Healthy maintenance

Healthy practices in your yard

There are only a few pristine parcels of natural land still available for protection, but there are many residential yards that can, with proper management, provide healthy landscapes for wildlife and for people while purifying and protecting the groundwater. You and your neighbors can manage your yards through your landscapers in a way that is helpful to the natural environment, creating a patchwork of wholesome properties that together become a preserve for healthy children, native birds and pollinators, clean water, and clean air. For further information on what you can do to achieve an earth-friendly yard, visit the Healthy practices section on our Habitat Corridors site.

Pollinator protection

Bees, both honeybees and natives species like bumblebees, are in serious trouble. Their populations are plummeting. Although a class of insecticides called neonicotinoids has long been suspected to be a major cause of the problem, that is now undisputed.

It is true that habitat loss and other pesticides are also impacting pollinator populations, but these nicotine-based chemicals provide the most serious threat. Neonicotinoids include our most frequently used landscape insecticide (Imidacloprid), and many nursery plants are pre-treated with them.

Print this list of common garden products that contain neonicotinoids, take the list with you when you shop and don’t buy these products!

Neonicotinoid_table_2015