02/10/2026
Hello Friends!
I do not post on Facebook much but I feel i cannot stay silent. The bird population in Virginia (and nationwide) is decreaomg at an alarming rate. This is due primarily to the disappearance of their (our) ecosystem and the reduction in the insect population.
Simply put, the choices that humans are making are destroying the ecosystem that we all share. In Rockbridge County, over just the past 30 years, I have witnessed the forests cut down to be replaced by mowed lawns and the extreme decrease in our insect population. Total insect biomass has decreased by 75% nationwide. If you are not concerned, you should be!
A simple way to reverse this trend is to stop mowing your lawns and to stop putting chemicals on the vegetation as a solution to cutting it back or maintaining it. In the United States, we believe mowing a lawn is a very neighborly thing to do. We believe a wild lawn equates to an unkept lawn. And an unkept lawn is an indication that the humans who own it do not have all their ducks in a row. Mowing your lawn is therefore partially image driven. It is about how we want people to see us when it should be about the health of us all.
Simply put, It is time to rebuild our ecosystem and to re-wild our lawns. Let the tall grasses grow and the native species flourish! Nothing is more beautiful than a healthy ecosystem! And a mowed lawn is the deadest ecosystem on earth! If it is about how others see you, declare that they see you authentically and not as a section of mowed grass.
Educate your neighbors! Explain to them why you are no longer mowing your lawn so that they can be informed. because in another 50 years, if we do not make changes now, there will not be an ecosystem to save.
