The latter statement is inspired by the words of the farmer and writer, Wendell Berry – specifically, his essay “The Pleasures of Eating,” published in 1989, in which he famously wrote that “eating is an agricultural act.” In the following decades, the farm-to-table movement has championed and codified this understanding of our food systems through numerous certifications that aim to help us make more sustainable choices. While many of us have gotten into the habit of seeking out certain symbols and words on food products, we have been slower to adopt this approach to beverages – especially alcoholic ones. 

“There are few reasons that it’s taken longer for sustainability practice and culture to reach the spirits industry,” explains Shanna Farrell, author of A Good Drink: In Pursuit of Sustainable Spirits. “The first is that you (often) can’t visit farms that grow the crops that become spirits.” 

While this is not the case for wine – an industry bolstered by enotourism [travel for the purpose of exploring wine regions], with visitors being encouraged to see the grapes up-close – many kinds of alcohol are subject to a strange separation from consumers. These products are, in fact, deeply rooted in a sense of place that is so much more complex than tidy rows of vineyards, hops, or grains convey at first glance. For this reason, the little labels on bottles of booze can go a long way in facilitating choices that are healthier for us and the planet – if we take the time to read and understand them. 

Some broad-reaching sustainability certifications are by now familiar – most notably the United States Department of Agriculture Organic seal, which was developed following the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990 (on the heels of Berry’s famous essay). Other, newer terms are somewhat intuitive, such as “Fish-Friendly” or the more specific “Salmon-Safe,” while still others, like “Carbon Neutral” or “B Corp,” require further study. In deciding which terminology to trust, it’s important to consider how and by whom these certifications are regulated. Ecolabels can be verified by governing bodies at the international, federal, or state level, as well as by independent organizations. 

The first step to sipping more sustainably is simply to acknowledge our drinks as agricultural products. From there, we can begin to consider how the cultivation, transformation, and transportation of their ingredients impacts our land, water, and air, as well as all of the life forms inhabiting these ecosystems.  

The wine industry is leading the way when it comes to creating a new correlation between alcohol and aquatic creatures with a more positive connotation than the phrase “to drink like a fish.” Ram’s Gate Winery in Sonoma, California is one of more than 2,000 farms that have joined the Fish-Friendly Farming Environmental Certification Program, which is regulated by a non-profit organization, the California Land Stewardship Institute. Caine Thompson, the winery’s head of sustainability, explains that in order to become certified, “The farmer must show that they are implementing practices that both restore fish and wildlife habitats and improve water quality.” 

Outside the Golden State, the Salmon-Safe Certification is another great way to verify that farmers are working in harmony with their local waterways. At Soter Vineyards in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, Salmon-Safe Certified is just one of the many ecolabels that the farm has earned over the years, along with Organic, Biodynamic, B Corporation, and LIVE (Low Input Viticulture and Enology). Soter Vineyards is also Bee-Friendly – according to accreditation by the non-profit Pollinator Partnership – highlighting their holistic approach to caring for creatures that live underwater and up in the air. 

Soter Vineyards’ viticulturist, Emily Rozga, explains that one of the shared key practices across these various certifications is “habitat maintenance.” This includes leaving some vegetation along the wetlands undisturbed to help regulate water temperatures and planting wildflower meadows for native pollinators, especially milkweed for migrating Monarch butterflies.  

Some certifications are narrowly focused on certain species, while others aim to be all-encompassing. In 2023, Anytime Spritz launched Farmhouse Gin and Farmhouse Vodka as the world’s first and only Regenerative Organic Certified spirits. Taylor Lanzet, co-founder of the “farm-to-can” cocktail company, explains that they don’t prioritize any one species over another. One of their partners in Hudson, New York, Breathe Deep Farm, started enacting regenerative organic practices in their fields of wheat and other grains, and is now “home to 122 rare and uncommon plant species, 83 bird species, and 40 butterfly and dragonfly species.” 

Winged creatures of all sizes play an important role in a balanced, biodiverse ecosystem and, for some crops, can be crucial for cultivation. Perhaps the most striking example of this is seen in the production of tequila. The popular Mexican spirit is made from the agave plant, which depends on bats for pollination. You may notice the term “Bat-Friendly” on some sustainable tequila brands, but you should also keep an eye out for the letters “ARA,” which stand for Agave Responsable Ambiental (Environmentally Responsible Agave). 

Mijenta is one of the few brands to gain this certification from the Tequila Regulatory Council and the Government of the State of Jalisco, Mexico. Elise Som, co-founder and director of sustainability at Mijenta, explains that they chose to pursue ARA certification to demonstrate that their agave is “grown on land that did not suffer deforestation.” Mijenta’s other certifications, including B Corporation by B Lab and Carbon Neutral by ClimatePartner attest to their “focus on community support and forest protection, as well as development of clean energy solutions.” 

Some sustainability labels in the beverage industry concentrate their attention on the maintenance of crop fields as healthy habitats, while others highlight the preservation of wild landscapes. Marla Hoban, co-founder of the Portland, Oregon-based non-alcoholic beer company Roaming Nobles explains that their brand name pays “homage to the noble animals that roam our state and all its beautiful natural spaces.” This connection is celebrated on their beer cans by the appearance of a tree symbol announcing their partnership with the Forest Park Conservancy, which cares for one of the United State’s largest urban parks – a vital habitat for hundreds of species, ranging from black bears to banana slugs, hoary bats, bobcats, and mountain beavers.

Your personal bar cart may seem far removed from forests and farmlands, but they are inextricably linked. It’s time we take an ecosystems approach to how we drink. Before you pour, carve out an extra few minutes to assess the labels at your local wine shop, call up your preferred brewer, or get friendly with your bartender. By mindfully choosing our beverages based on sustainability certifications, we can have a positive impact that extends well beyond happy hour. 

The post What Do Fish, Butterflies, and Bats Have to Do With Booze? appeared first on Modern Farmer.

The following passages are excerpted from Bad Naturalist, and have been lightly edited for length. 

Wherever people go, they reshape the land, and on this mountain it’s no different. Two hundred years ago, many of these hillsides were timbered for orchards. Around forty years ago, most of the orchards were replaced with cattle pasture. In the past decade, farmers stopped grazing cattle on the mountain. Haying eventually stopped, and mowing stopped, too. For a while now the land has been subject to its own rules; once people stopped managing it, it began to reshape itself. An old pasture filled in with blackberry. The forest encroached on the meadow, pioneer poplar, locust, and sassafras saplings taking the lead. A hayfield filled with hardy natives—and with weeds. Invasive shrubs climbed up and over a hillside, relentlessly expanding their range. Rather than a typical farm, the mountaintop looks unkempt, uninhabited, overgrown. The tendency might be to leave such a place alone—if humans stop interfering, nature will do what nature does, and take over. The land didn’t need me; it would rewild itself—right? Not exactly. Once a place has been disturbed by humans, the only way to repair it is to keep disturbing it, but in the right way. The tricky part is figuring out what that means.

****

In the Southeast, grasslands have declined by 90 percent. In Virginia, where this stunning, scraggly mountaintop is located, the Piedmont prairie, the native grassland community that once dominated the region east of the Blue Ridge mountains, is considered extinct; only small remnants hidden in tiny pockets around the state survive. With those numbers in mind, you can begin to understand why conservation of privately owned forests and grasslands is critical.

Back in 1962, even before MacArthur and Wilson had published The Theory of Island Biogeography, an independent researcher named Frank Preston declared that “it is not possible to preserve in a state or national park a complete replica on a small scale of the fauna and flora of a much larger area.” Parks alone can’t begin to help us ward off the worst effects of climate change, human development, the influx of invasive species, and other pressures that endanger biodiversity. Even if we put all the public lands together—all the national, state, and local parks and nature preserves—without the participation of private landowners, our parks would end up becoming species museums showcasing a handful of plants and animals, those lucky enough to survive the isolation.

Standing on the mountain, with all those acres of rolling hills unfolding in front of me, my goal to plant a small patch of meadow seemed timid. This land was big—I should think bigger! What if I could return this mountaintop to its natural glory? It would serve as a living example of how to restore native meadows! Pollinators would come from all around! I pictured sheep grazing on one of the hillsides. Just a handful of sheep. I’d make sheep-milk cheese. (I can’t eat dairy. I was clearly losing my mind.) I’d put up a fence to protect the sheep from the coyotes and bobcats and bears. Better make that an electric fence. Already I was taming the wilderness.

Even as I dreamed up a Percy-Shelleyesque vision of myself communing with nature, skipping through meadows, bluebirds winging around my head, I was hit with second thoughts. I had the nagging sense that I might be glossing over a few important factors (besides poison ivy and rattlesnakes). Like, at this stage in my life, and considering my various physical limitations, did I really want to take on such a big, ambitious project with an open-ended timeline and a learning curve as steep as one of those hills?

I understood, in theory, that caring for land was a major commitment— I would soon understand it even better in practice. To complicate matters, not only was there no house to live in up here, not even a shed for storing tools, there was no power, and no working well. This land would require time, sweat, single-mindedness: your basic obsession. In other words, exactly my jam.

So I chose to try to restore these two hundred acres, to attempt to transform ailing fields into native meadows, and a barren forest floor into a teeming native understory. Even though, outside of the knowledge I’d gleaned from books like Wilding and “weed warrior” expeditions with my kids along the Potomac River, I had no real idea what would be involved in doing this work on a vast mountaintop, or what the end point of such a project would look like—much less whether a true end point was possible.

If this course of action seems hopeful, foolish, and delusional, that’s the wheel around which my feelings about it cycle, sometimes in a single day. My frustrating limitations aside, what I do have going for me is a tendency to become preoccupied with a topic, studying it and talking about it nonstop (much to the irritation of my family). At various points in my life, I’d done this with mangrove trees, gray whales, carpenter bees, rats, sea urchins, carpet beetles, lizards, and flying squirrels. The mountain was not only a subject, but a place I could dive into and lose myself, a source of fascinating and unlimited information to fill my brain and give me a sense of purpose. And unlike most of the places that inspired those other fixations, the mountain wasn’t a place I would only visit—it would actually be my home. I’d literally live with the outcome, the success or failure of my endeavors. I didn’t know yet how that would feel or how it would influence my decisions.

My belief that I can revitalize this place has an almost magical quality to it, as if, as the land grows healthier, I’ll grow stronger, too. This may be magical thinking, but it’s also an exercise in hope. Standing on top of the mountain, contemplating the idea of somehow bringing change to this formidable landscape, is a dizzying experience. Whatever happens, like the wildflower seeds that stick to my trousers, the land grabs hold of me, and it won’t let go.

Taken from Bad Naturalist© Copyright 2025 by Paula Whyman. Published by Timber Press, Portland, OR. Used by permission of the publisher. All rights reserved.

The post In Bad Naturalist, an Author Settles on a Mountain Top and Tries to Farm appeared first on Modern Farmer.

That trail of tiny footprints, indiscernible to the naked eye, is remarkably effective at protecting the tree from pathogens and pests. That makes ants, in the eyes of Ida Cecilie Jensen, a legion of unlikely warriors — one humans should consider enlisting in the fight to grow food in a warming world. “Ants are a Swiss Army knife,” said Jensen, a biologist who studies the symbiotic relationship between ants and agriculture at Aarhus University in Denmark. “Kind of like a multitool for farmers.”

With an estimated 20 quadrillion ants on Earth at any given time, the bugs are found just about everywhere on the planet. They are also among the species that humans, which they outnumber at least 2.5 million to one, have most in common with. Ants have extraordinary collective intelligence, their colonies weaving robust community networks and dividing labor. The social insects even wage war with one another and build complex agricultural systems.

Ants also have “so many of the same problems and challenges that we have,” Jensen said. “Luckily for us, they already found a lot of great solutions.”

One such challenge is how to grow food while confronting climate-wrought consequences — such as an influx of spreading plant pathogens caused by warming.

Plant diseases cost the global economy hundreds of billions of dollars every year, with between 20 to 40 percent of global crop production lost to crop diseases and pests. Climate change is ramping up outbreak risks by morphing how pathogens evolve, facilitating the emergence of new strains, and making crops more susceptible to infection. Most farmers and growers increasingly rely on chemical pesticides to combat these emerging issues, but the widespread use of such substances has created problems of its own. Synthetic pesticides can be harmful to humans and animals, and lose their efficacy as pathogens build up resistance to them. The production and use of synthetic pesticides also contribute to climate change, as some are derived from planet-warming fossil fuels.

Instead of chemicals, an army of ants may march right in. Though most people view the small insects as little more than a nuisance, colonies of them are being deployed in orchards across a handful of countries to stave off the spread of crippling infestation and disease.

In a body of recently published and forthcoming research, Jensen examined the antimicrobial effects of wood ants, a European field ant known for building dome-shaped nests in fields and open woodlands, and weaver ants, which live in ball-shaped nests within tropical tree canopies across Asia, Africa, and Australia. Her team looked at how the microbes influenced apple brown rot and apple scab in two orchards in Denmark — one commercial and one experimental — and found that wood ants effectively reduce apple scab, which can cause serious yield losses, by an average of 61 percent. The scientists also found that the number of disease-free apples more than doubled compared to when ants weren’t wielded as an alternative biological pesticide. For another experiment in Senegal, they collected weaver ants from mango orchards to investigate the bacterial communities associated with ants, discovering that they also leave microbial footprints that may inhibit fungal diseases such as mango anthracnose, which can lead to extensive yield losses.

Past studies have found that for crops from cocoa to citrus, ants could replace insecticides in a multitude of climates and locations, reducing incidences of pear scab in pear trees, coffee leaf rust in coffee shrubs, and leaf fungal attacks in oak seedlings. Weaver ant nests used as an alternative pesticide in mango, cashew, and citrus trees have all been shown to lower pest damage and produce yields on par with several chemical pesticide treatments. For more than a millennia, the species was embraced as a natural insecticide in countries like China but never quite made its way into the agricultural mainstream in North America or Europe. The method would eventually be replaced by the dawn of synthetic solutions. Still, despite that legacy, exactly how ants take on disease has remained a scientific mystery.

The answer, Jensen said, lies in how ants function. All species of the arthropod possess a body that is essentially hostile for bacteria because they produce formic acid, which they use to constantly disinfect themselves. Ants are also perpetually hungry little things that will feast on the spores of plant pathogens, among other things, and their secretion of formic acid and highly territorial nature tends to deter a medley of other insects that could be transmitting diseases or making lunch of some farmers’ crops. Ultimately, their greatest trick is what Jensen’s newest research reveals: Ants also inherently have antimicrobial bacteria and fungi on their bodies and feet, which can reduce plant diseases in afflicted crops, with these microorganisms deposited as the critters walk. When the bugs are cultivated in fruit orchards, they march all over trees, their feet coating the plants in microbial organisms that can curb emerging pathogens.

Understanding why they have this effect makes it easier to promote and implement native species of ants as biological agents in fields and farms, which Jensen advocates for. She’s not only researching how to do this as a doctoral candidate, but also founded AgroAnt in 2022, a company that leases colonies to cull plant pathogens and pests to farmers in Denmark — much like beekeepers lease hives. Her research team is now looking into boosting populations of existing ant colonies already living in orchards, rather than introducing new ones. Building rope bridges between trees to help ants better get around, and increasing the number of sugary extracts left in strategic locations to feed them, can create ant population booms, which Jensen sees as a simple and inexpensive way for farmers to ward off costly bouts of crop disease.

Others are not convinced this would be any more useful or cost-effective than existing biopesticides like canola oil and baking soda, or pest management chemicals derived from natural sources.

Kerik Cox, who researches plant pathology at Cornell University, said that many of the microbes derived from the ants in the study have already been studied, and optimized for formulation and efficacy in agricultural systems. “Many are highly effective and there are numerous commercial products available for farmers to use,” said Cox, adding that he doesn’t see “anything in this study that would be better than the existing biopesticide tools, which are registered by the [U.S. Environmental Protection Agency].”

Jensen acknowledges there is always a risk when introducing any species — ants new to an area could push out other beneficial species, for example, or attract aphids, those small green plant-damaging insects that ants share a symbiotic relationship with. Still, she is adamant that as long as the species is native to the area and agricultural system they’re being introduced to and then properly managed, the possible benefits outweigh the pitfalls.

On a practical note, the money-saving argument of ants pitted against synthetic products also carries a big draw; particularly given that conventional pesticides, in addition to their organic, chemical-free counterparts, have become more expensive in recent years across Europe and the U.S. Those product prices tend to climb when extreme weather shocks disrupt production, a likelihood as climate change makes disasters more frequent and severe.

Conversely, Jensen said farmers can simply leave sugar-water solutions, cat food, or chicken bones, among any number of kitchen scraps, in fruit orchards where beneficial, pathogen-combating ants are typically already present — such as weaver ants in mango orchards. If the species already dwell there, this could increase their numbers and efficiency. The technique, however, should be approached with caution depending on location, to minimize the risk of attracting potentially harmful members of the ant family.

“I don’t believe in one solution that could fit everything, but I definitely think that ants and other biological control agents are going to be a huge part of the [climate] puzzle in the future,” she said.

This article originally appeared in Grist at https://grist.org/food-and-agriculture/a-secret-weapon-in-agricultures-climate-fight-ants/.

Grist is a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. Learn more at Grist.org

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That’s where we come in.

These guides are some of our most popular pieces, walking you through everything from rotating your crops to incubating chicken eggs. If you want to start a garden from scratch, you’ve come to the right place. Let’s get gardening.

The post Ready to Garden? Start Here appeared first on Modern Farmer.

We know, from the last census of agriculture, that farm life is changing. The number of farms is dropping, while the size of the average farm is going up. That means fewer farmers are working more land.

In order to be efficient, farmers have to turn to technology. Whether that means electric tractors or drone sprayers, to save manpower on the fields, or installing solar panels or virtual fencing to make the most out of the acreage they have, farmers are getting creative.

Here we’ve collected some of our most popular stories exploring the biggest tech in use on farms today.

The post The High Tech Farm appeared first on Modern Farmer.

But just like in other areas of our food supply, there are people working to improve water conditions and ensure sustainable aquaculture practices are in place for generations to come. This collection of stories from our archives highlight just a few of these efforts. From fighting ocean plastics with fungi to bringing sub-sea foraging to the dining room, these people are working to make our waters a better place. And many of them are bucking longstanding traditions, like the women who have found their place in Maine’s lobstering communities, or the folks making oysters accessible to everyone.

The oceans, lakes, and rivers around us may be vast and strong. But these stories, and others in our archives, show that we can be strong as well, when we work together.

The post Dive Deep: The Future of Aquaculture appeared first on Modern Farmer.

“Our major goal is to support the ecosystem, heal nature, and be more attuned with nature’s processes,” says Bosch, who farms using organic and regenerative agricultural practices. “As I researched more about soil health, I started to learn how plastic impacts microorganisms in the soil.”

Start thinking about all the ways we use plastic in the garden—seedling trays, landscape fabric, plant pots, to name a few—and it’s hard to unsee all that planetary warming fossil fuel-produced plastic. Most of it tends to get used for a season or two before ending up in a landfill, where the consequences for the planet and ourselves can be dire.

We all know about the issue of plastics in the ocean. The United Nations has declared the plastic pollution of our oceans “a planetary crisis.” Each year, according to National Geographic, about eight million tons of plastic waste ends up in oceans. Yet, there’s likely even more plastic pollution in our soils than in our oceans. Scientists estimate that more than half of the world’s human population might have plastic passing through their bodies. 

Researchers are still trying to understand what all that plastic is doing to us and to the soil, but some recent studies have found that microplastics can change the structure of the soil and potentially interfere with plant growth if they enter the plant tissues through the soil.

But there are steps we can take to reduce the use of plastic in our gardens, ultimately helping to protect our health and the planet.

Here’s how to start reducing the plastic used in your garden.

Swap your plastic plant labels

for wooden sticks, stones, or even popsicle sticks. 

“I love the look and the fun of painting rocks as reusable labels! You can get paint markers, too, to keep things less messy with the kids,” says Nicole Baker, a biologist with The Wild Center, an interactive science museum in New York’s Adirondacks.

Instead of buying plastic ties and stakes

use natural twine to tie up plants and wooden or bamboo stakes to support them. You could even use a sturdy branch from your backyard or a big stick as a stake. These materials break down naturally and are safer for the environment.

Give the plastic pots or containers you have a second life.

You can wash, sanitize, and reuse them. “If they start to break down, you can often use them as drainage material in larger pots or garden beds,” says Georgia-based entrepreneur and gardener Adria Marshall. Marshall, the founder of a plant-based hair care company, Ecoslay, has been gardening alongside her mother and grandfather since the age of 12 and is on a mission to reduce single-use plastics in her garden. 

If you have loads of old plastic pots or seed starter trays you’re not using, you may also be able to return some to your local greenhouse. “This plastic costs money for those nurseries, many of which are mom-and-pop-owned shops and farms,” says Baker. “Many businesses will welcome the return of their plastics, and they will reuse them. This helps out the local business and keeps that plastic out of the landfill. It’s always good manners to call ahead and ask if they would be willing to take the old, still useful, plastic pots.” 

When you do need seed starter trays or pots, consider your options.

“Instead of buying plastic seed trays or pots, use items you already have around the house,” says Marshall. 

You can likely repurpose items such as coffee cans, egg cartons, and maybe even old casserole dishes.

Bosch has found a lot of success using cedar seed starter trays. “It holds up phenomenally well. You would think they would rot, but they don’t.”

You can also look for grow bags made from natural fibers such as cotton, burlap, jute, hemp, terracotta, and clay pots or biodegradable options like those made from coconut coir, peat, or compressed paper.

Baker has even had success planting directly into straw bales. “They act as both the container and as a growing medium. Straw bales get bonus points because they can be composted after the growing season for future use as a natural fertilizer.”

Instead of using plastic weed barriers or synthetic mulch

use compostable materials such as straw, grass clippings, wood chips, newspaper, or leaves. “It reduces plastic waste, and organic mulches also break down over time and add nutrients to the soil,” says Marshall.

Bagged soils, along with the seed starter trays, are two of the biggest culprits of single-use plastic in home gardens, says Bosh, adding that, most of the time, your soil probably doesn’t need much. If you need mulch or soil amendments, try to buy the biggest container you can. Some garden centers or even town landfills that have composting may offer refill stations where you can bring your own containers.

“It hasn’t been as hard as I thought,” says Bosch, who was determined to find ways to farm without using plastic. She started by removing about two-thirds of all the landscape fabric she used before eventually removing all landscape fabric and plastic netting, using natural mulch or cover crops to control weeds instead. The hardest part has been finding an alternative to the plastic irrigation tubing, as tubes with fabric are lined with resin and copper is simply cost prohibitive. “We’re buying the highest quality we can find so we’re not replacing it every year and can patch it as needed.”

You can start by targeting one thing at a time, and it might not be perfect. 

The post How to Reduce Your Plastic Usage in the Garden appeared first on Modern Farmer.

If you grew up on the East Coast or in the Midwest, you know what I mean. Barefoot in the yard, watching the twinkling fireflies, chasing their dazzling lights: It’s quintessential summertime. In the US, there are more than 160 known species of fireflies, and while they are the most common in the eastern and southern US, they are found throughout the country, with peak firefly season in June and July. Worldwide, there are more than 2,000 types of fireflies, and they have been around for millions of years. Yet, like so many of our insects, fireflies are in trouble. However, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of threatened species, the numbers of many firefly species are decreasing; some are even at risk of extinction. 

But there are easy steps you can take to help the fireflies, and experience their magic yourself, by turning your yard into a firefly sanctuary.

“Whatever little bit of land you have, no matter how small it is, is this amazing opportunity to really help these creatures thrive,” says Deb Landau, director of ecological management for The Nature Conservancy Maryland/DC chapter.

Leave your leaves 

“Probably the number one thing we can do is avoid yard cleanup,” says Nicole Baker, a biologist with The Wild Center, a science museum in New York’s Adirondacks. “While the leaves and detritus may look messy in the yard and in the garden, you’ll need to leave this ‘waste’ in place as it serves as the winter home for thousands of invertebrates, some of which the firefly larvae are hoping to eat.”

Fireflies spend up to two years as firefly larvae. They have voracious appetites at that stage, feeding on various invertebrates, including snails, slugs, and earthworms, all of which are likely crawling on that leaf litter.

“Firefly larvae are crazy looking—they look like armored caterpillars. They’re actually pretty scary looking up close, and a lot of times, people will see them and be like, what the heck is this crazy creature in my yard? But it’s a firefly,” says Landau, who encourages people to look up pictures of firefly larvae so they become familiar with them.

Those leaves also help to build the overall soil health of your garden. They allow the soil to retain moisture, and as leaves and plant matter decompose, they add nutrients back to the soil. Keep in mind that you could also have a dedicated area in your yard for the leaves if you’re using your yard in ways that require parts of it to be neat and tidy. 

Opt for local

When you’re looking to seed your yard in the fall, look for native grasses or wildflowers in your area.

“Try to find seed supply that is local to the area; don’t mail order it if you don’t know where exactly the seeds are coming from,” says Ben Pfeiffer of Firefly Conservation & Research. 

While prioritizing native plants is a tried and true method for conserving all aspects of the natural world, it can be challenging to go all native, especially if you don’t have a blank slate to work with, and that’s OK.

“What is more feasible is to diversify and, little by little, replace and/or add in native perennials, shrubs, and trees over time. Truly, every little bit helps, whether it’s small or large scale,” says Baker.

Be patient 

While you’ve heard of “leave the leaves” in the autumn, you also want to wait for your spring cleanup. Baker says you’ll want to wait to do spring garden cleaning and yard racking until there has been about a week’s worth of temperatures over 50 degrees Fahrenheit and the threat of nighttime frost has passed.

“The point is to wait long enough for the overwintering insect life to emerge from the leaf litter, and gardens, before detritus removal. That way, your “leave the leaves” efforts pay off, and insects don’t get squashed by the rake when we gardeners inevitably get excited by the first warm day,” says Baker.

You’re also not going to see the results of your work overnight. According to Pfeiffer, it can take more than two years. If you’ve done any chemical treatment on your lawn or had a mosquito control company out, it could take even longer as those chemicals also likely killed fireflies. 

“I can’t say enough about the importance of minimizing the use of pesticides. It’s not just that it negatively impacts the firefly larvae and the adults, but all the microorganisms underneath which the firefly larvae are feeding on and dependent on,” says Landau.

Turn off your lights

Come firefly season—typically June and July—you’ll want to keep at least some of your yard a little wild with longer grass. Think about creating dark spaces for adult fireflies with the grass, but also with trees and shrubs, and turn off your outdoor lights if you can.

“Many insects are influenced by artificial light, and the firefly is no exception. Since these little beetles are reliant on their flashy display to communicate with others, they are more likely to experience negative impacts of artificial light pollution,” says Baker.

While the best solution would be to eliminate artificial lights at night or at least in June and July when the fireflies are most active, you could also switch to motion sensor lights for outdoor lights, light fixtures with top shields, or replace your bulbs with red lights, which have less of an impact.

Take in the experience

Don’t forget to enjoy the fireflies you see. 

“They are these iconic things, and I think experiencing them helps connect people across boundaries,” says Pfeiffer. “I love doing firefly walks.” 

You can also collect them and put them in a jar; it’s a great learning experience for kids; just let them go after you’ve looked at them. Don’t leave them in the jar overnight. You can even participate in citizen science projects such as Firefly Atlas, where you snap pictures of the fireflies you see. 

“Just that picture of capturing what life stage it is at what time of the year, in what location it is, is incredibly helpful to scientists trying to put together a better picture of how our fireflies are doing,” says Landau.

The post How to Create a Firefly Sanctuary appeared first on Modern Farmer.

If you live anywhere in or near suburban or urban America, chances are you have personally encountered—or at least heard about—sightings of carnivorous mammals such as coyotes and bears in your neighborhood. As we take over more of their territory, they enter ours, often looking for food. 

The starkest evidence of unwanted human-wildlife interactions happens on our roadways. Every year in the US, vehicle-animal collisions result in 200 or so human fatalities, millions of animal fatalities, tens of thousands of injuries, and billions of dollars in damage to cars and other property. 

That’s just the roads. There are also broader issues of connectivity. While there are large swaths of protected wildlands across the country dedicated to keeping grizzlies, wolves, pronghorn, wild cats, and other large animals safe, they are often isolated in those protective zones, unable to reach other individual animals or packs in other protected areas, leaving these groups vulnerable to inbreeding, not to mention stymieing their natural rhythms of hunting and migration. 

A bipartisan infrastructure bill passed in 2021 contained $350 million for wildlife road crossings. The structures are built under or over roads, with fencing that guides animals to safety, and they are thought to reduce wildlife-car run-ins by up to 97 percent. 

These crossings, constructed over or under human-made incursions in the landscape like roads, can include underpass tunnels or viaducts for mammals and amphibians of all sizes, or bridges, generally for larger mammals. These crossings provide safety and connection for animals whose habitats have been fragmented by roads and buildings. (The largest one ever made is currently being constructed in California. See its progress here). 

Now, a network of activists and policy makers are working to both help heal and create links between wild areas across the US for commuting critters, and ease animals’ way under and over major roads that cut through their ranges. 

Working for wolves

“We are really lucky to have a partner in North Carolina’s Department of Transportation,” says Will Harlan, southeast director and senior scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity. “The team there understands that building wildlife corridors across Highway 64 will potentially save the species, help other wild animals, and prevent human death and property loss.” 

There are fewer than 25 red wolves in the wild right now, and Harlan says that five have died in the past year along that stretch of highway, which is the longest in the state, running from 604 miles from the Tennessee state line to the Outer Banks. Red wolves used to range from Texas to New York. Today, the only place red wolves still exist in the wild is in the 3,200-square-mile Abermarle Peninsula in North Carolina. 

“In North Carolina, we have a super high rate of vehicle accidents, and seven percent of all road accidents are wildlife collisions,” he says.In 2010, the Department of Transportation considered widening the highway; it identified five major animal crossing areas. Harlan is currently in the midst of a major fund-raising effort to get the crossings built, with the goal of raising $2 million by August 1. 

“Wolves are my personal priority, but, of cours,e I will be thrilled to see other species like [the] 700-pound black bear, rare snakes and turtles, beavers, bobcats ,and dozens of others able to safely get across the road.”

Recreating landscape links

Grizzly bears, wolverines, lynx, Mexican wolves, and bull trout are particularly vulnerable to death or extreme isolation due to the loss of natural links between landscape areas in the Northern Rockies, New Mexico and Arizona, where WildEarth Guardians focuses its efforts on restoration and safety. 

“That often means protecting important areas from logging projects and pushing the agency to remove roads and motorized trails instead of building and punching in new ones.” says Adam Rissien, rewilding manager with WildEarth Guardians. 

This kind of work often requires the covert monitoring of trails. Last winter, WildEarth discovered illegal activity in Northern Idaho’s Kaniksu region with the help of LightHawk, a nonprofit conservation aviation organization that sponsored a monitoring flight. Using aircraft as an asset in conservation has been on the rise, especially with volunteer-based groups such as LightHawk, which taps into its network of more than 300 pilots who donate expertise, time, aircraft, and fuel to support investigative flight campaigns with organizations like WildEarth. 

Volunteers also contributed photographs documenting over-snow-vehicle tracks in essential habitat for wolverines, grizzly bears, lynx, and mountain goats. This kind of disturbance can imperil the viability of all of these species, especially as many will abandon or move dens, reducing reproductive success. 

WildEarth is currently in the process of “evaluating the potential for a lawsuit to protect the habitats,” says Rissien. 

The organization has also moved to challenge a Forest Service logging project outside of Yellowstone National Park on the Custer-Gallatin National Forest that it says will reduce habitat security for grizzly bears. Last year, 50 grizzly bears died within the natural park. If the project goes through, more than six square miles will be clear-cut, and another six square miles of mature forests will be logged. 

“The Yellowstone grizzlies need more habitat to recover, not less,” says Rissien. 

Using science to drive policy 

Development isn’t the only foe of wildlife safety. Climate change, and the manner in which it is affecting where animals can and want to live, is intensifying the challenges faced by wildlife. 

“Protecting and improving wildlife connectivity will help us fight against the extinction and climate crisis,” says Tiffany Yap, PhD, senior scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity’s Urban Wildlands Program. “As climate change intensifies and resources on the landscape shift, connectivity will give wildlife a chance to find the resources they need to survive and keep our ecosystems healthy.” 

Enhancing connectivity across roads and through landscapes is most effectively accomplished through science-driven policy, says Yap. 

In 2022, the Center co-sponsored AB 2244, the Safe Roads and Wildlife Protection Act with the Wildlands Network. California Governor Gavin Newsom signed the act into law, which received bipartisan support and requires Caltrans to identify barriers to wildlife on roads and build crossing structures when building or improving roadways. 

The center also co-sponsored AB 1889, aka the Room to Roam Act with the Wildlands Network, which aims to reconnect fragmented areas for wide-ranging pumas and slow-moving newts. 

“Overdevelopment and careless development along with our roads have fractured the habitat so much that animals are unable to find food, shelter, and unrelated mates,” says Yap. “This act requires local governments to consider and minimize impact to wildlife movement and habitat connectivity as part of the conservation element of their general plan.”

The legislation encourages wildlife-friendly fencing, reduced light pollution, and the planting of drought-resistant native plants that will attract native pollinators. (Wildlife-friendly fencing is highly visible to animals and birds and allows for the safe passage of animals over or under fences; typically, this means a 40-inch-tall fence with a minimum of 12 inches spacing between wires. Light pollution can be reduced by minimizing light installations, using LED lights, pointing lights downward, and using shades or covers on lights.) 

“By keeping ecosystems healthy, we can better maintain the co-benefits people receive from them, like clean air and water, buffers from extreme weather, crop pollinators like bees and pest control like bats, which hunt crop-eating insects,” says Yap. 

The post On The Ground With Groups Creating Wildlife Corridors appeared first on Modern Farmer.

As a gardener in the Midwest, I am surrounded by agricultural farmland and housing developments that have largely replaced the tallgrass prairie that provided habitat for pollinators and other wildlife prior to European settlement. I decided to devote some of my outside space to these essential creatures. But before I started, I needed to figure out which plants would thrive in my yard’s environment. 

Choosing plants native to the region is best as they are well suited to the local soil and climate. Pollinators have adapted to native plants; they have co-existed for hundreds of years. There are plenty of native plants to choose from that are attractive and provide pollinator habitat. 

“Be a planner, not a plopper,” says Cydney Ross, outdoor education program manager for Deep Roots KC, a Kansas City, Missouri nonprofit. 

Ross suggests taking photos at different times of the day for at least one season to find out how many hours of sunlight each part of your yard receives. Pollinators forage in areas with six to eight hours of full sunlight a day. 

I planted patches of pollinator habitat in my yards in Nebraska and Iowa, and for each location, I learned to pay attention to the hours of sunlight available after the trees have fully leafed out. When there are mature trees nearby, the hours of sunlight available can change quite a bit from early May to July.

Soil and moisture are other considerations. Ken Parker, a western New York-based native plant grower and consultant with Native Plant Guy Consulting, says fancy soil tests are unnecessary. Simply identify the type of soil that you have—for example, is it clay, loam or sandy? To determine soil type, I place a ball of wet soil similar to the consistency of Play-Doh in my hand. Sandy soil is gritty and hard to form a ball, whereas clay is much stickier. Loam tends to be a mix of the two and feels silky in your hand and forms a loose ball. 

Next, I observed where water pooled in my yard to identify areas that are especially wet. I mostly worked with sandy and loam soil and have noticed the plants that thrive in my area can change depending on soil conditions. Cream wild indigo and prairie dropseed are among the species that have grown better in my sandy soils, while a wide variety of plant species such as New England aster, wild bergamot and sideoats grama (a short prairie grass) grow well in loam soil. 

When planting native plants, it’s unnecessary to add amendments to the soil such as peat moss and fertilizer. These plants are hardy and do not need these supplements, which will just encourage weeds.

Once I understood sunlight, soil and moisture conditions, I was able to pick plant species that fit my yard’s environment.

State native plant societies are a good starting point for finding a local native plant organization and nursery that specializes in growing natives. These organizations and nurseries are good resources for learning about the habitat requirements of different species and how to plant them. I have ordered most of my native plants from regional nurseries in flats through the mail, and they have arrived in good condition. 

Established plants are advised for starting smaller pollinator gardens (less than roughly 250 to 500 square feet); they are more expensive than seed, but they will establish more quickly, reducing time spent weeding. 

I planted my first pollinator garden with a pre-made native grass and wildflower seed mix when I was in my 20s and a graduate student with a flexible schedule. I enjoyed spending time on my hands and knees with a plant ID guide getting to know which young seedlings were something I had planted and which were weeds that needed to be pulled. However, as I got older and wanted to spend less time weeding, I switched to planting small plants. I also like getting to mature plants quicker when starting with plants.

Parker recommends choosing an equal number of wildflower species that bloom in the early spring, summer and fall—he likes four flowering species during each season. “The more species you have, the more your habitat becomes a buffet” for different types of adult pollinators and larvae, which will also attract birds, he says. 

My current garden has patches of pollinator habitat with 20 native plant species; the wildflowers bloom from May through early October. In my sunny, steep front yard, I planted a five-foot-wide strip with taller species such as stiff goldenrod, wild bergamot and common milkweed in the back and the shorter prairie dropseed grass and smooth aster in the front. Monarch larvae feed on milkweed, but adult monarchs and many other pollinators feed on the nectar and pollen of a variety of flowering species––in the fall, the blooms of the stiff dropseed are alive with activity from small bees to butterflies.

Near my vegetable garden there’s prairie alumroot, sweet coneflower, Joe Pye weed and foxglove beardtongue. The beardtongue is among my favorite plants. Its tubular white flowers are especially popular with bumblebees and hummingbirds. 

Grasses and sedges (grass-like plants with fine leaves) provide texture, and their dense roots will occupy space, reducing weed establishment. I like to include clump-forming grasses such as little bluestem that are host plants for the larvae of skippers, a type of butterfly. I have also started planting more sedges around my flowering plants since they green up early in the growing season and deter rabbits from feeding on other plants. As garden designer Benjamin Vogt with Monarch Gardens in Lincoln, Nebraska, says, “Sedges are wildflower bodyguards.” 

Before the actual planting could begin, the area needs to be prepared by reducing weeds and grasses. This can be very labor intensive, but there are several methods that garden designers recommend––my favorite is sheet mulching for my gardens. 

Sheet mulching: Mow or weed whack your lawn and weeds short, then put layers of cardboard or newspaper down for several weeks; add mulch on top to keep the layers in place. Poke holes into the layers and insert your plants. 

Solarization: During the summer, staple clear plastic tarp into the lawn to use heat to kill the grass, weeds and weed seeds. Leave in place for two to three weeks in dry climates to several weeks in wetter climates until the vegetation is dead. Remove the plastic before adding your plants in the fall.

Herbicide: This is the most controversial method. Glyphosate is very effective at killing grass and weeds, but most pollinator experts avoid using it because of potential effects on human health, the environment and the pollinators they are trying to attract. 

Each of my gardens were planted over time. Ross suggests that planning in stages, even when converting large portions of a lawn to a pollinator habitat, keeps the project affordable and manageable. And starting with a small area allows you to confirm which species establish well and the weed control methods that work well before scaling up. Including native ground-spreading covers to serve as a living mulch can also reduce weeds.

In the first year, plants should put their energy into growing roots. To support their growth and to reduce weed competition, I add a one- to two-inch layer of mulch after planting and regularly water for the first two weeks if there isn’t regular rainfall. 

Over the second and third year, allowing the mulch to break down, trimming weeds and giving plants space to spread will allow the natives to replace the mulch. “They will find where they’re happiest,” says Parker.

The right garden preparation has paid dividends in creating an hospitable habitat lively with pollinators and other wildlife. My gourd plants are plentiful each year thanks to natural insect pollination. I watch birds feed on caterpillars in the spring and summer and the seed heads of sweet black-eyed Susan and Joe Pye weed in the fall and winter. It’s a small step to make my yard a more welcoming place for these creatures, but, selfishly, the pleasure I derive in seeing a butterfly float by on a summer breeze or bumblebees visit my flowers is immeasurable. 

The post Prepare a Slice of Your Yard For a Pollinator Garden appeared first on Modern Farmer.