Despite the original posters overly extensive post, with certain questionable content, the central point is still quite vaild. We as a nation spend more money on grass than on any other crop. That by itself should be reason enough. Read up on the history of lawns and you'll find that they were orginally created as a means of demonstrating wealth (aka, I have this big area and I can afford to do nothing with it except grow grass I can't eat) Regarding the comments of junegem13 and zachslc, you might want to read up on the legal history of this movement. As it turns out, most weed laws (ones based on hight, not on noxious weeds) are unconstitutional. Nonetheless, if you are in a city or subdivision and decide to do a wildflower meadow where there is not an reasonable ordinance, then you should notify your neighbors and the city about why you are doing and the legal preceedants. The EPA has all this information. Regarding property values, that was the original complaint neighbors made against one landowner when she converted her lawn into meadow. When they were unable to demonstrate an actual decrease in property values, the city ordinance was ruled unconstitutional. Afterwards, the neighbors decided if they couldn't beat her that they'd join her and replace their own yards with meadows. Property values in that one neighborhood are now some of the highest in the city (Specific names and places, are available if you want them). Time and time again, lawn alternatives done correctly have shown to raise values, not lower them. In Charlottesville, VA local government is working on an ammendment to exclude native meadows from our weed ordinance. Other cities are doing the same very quicky, especially since the weed ordinance as written by many localites constitutes a legal liability to local governments.

I grew up as a city kid on the South Side. We used to call empty lots "prairies" although they were far from that in reality. One "prairie" I now realize was covered with ragweed. The alleys behind our houses were filled with hollyhocks that grew wild in any patch of dirt that they could find. Between the hollyhocks and the ragweed, which both are much bigger than a child, I used to have a fear of large plants. Every once in a while, if I am in a very dense thicket of something like horseweed, this fear comes back to me. There was a large prairie just a block away from my home that was actually two entire city blocks. When I was young we never questioned why there was this huge empty expanse in the middle of the city; it was just a great place to go and explore. One day, we found an old sewer that had been capped off, telling us that this area had been built upon at one time. That's when I found out from my parents that at one point there was a public housing project (probably back in the forties) but it had been demolished over fears that it would cause the neighborhood to become integrated. The land sort of languished as no one agreed on what to do with it. Eventually, it also became a park, although it didn't destroy any valuable habitat. Somehow this city kid ended up out in the country, where we are now trying to restore quite a bit of habitat. I have learned plant id on my own and have really developed a knack for it. I have even found Lycopus in my wetlands - the plant, that is! My high school biology class focused much more on the animal kingdom than on plants. My DD, who is growing up as a country kid, has gone with her HS biology class to clear buckthorn. Of course, she excelled at that since she already was experienced! I guess what I'm trying to say is that individuals need to be taught, somehow, someway, to appreciate what we have in the natural world and how to take care of it. Man's impact on the earth is so huge and unavoidable that we can't just "let nature take her course" because we are constantly interferring with that course. V.

A forest will choke out a thicket, I often recomend that fruit and nut trees be planted on purpose, so that we lock up carbon and produce food for ourselves, and chocke out the brush plants that are unpleasent to walk through. When you go on a hike along a tail it seems that you are always either bordered by clearing/lawn or by a thicket, but once you break through that thicket you can useually travle quite quickly and easily and have plenty of space to move about. The main reasonfor removing trees and brush historicly wasn't to make things more pleasent, it was to open up land for agricultural use. with a field we can grow staple cerial grains, or legumes, or use it as pasture for animals, while some trees may provide seasonal food for some critters it takes alot of work to survive off of them year round (and trust me when I say thing, willow does not taste that good) . Our modenr day lawns were not contrived from thin air, you need to look at were they came from to understand how they fit in. Lawns are popular mainly in the south (sure, lots of people like them, but in the south they are sick for them) the south had a large portion of its caucasian inhabitants come from scotland (the southern drawl is very closely related to the scots accent) in schotland they have huge green field that are kept down to a few inches all summer long, this is because there is alot of rain and people raise sheep. Now, in the south there isn't as much water in the summer, and there aren't as many sheep, but people still liked the look of home so a lawn with mowers and irrigation is what they came up with.

" Posted by beanthere_dunthat --------IMO, the first thing we have to do is not think that it's someone else's responsibility to do something about it or that there is a magic bullet that will fix everything. The biggest impacts are going to be made by individuals making small changes in their priorities and actions. ----------------------------- Chances are, it's going to cost you something, either in time, dollars or energy, but anything worth having does require something in return." There is the answer to most of our problems. We have been living in an irresponsible fantasy. Our dream world is now a nightmare. The thing to do is to accept the fact that THE GOOD OLD DAYS ARE GONE FOREVER. Yes, the math is simple, forever. Our generation has to be the most unethical and depraved generation. We stole and still keep on stealing from our next generation of their future because they cannot vote. How can we feel comfortable that we have spent $12,269,270,519,185.52 of their money? Thats a debt of $39,877.96 for each infant, adult, senior citizen, handicapped, etc. in this country. The competitive race in this world economy is very challenging, with this burden, how do you expect to come out ahead running with a hundred pound iron chained to your ankle? Its is such a crime to borrow money to build highways to nowhere, to trash good car to "stimulate the economy". If we are going to borrow money, we should use the money to fund education. We rank number 20 in quality of education. We should use the money to train engineers not more lawyers. We graduate 70,000 engineers per year, while India produces 350,000 and China 600,000. Do you see what is in the future for us? Have you seem the $40 billion Olympic opening show by China? Whats the message there? And how long do you think North Korea and a few other countries will start out "cheap" the Chinese? dcarch (a.k.a. Chicken Little)