Wild Memories Photography Tours

The other day I realized my husband and I have never owned a lawn mower. Our house is on five and a half acres of trees and whatever else wants to grow there. Recently I did buy a weed eater so I could plant some Turk’s caps and passion flower vines, but that is it. Everything else is volunteer. So while our neighbors are out mowing the lawn we are taking pictures or doing something else, anything else, than mowing the lawn.

Have you ever thought about why you have a lawn? Lawns were “invented” by the English elite. They were a symbol of wealth. Wealthy people could afford to have land that served no purpose and had to be maintained by their servants before the lawn mower was ever invented. The idea spread to the U.S. and now we are slaves to something that has no purpose and is actually damaging to our environment in many ways.

Americans use over 70,000,000 pounds of pesticide each year on their lawns. We use more herbicides on our lawns than farmers use to grow crops.

We spill about 17 million gallons of gasoline while re-fueling lawn care equipment.

The pesticides and fertilizers we use require fossil fuels for manufacturing, application, and distribution, contributing to global warming.

Between 50% and 70% of residential water is used to grow the 49,000 square miles of lawn in the U.S. That translates into 200 gallons of fresh water per person per day to water our lawns. That water and land could be used by wild animals to survive.

Lawns are a monoculture. Only one species grows there.

The reason I am writing about this now is the other day I finally saw a useful purpose for a lawn. The Hayden Valley sow that found the bison carcass Deby wrote about created a lawn. She didn’t really mean to do it. She actually had another purpose in mind. I’ve known that bears often cover carcasses, presumably to hide them from other carnivores, but I have never seen a bear as methodical as she was. She put a lot of effort into covering that carcass. She did it by raking the grass towards the carcass in a complete circle around the bison. After she finished there was an oval shaped area all around the carcass of short grass and a big pile of grass on the bison. We had to look close to even know there was a carcass there because the only thing she didn’t cover was the head. Although the smell made it very obvious. (The best comment I heard while sitting on the hill waiting for the bears to come in was: “That smell is the smell of a good photograph!” Pretty good!)

So next time you get the lawn mower out consider this: Go buy a mix of native wildflowers and start spreading them over your lawn. Get rid of the lawn mower, the herbicides and the water sprinkler and realize you have freed yourself from a job that is a complete waste of time and you are actually doing something beneficial by sitting there watching your new wildflowers grow. Lawns are for bears, not humans.