“What if each American landowner made it a goal to convert half of his or her lawn to productive native plant communities?

Even moderate success could collectively restore some semblance of ecosystem function to more than twenty million acres of what is now ecological wasteland. How big is 20 million acres? It’s bigger than the combined areas of the Everglades, Yellowstone, Yosemite, Grand Teton, Canyonlands, Mount Rainier, North Cascades, Badlands, Olympic, Sequoia, Grand Canyon, Denali, and the Great Smoky Mountains National Parks. If we restore the ecosystem function of these 20 million acres, we can create this country’s largest park system—I suggest we call it Homegrown National Park.”

–Douglas Tallamy, Ph.D., from his book, Nature’s Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation that Starts in Your Yard.