect species (such as lawns), over-exploitation by hunters, poachers, the pet trade, the poisoning of “pest” animals in the wild, unbridled development, logging, droughts, fires, global warming and, believe it or not, pollution from human lighting systems that rob us, and the animal and insect world, of necessary cycles of darkness!
In 2016, 80% of the world was estimated to live under skyglow, a term used to describe the brightening of the night sky in areas where people live. The same year, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported that an estimated one-third of humanity could no longer view the Milky Way Galaxy. In areas where this occurs, the soft glow of more than 100 billion stars is obscured by human-produced light. This excess of light at night is a form of pollution that can harm wildlife and plants..
Light pollution disrupts the natural sleep-wake cycle that repeats every 24 hours, known as the circadian rhythm. It also distorts natural rhythms in seasonal lighting that provide important cues to all life on earth – such as when to begin hibernating or migrating. It also changes the time that plants and animals spend awake or asleep, and the activities they typically carry out during waking hours.
In 2014, a group of scientists in the United Kingdom studied the effects of streetlamps on moths. The scientists found that 70% the moths flew towards the streetlamps and away from flowering plants. This resulted in a reduction of plant pollination.
Artificial lighting at night also increases a nocturnal pollinator’s risk of predation because they are easier to see. Their ability to see and avoid predators is also reduced by the lighting – so they may avoid it. This risk is thought to be one of the factors contributing to declines in nocturnal pollinators globally!” Action required!
Creating a spellbinding moon garden for nighttime pollinators… https://www.fws.gov/story/2021-10/creating-spellbinding-moon-garden-night-pollinators
WE NEED TO DEVELOP A CONSCIOUS LAND AND WATER USE ETHIC which results in Ecologically Functional LANDSCAPES, Water RESERVOIR conservation, and restoration of NATIVE plant species habitat is an imperative. Every square foot of lawn you replace, or the planter on your balcony, can make a vital contribution!
Industrial-scale, intensive agriculture, which sterilizes the soil, is killing our ecosystems and habitat. You cannot grow actual food on dirt! Food only comes from live, vital soil! You cannot kill SOIL with glyphosate and other poisons, and produce life from the resultant dead DIRT polluted with deadly chemicals! It is estimated that we have about 60 years of viable soil left on earth…
https://youtu.be/YxTzVevJyxA?si=dmTWsjSpQ9QXULGn
Love them or hate them, we humans cannot survive without insects.”
Another barometer for the plight of global biodiversity? America’s wildlife is in crisis — researchers tell us that we’ve lost 3 billion individual birds in less than a human lifetime and there is an estimated drop of 49% in bird species worldwide!! We need to ramp up support for the conservation of declining species before they ALL become endangered. Out of the approximately 11,154 known bird species, about 25% have been impacted! 159 have become extinct, 226 are critically endangered, 461 are endangered, 800 are vulnerable and 1,018 are near THREATENED! Insects, which are food for birds and habitat restoration are an imperative! Take action! Plant! Please ask your U.S. Senators to support the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act to help thousands of wildlife species, including more than 800 bird species, and prevent future extinctions. Speak up today! https://phys.org/news/2022-09-world-birds-decline-species-faster.html
Here is a brilliant, easy solution EVERYONE can participate in… The Homegrown National Park movement is a grassroots call-to action to regenerate biodiversity and ecosystems by regenerating soil, conserving water (do you flush every time your body releases a few ounces of urine?) planting native plants and creating new, viable, sustainable ecological networks… https://whyagain.org/homegrown-park/
Did you know there are 4,000 different species of bees native to America? 20,000 species worldwide? Planting NATIVE trees and flowers, create a habitat that supports and sustains the insect life (bugs, bees, butterflies, ants) which in turn supports the bird life and other creatures and ultimately human life. Many pollinators can only reproduce and thrive in relationship with just ONE plant species. When that native plant is gone, that pollinator goes extinct. 😭
“In the past, we have asked one thing of our gardens: that they be pretty. Now they have to support life, sequester carbon, feed pollinators, nurture birds and manage water.”
— Dr. Doug Tallamy
Backyard Habitats are an urgently needed contribution… Make your outdoor space welcoming for birds and beneficial INSECTS… https://backyardhabitats.org/2021/03/make-your-outdoor-space-welcoming-for-birds-and-beneficial-insects/
American front lawns are a symbol of man’s insecurity… A symbolic show of wealth and the pretense that he has control over his environment. https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/anthropology-in-practice/the-american-obsession-with-lawns/ NASA sponsored a study which estimated that lawns in the United States cover about 49,000 square miles, consume 8 billion gallons of increasingly scarce fresh water and cost at least $28.9 billion annually. This toxic pastime introduces billions of pounds of toxic pesticides, hormone interrupters and poisons into our soil, water, air, food, bodies and the vulnerable bodies of our offspring which, in many cases, degrades our genes! It further injects these deadly toxins into the bodies of millions of insects, birds, and animals each year! A significantly disproportionate impact of the toxic load is borne by infants and children… “Nearly twenty years ago, with the discovery that children are far more sensitive than adults to toxic chemicals in the environment, we recognized that chemical exposures early in life are significant and preventable causes of disease in children and adults…”
EIGHT BILLION GALLONS OF WATER to keep the blight of a destroying, invasive ground cover species lawn alive?! 😜😜 Americans are squandering fresh water like a selfish, spoiled rich kid wastes his inheritance! “Out of sight, out of mind” is an old adage that applies to how we are caring for our underfoot, out of view, precious water supplies. This limited resource is being pumped from underground aquifers, all over the country at a rate that is causing roads to buckle, foundations to crack and fissures to open in the earth. Rivers that have relied on groundwater to exist, have become streams and trickles, or just memories!
The hottest year on record for the U.S. was 2012 and forty U.S. states recorded their highest annual average temperatures in the last 20 years. Record-shattering heatwaves mean that plants need more water as wildfires and floods destroying lives in the US,, especially Hawaii, Europe, India, China and beyond in 2023! An alarming question: have humanity’s relentless carbon emissions finally pushed the climate crisis into a new and accelerating phase of destruction? Warmer temperatures are shrinking the snowpack that feeds rivers, increasing the reliance on groundwater to sustain communities, lawns and crops. https://www.theguardian.com/crazy-off-the-charts-records-has-humanity-finally-broken-the-climate
People who are paying attention are saying things like, “There will be parts of the U.S. that run out of drinking water!” In the past decade, four of 10 every water survey sites hit all-time lows, some as low as 10% of capacity, as nearly half of monitoring sites have declined significantly over the past 40 years. More water has been pumped out than nature can replenish! Sadly, 2022 was the worst yet with crises water levels reported at tens of thousands of monitoring sites, warning us of a threat to America’s way of life. The problem is severe enough that there is not enough groundwater in parts of the county to build new houses that rely on aquifers. Arizona said in June that it would stop granting permission to build houses in the Phoenix area that rely on groundwater, because there wasn’t enough water for the homes that had already been approved.
The over-pumping of groundwater, along with oil extraction, has caused sinkholes more than 10 feet deep. All of this creates many risks beyond diminishing the supply of water — it can contaminate aquifers in ways that make the remaining water unsafe or undrinkable — salt water intrusion and arsenic contamination of fresh water supplies is becoming more and more of a problem as aquifers dry up and draw salt water from the oceans and concentrate toxins in the soil. In some places, 😜 at great cost, treated wastewater is being forced into the aquifer to try to stop the water levels from falling. “There’s almost no way to convey how important this issue is.”
Restoring soil improves water retention, reduces flooding, eradicates dry conditions and retards forest fires…https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/B9780128131930000023
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/soil-restoration
The Industrial Medical/”Food” Industry (the chemical industry) responsible for the tragedies, the industry that profits in the trillions will tell us, “We do not know why… Autism… Cancer… Heart disease… Suicide… Asthma… Emphysema… ADHD… Miscarriage… Alzheimer, Dementia… Violence… Maternal and Infant Mortality… Murder or the shortening lifespan… We do not know why but we do know that we need less regulation so we can expand our profits… You can trust us… You don’t need the EPA… JUST TRUST US! Listen to the people on our payrolls that get appointed by your politicians, the good, “family values” folks who appoint our executives to assist you in running the departments of your collective will, your government. You know, the ones who make sure the minimum wage does not go above $5.25-$7.25 an hour and that allow us to frack until our hearts are content, even though we know fracking harms babies and children, and keep our pocketbooks are full, ! https://truthout.org/articles/study-finds-fracking-is-strongly-related-to-increased-infant-mortality/
Billions of pounds of glyphosate is sprayed, not only on the soils where food crops are grown, but in obscene amounts on the crops themselves before this toxin laden “Franken-food” is delivered to your grocery store! https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jun/17/glyphosate-roundup-weed-killer-bayer.
Monsanto, now Bayer, is, one of the largest seed companies in the world! 🤪 How is it conceivable that the company that brought us Zyclon-b, Agent Orange and Adolph Hitler owns much of the world’s seed, has invented the modification and patenting of seeds, manufactures pollinator killing chemicals by the ton, and is suing farmers, preventing them from honoring the ancient farming tradition of saving seeds from one year to the next?
Consider the toxic load on farmers, who, for much of the work they do, must dress in a long sleeved shirt, long legged pants, protective hat, shoes or boots, socks, gloves and wear a minimum of a NIOSH-approved particulate filtering face piece respirator with any N1, R, or P filter; OR a NIOSH- approved elastomeric particulate respirator with any N1, R, or P filter; OR a NIOSH-approved powered air purifying respirator with HE filters — JUST TO PLANT YOUR FOOD!! Now realize that the suicide rate for farmers is more than DOUBLE that of VETERANS, and that male farmers in 17 states took their lives at a rate two times higher than the general population in 2012 and 1.5 times higher in 2015. Sadly this is probably a gross underestimate, as the data collected skipped several major agricultural states, including Iowa, and an unknown number of farmers disguise their suicides as farm accidents. An Australian farmer dies by suicide every four days; in the UK, one farmer a week takes his or her own life; in France, one farmer dies by suicide every two days; in India, more than 270,000 farmers have died by suicide since 1995! THEN realize, that several members of the House and Senate – most of them bought and paid for – disingenuously feign concern, make promises (lie) as they vote against Farmer support in favor of billionaire tax cuts! ”https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/dec/06/why-are-americas-farmers-killing-themselves-in-record-numbers!
Will you take, action? Planting one potted Native Species plant will make a difference! 💞
Beyond that, please consider… Throughout our existence, self-centered humans have hunted other mammals and animals, first for meat, and then for pelts, trophies, trade and “sport,”? 🤪. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/human-hunting-worlds-biggest-animals-megafauna-extinction-180971437/
Humans have sawed off the most evolutionary distinct branches from our family tree. Since the last Ice Age, more than 300 species have gone extinct. We have inflicted such grievous wounds on our own family tree that the healing process can’t possibly happen “on any kind of time scale that’s relevant to humans,” Davis says. A quarter of the remaining 5,500 species are endangered, thanks to one species: HUMANS!
The tortured flesh of billions of drastically abused animals are considered to be “food” by those so insensitive and oblivious to the energetic dynamic of their daily intake it is a shock to even imagine that perhaps there is a kinder, healthier way to treat themselves! Try “Meat-out Mondays perhaps? https://www.mondaycampaigns.org/meatless-monday

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