The trees,
flowers and shrubs grown in Northern Virginia are beautiful, hardy,
self-reliant, and a natural source of sustenance for birds, bees and other
wildlife. But native plants, such as golden rod, Brown-eyed Susans and oak trees
are often overlooked and edged out by the neat and trim, water-thirsty,
maintenance-requiring, all-American lawn. Many naturalists, including Kim
Young, a parishioner of Church of the Nativity in Burke, see these blades of
grass as a growing problem.
“Lawn
monoculture does nothing for wildlife,” said Young, a senior interpreter at
Hidden Oaks Nature Center in Annandale. Still, suburbia is full of it. “We
can’t turn back the clock but what we can do is try to bring nature into our
communities, our homes, our churches and our schools by providing a habitat for
wildlife right where we are.”
Pope Francis has encouraged Catholics to join the ecumenical
“Season of Creation” initiative, which runs from Sept. 1, the World Day of
Prayer for the Care of Creation, through Oct. 4, the feast of St. Francis of
Assisi. The initiative includes prayer and practical action to clean up the
environment, promote recycling and lobby governments for action to mitigate
climate change.
For Young, advocating for plants comes naturally as the daughter
of a plant nursery owner. Her father later moved their family from southern New
Jersey to Northern Virginia to work for the national cemetery system, bringing
a more park-like feel to Arlington National Cemetery. When Young and her
siblings were children, their father often took them hiking, pointing out
plants and their scientific names.
“My
oldest brother and I would compete about who could come up with the names,” said
Young. “The one that was always laughed about was Chamaecyparis pisifera
'Filifera Aurea' (a type of evergreen.) That was the longest Latin name of a
plant that we knew.”
Young studied botany in college and then
worked for the U.S. Department of the Interior. While her children were growing
up, she worked for a direct-sales educational toy company. For the past 14
years, she’s been at the nature center —
the oldest one in Fairfax County, she said, and the only one inside the
Beltway.
The small center is surrounded by a 52-acre
park filled with trails, gardens and a play place for children. Inside are
kid-friendly displays about local flora and fauna as well as actual fauna,
including snakes, a turtle and several soon-to-be hatched monarch cocoons. Young
and the other staffers spend much of their time introducing the natural world
to children who visit during school field trips, birthday parties and summer
camps.
Young believes the more people
understand about each type of leafy tree or creepy-crawly, the more they’ll
care if these things start to disappear. “The whole philosophy of nature
education is if children and adults don’t understand nature, they won’t care
about it, and if they don’t care about it, they’re not going to protect it,”
said Young.
Young’s faith teaches her that people
should honor God’s creation. But in addition to that moral mandate, she knows there
are many practical reasons to care about the health of the natural world. Study
after study shows that removing one species from the ecosystem has unintended
and often disastrous effects.
“Insects and wildlife have evolved to
coexist with (each other) and in many cases require (each other) for survival,”
she said. Removing the unassuming milkweed plant, for example, strips monarch
caterpillars of their food source. That in turn affects the birds who eat
caterpillars. “(Someone will say) oh, I have caterpillars on my cherry tree,
and then spray them to kill them, not realizing that basically you’ve doomed
your local bird population,” said Young.
Though a common occurrence, planting
non-native shrubbery and grass may starve local insects, animals and other
vegetation. Invasive plants such as Japanese honeysuckle and stilt grass abound
in Northern Virginia, crowding out local plant competitors.
While some non-natives thrive, other
often aesthetically pleasing non-native vegetation requires extra water and
fertilizer that plants suited to this area don’t need. The excess water and
fertilizer sprayed on lawns washes off to nearby streams, causing algae
blooms.
“We spend so much money and time
maintaining lawns, and I was one of those (people). We had a lawn service and
all of that,” said Young. “But then you realize, this is nuts. Who am I trying
to impress? Not God, for sure.”
Slowly, she and her husband have replaced
the non-native plants surrounding their home. Box turtles, wood frogs, flying
squirrels and rabbits now frequent her yard. Virginia sweetspire, a shrub that
attracts native pollinator bees when it blooms in the spring, replaced the
declining Japanese azaleas. “We chose to remove a plant that did not look good
in order to replace it with native shrubs that were more suited to the space
and required less maintenance,” she said.
Young also introduced some native plants
to the grounds of her parish, Church of the Nativity in Burke. With the help of
the Creation Care Ministry members, a grant from the Endangered Species
Coalition and plants from the nursery Earth Sangha, the team created a pollinator
garden. Those organizations, National Wildlife Federation and Audubon at Home
are very helpful for individuals or churches looking to go native, said
Young.
After Pope Francis issued “Laudato Si’, on Care for Our Common Home,” Young and
others relaunched the environmental ministry at her parish. It’s made a big
difference in her faith life. “I grew up Catholic, I taught CCD but I wouldn't
say I had a strong faith life until I got involved more deeply with creation
care,” said Young. “It sort of put it together for me and gave me a place in
the church and in my faith that I’m not sure I had before. It makes me more
grateful for what God has provided for us.”
Young is excited Pope Francis’ Season of
Creation’s theme for this year focuses on the web of life. “In some cases, due to being removed from
nature, we’ve lost our perspective about what we’re doing,” she said. But
something as simple as what plants are in the flowerbed have an impact on the
environment.
Creating a yard that fosters native
plants and animals might look different that the neatly manicured lawn next
door. Leaves on the tree might have nibbled holes because they’re actually a
food source. But Young thinks the adjustment is worth it. “We have to be
willing to live with a little more messiness in God’s creation.”