PIW - Plant It Wild

4 days ago

Hip, hip, hooray!

If you have an HOA, Condo Assn, or other governing residential body, be like Janet and fight for habitat restoration. We should be limiting turf grass and baning pesticides, NOT requiring lawns and banning native plants. Novi, Michigan was able to change the milkweed designation from noxious to allowed. You can lead a change too. Go Wild, Go Native!We fought insanity and we won. Thanks in part to the bravery and fortitude of my sister, Janet Lawson Crouch, many more people in my home state will now be allowed to nurture the bees, butterflies and other wildlife in their own backyards. If you live in an HOA in Maryland, your HOA will no longer be able to require you to plant turfgrass. It can no longer prohibit you from planting native plants and creating wildlife habitat. The Maryland General Assembly has spoken, quietly and firmly, joining a growing number of states today when the Senate voted unanimously in favor of House Bill 322, the low-impact landscaping bill that specifically codifies your right to be wildlife-friendly, plant-friendly, and environmentally conscious. Throughout this process, there was really no opposition from the politicians. In fact, at last year’s hearing, when we testified for the bill the first time, one delegate who had voted against every other environmental proposal that day surprised us all by saying, “Who wouldn’t support pollinator gardens?”

Indeed. I am so proud of my Maryland for wholeheartedly joining a small but growing number of states that are saying “no more” to the bullying tactics of the very few unreasonable people who control some of our local HOA governing bodies. Over the years in my habitat consulting and advocacy work on behalf of local floral and fauna, I thought I had heard it all from frustrated and devastated gardeners who were told they couldn’t even grow moss for nesting birds or homeowners who’d been fined for leaving pinecones under their trees. It turned out I hadn’t.

Three and a half years ago, Janet began receiving demands from her HOA in Howard County, Maryland, that she convert her beautiful pollinator gardens to turfgrass. In a series of bullying and nonsensical letters, the HOA’s contracted law firm wrote that a garden “without the use of pesticides in which they have maintained ‘native plants’ to provide food for birds, bees, and other insects and animals” is “completely contrary to the overall design scheme that calls for the Association, which is a planned development. Lots within the Association are intended to be uniform in design and character with manicured yards and green
grass for lawns.” They wrote disparagingly of Janet and her husband Jeff’s “environmentally sensitive agenda” and tried to negatively characterize the garden by saying that it contains “plants that grow back every year.”

The entire case was built on the complaints of one neighbor, whose lawn is filled with blue chemicals that I have filmed running down toward the wooded and stream-filled park during rainstorms. He also hires pesticide sprayers and pest control companies routinely. One of the most ludicrous complaints of all from this man – whose property and entire neighborhood is surrounded by forest where owls, foxes, squirrels, chipmunks and many other animals live – is that “numerous squirrels are being attracted to the subject property. The neighbor fear [sic] this will affect their property.”

That may sound laughable, but for three and a half years it was no laughing matter for Janet, who poured her heart into saving the garden that has offered so much solace to her family and so much sorely needed habitat to the community’s birds and other wildlife. She fought back, and her efforts caught the attention of state legislators who introduced the low-impact landscaping bill. Thanks to the delegates who were willing to take on this issue and craft a bill, and to my sister who didn’t let a bully intimidate her, other people will not have to experience what she did. There will still be fights for sure. But you can be rest assured now that the laws – and an overwhelming number of citizens who have worked for years to bring more respect for nature to this state – are on your side.

This bill got more than enough votes to overcome any potential veto. Once it passes through the governor’s offices, it will take effect in October. ...