Becoming a healthier, cleaner, more sustainable community means rethinking some of our habits and considering alternative practices. We need to act now to put our ecosystems back together and to support the plants, animals, air, water, and soil that we all depend on. As stated by Douglass W. Tallamy, “effective conservation is not beyond the reach of the individual; indeed, it is your efforts as an individual that will determine whether we succeed or fail, and whether we live in a world thriving with life or in one in which little stirs.” All places have ecological significance. How we treat our local environment impacts everyone. 

This month we are counting down our 7 easy steps to living more sustainably.  

7-Join the Less Lawns More Life Challenge

LAWNS ACROSS AMERICA UNITE!

Are you ready to turn your yard into a thriving ecosystem? Starting May 1st, embark on a 12-week journey to reimagine your outdoor space. Don’t miss this opportunity to make a positive impact on the environment right from your yard. 

Register for the Challenge!

Weekly Challenge: Start by Getting Your Score!

See below for your first micro-challenge of the series. This one only takes 5 minutes. You’ll be taking a self-assessment on the current ecological health of your property. This is a no judgement zone so don’t stress and have fun! In fact the lower you score, the more satisfying to see it improve at the end of the challenge!

Get your score

6-Create your Homegrown National Park

Did you know that we are experiencing the earth’s 6th mass extinction? Scientists have determined that today’s rate of extinction and loss of biodiversity is thousands of times higher than what is typical for our planet.

Why does biodiversity matter? Consider what is needed to grow our food: healthy living soil, clean air, fresh water, pollinators, a stable climate. None of that is possible without a huge and thriving diversity of insects, rodents, herbivores, predators, producers and decomposers. 

Faced with our declining biodiversity crisis, it is easy to feel overwhelmed! It’s challenging to know what to do to turn things around. In fact, each of us can do a lot! 

Our 6th Sustainable Living Tip focuses on the Homegrown National Park initiative that was launched in 2020 with the mission to “To regenerate biodiversity because all humans need healthy, productive ecosystems to survive.” 

According to HNP co-founder Doug Tallamy: ““Our National Parks, no matter how grand in scale, are too small and separated from one another to preserve (native) species to the levels needed. Thus, the concept for Homegrown National Park, a bottom-up call-to-action to restore habitat where we live and work, and to a lesser extent where we farm and graze, extending national parks to our yards and communities.” 

The Homegrown National Park Movement outlines three simple things that we can all do to regenerate the diverse ecosystems that we depend on for our survival.

Plant Native

Native plants have evolved over long periods of time with other species in the area. Without native plants, our ecosystem collapses. We can all make a difference by planting beautiful, resilient native plants in our yards and on our patios. 

Remove Invasives 

Invasives stress the woodlands, waterways and natural areas in communities.The growth of invasives is not balanced by naturally evolved predators, so they can out-compete our important native plants. 

Get on the Map

Join the movement and put yourself on the national map! 

Visit us at our table in the Rotunda this month to share your ideas and hear more about what you can do in your own growing space!

Homegrown National Park

The Royal Society: Why is biodiversity important?

National Museum of Natural History: Extinction Over Time

Our Three-Year(ish) Anniversary

5-Eat Plant Based Foods 

Did you know that plant-based diets are better for your health and better for the planet? When individuals choose to increase the amount of non-meat food in their diet they are helping the environment in a number of ways. 

First, growing fruits and vegetables locally for people to eat uses a lot less land than producing meat for human consumption. The process of getting meat products into a grocery store involves growing food for livestock, feeding the livestock, slaughtering the livestock, processing the remains of the livestock, then packaging, refrigerating and transporting the meat - all space and resource intensive commercial processes. Overall, following a plant-based diet can reduce diet-related land use by 76%. Shifting away from animal-based foods could increase the global food supply by 49% without increasing the space used as croplands. When greater amounts of land are left in a more natural state, carbon is sequestered, water is cleaner, the air is cleaner, and communities are healthier. 

Second, by shifting to plant-based diets, we can reduce carbon emissions and protect wildlife. According to UCLA Sustainability, “in one year, animal husbandry creates as much carbon emissions as the entire transportation sector.” A detailed study in NatureFood found that omitting meat and animal products from your diet can reduce wildlife destruction by 66%.

Third, plant based diets reduce the meat byproducts and waste that are now flowing into Lake Erie, polluting our water. The Ohio Environmental Council has studied the problems of toxic algae overgrowth in Lake Erie. In the past 12 years, people from Toledo to Carroll Township have been prohibited from drinking their own water due to contamination from toxic algal overgrowth in Lake Erie, which is their water source. Manure from Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO’s) has been identified as a primary contributor to the algal toxin contamination of Lake Erie. By avoiding animal-based foods, we can shut down toxic CAFO’s, clean up our lovely Lake Erie, and make sure it is there as a source of freshwater for future generations.  

As Prof Peter Scarborough at Oxford University states, “Our dietary choices have a big impact on the planet.” Try a few of the plant-based recipes that we are sharing at the West Shore FaCT table this month - you’ll be pleasantly surprised!

*Plant-Based Nutrition: Good for You, Good for the Planet 

*The Case for Plant Based

*Vegan diet massively cuts environmental damage, study shows

*Ohio’s Concentrated Animal Feeding Facilities: A Review of Statewide Manure Management and Phosphorus Applications in the Western Lake Erie Watershed

4-Carry compact, reusable shopping bags everywhere! 

Single-use plastic shopping bags sit for thousands of years in landfills. They wash out into Lake Erie poisoning the lake fauna. They are dangerous to animals who can get caught in them or who mistake blowing plastic bags for food and try to eat them. The production of single-use plastic grocery store bags perpetuates the use of fossil fuels. And - single-use plastic shopping bags are not recyclable! 

Of course, reusable shopping bags only help when we remember to use them. Compact, foldable, cloth grocery store bags fit into your pocket or in a purse, so you never get caught in the checkout line without one.

3-Leave the Leaves 

Fallen leaves are important to many species of butterflies, spiders, snails, worms, beetles, millipedes and mites. That means that every bird, squirrel, chipmunk, and frog that eats those invertebrates depend on your fallen leaves for their survival. And - all the predators that eat the creatures that eat the invertebrates also need you to Leave the Leaves! 

Leaves provide mulch to maintain the moisture level in the soil and they add nutrients to the soil as they decompose. 

You can help to maintain natural cycles, promote biodiversity in your yard and save yourself a lot of time and trouble! Gently move fallen leaves to your beds, pile them in a corner of your yard, or mulch some of them back into the grass. 

Aspetuck Land Trust

2-Use laundry detergent sheets instead of plastic bottles of detergent

Microplastics are often added to liquid detergents as fillers and abrasives. These microplastics can be released into the environment when clothes are washed. Additionally, liquid detergents are sold in heavy plastic single-use jugs. By eliminating these plastic jugs of microplastic-filled detergents from your routine, you can help protect our waterways, and reduce landfill trash.

Multiple reviews describe laundry detergent sheets as easy to use in HE, front loading, and top loading washing machines. Natural Living Tips sampled a number of sheets and determined that their two favorite brands of laundry sheets were Clean People and Tru Earth. Health Essential ran a similar review and gave top honors to Freddie Laundry Sheets.

Do you have sustainable practices of your own? Stop by our table in the Rotunda on Sundays for more weekly suggestions and to share your ideas for next month’s Sustainable Living Tips!

1-Grow it yourself!

Grocery store produce comes with a number of downsides. Their produce is often transported over long distances in diesel trucks, and packaged in oil-derived plastic containers. Grocery stores usually purchase their produce from large scale agricultural corporations which apply synthetic pesticides and overuse water due to their concentrated, single crop production. Grocery store produce must be refrigerated for extended periods, burning fossil fuels in the process. 

A study at the University of Iowa found that “Producing more food locally is a way to develop a food system that is more resilient and has fewer impacts, in addition to providing fresher, more nutritious food.” Try growing some veggies on your front porch, in your backyard, or in a community garden! You’ll be amazed at how tasty berries, herbs, and veggies can be!