Nature's Best Hope

Renowned entomologist and ecologist Douglas Tallamy teamed up with Wright Library in April 2021 for a community read and initiative to support the Miami Valley ecosystem. Tallamy’s book Nature’s Best Hope and his Homegrown National Park movement offer a hopeful and achievable plan for urban and suburban dwellers to help save the planet. 

DOUGLAS TALLAMY Author Visit - Watch the Recording from Wright Library's Q&A virtual visit with the author.

WYSO's Book Nook interview with Doug Tallamy

Book Discussion Questions

About the Book

Nature’s Best Hope shows how homeowners everywhere can turn their yards into conservation corridors that provide wildlife habitats. Because this approach relies on the initiatives of private individuals, it is immune from the whims of government policy. Even more important, it’s practical, effective, and easy—you will walk away with specific suggestions you can incorporate into your own yard.

If you’re concerned about doing something good for the environment, Nature’s Best Hope is the blueprint you need. By acting now, you can help preserve our precious wildlife—and the planet—for future generations.

About the Homegrown National Park movement

Homegrown National Park is a grassroots call-to-action to restore biodiversity and ecosystem function by planting native plants and creating new ecological networks.

Doug Tallamy's Five Easy Steps for Beginners

Step 1. Think, muse, strategize about how you might reduce the area that is now lawn. Maybe start by planting a very small area, leaving enough green grass for your paths and recreational use. It doesn’t matter how small or how large your plantings are; what‘s most important is that you get started, and you get on the MAP!

Step 2. A first step in reducing your lawn can be adding keystone plants in an area now lawn. You might choose an oak tree this fall and build a bed with leaf litter around it. BOOM! New powerhouse tree and less lawn!

Step 3. Leave the leaves wherever you can!

Step 4. Back to thinking, dreaming, musing and planning about where you can add a small patch of good pollinator plants, a “pocket meadow”. It will be best to plant that in the spring but you can start thinking about that now.

Step 5. Start removing the ornamentals you now have that are known to be serious invasive species:

• Callery (Bradford) Pear

• Privet

• Japanese Barberry

• Burning Bush

• Autumn Olive

• Japanese Honeysuckle

• Miscanthus Grass

• Bush Honeysuckle

• Glossy Buckthorn,

• Oriental Bittersweet

• Porcelainberry

Good luck, have fun, start digging and get on the map!

Local Homeowner recommends:

• Bring Back the Pollinators
• Leave the Leaves
• Moving Beyond Flowers: Natural Nesting Habitats for Bees and Other Insects
• The Benefits of Clover, Dandelions, and Lawn Weeds
• We're Thinking Over Why We Kill Clover

Wright Library Community Read is part of Wright Library’s Let’s Talk series which promotes in-depth conversation, intentional community, respect, active listening, and problem-solving among neighbors. It is supported by a grant from American Library Association’s Libraries Transforming Communities Initiative.