An Essay from a friend - good thought!

My Ode to Clover and Pollinator-Friendly Lawncare: a Friend’s Idea for Better Stewardship of the Earth Many of the residents in my 55 and over community remember the time when lawns often included and were even encouraged to include white clover. Clover seeds automatically came with the grass seed. “75 years ago, no one planted a lawn without mixing a little white clover in with the grass seed (Roger Swain, The Victory Garden, PBS).” It was often packaged with the grass seed.

Historically, clover became an unwanted weed after World War II during which 2-4, D was discovered. Its original purpose had been to destroy potato crops in Germany and rice crops in Japan. In the form of a weed killer, it became popular for lawncare, known as WeedOne , thought to be much more toxic than RoundUp. to which it has often been added. With long-time and frequent use of RoundUp, studies have increasingly uncovered health problems with it as well with many countries currently choosing to limit or ban its use. As soon as it was found that weed killers also killed the clover, their producers encouraged calling clover an unwanted, unsightly weed.

Keep in mind that lawns of turf grass comprise the single largest irrigated crop in America, about 40,000,000 acres (twice the size of Kentucky).

Studies of mixed lawn and clover show that such lawns attract many kinds of pollinators, as many as 2 to 12 different species of pollinators, and in some areas, up to 200 different species of pollinators, and there are 3,500 native bees in all of North America. Moreover, such a mixture renders lawns friendly to microbial and earthworm habitat. They also sequester carbon, which helps fight climate change. If during the mowing process, clippings of grass and clover are left on the lawn, enough nitrogen is provided for lawn health without adding fertilizer.

Our zealous desire to kill off clover and other weeds has come to favor the use of neonicotinoid pesticides (e.g., clothianidin, imidacloprid and thiamethoxam) which are the worst threat to bees. They interfere with the mobility, navigation, feeding behavior, reproduction, and overall colony health of bees. They seriously endanger many species of plants and insects that are already classified as endangered. Such pesticides have been banned in the EU and in Canada. New Jersey is one of the few states that have banned neonicotinoid use. Because these chemicals remain in the plants and soil for years, they continue to harm those who use lawns for play and recreation or for food. The question is if the American public and its politicians will be brave enough to stand up to Big Ag and the Fish and Wildlife Service. That would help avoid the end of pollinators and even the kinds of wasps that feed on cutworms, grubs, and other lawn-and-crop-eating creatures. The report on these chemicals came out in May, 2023.

I am personally willing to live with some clover. I recently welcomed the various bees I found in little patches of clover. Clover can be beautiful once again. In conclusion, let us support our friends, the pollinators, in whatever way we can. It will give our children a more livable future.

Resources included:

https://www.pollinator-pathway.org/

https://psci.princeton.edu/tips/2020/5/11/law-maintenance-and-climate-change

https://www.beyondpesticides.org/assets/media/documents/infoservices/pesticidesandyou/CloverCited.pdf

https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/epa-three-popular-neonicotinoid-pesticides-likely-to-drive-more-than-200-endangered-plants-animals-extinct-2023-05-05/

http://nebula.wsimg.com/cca8724b79162214c52d2ee6b227fad4?AccessKeyId=D2195B5438568F141D86&disposition=0&alloworigin=1

https://extension.umn.edu/landape-design/planting-and-maintaining-bee-lawn

https://www.nrdc.org/stories/24-d-most-dangerous-pesticide-youve-never-heard

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9101768/