Choose Prairie Natives Over Manicured Grass

Prairies matter because of their immense root systems; dense, sprawling, complex biological systems that store one third of the world’s carbon and subsequently clean our future water as it precipitates from moisture-laden clouds onto diverse plant communities, and filters down through the mass of litter, roots, soil organisms, and soil horizons.

• Every day more than 5,000 acres of land are converted to lawns in the U.S.  By some estimates, this figure exceeds 385,000 acres.
• Lawns currently cover more than 41 million acres, the most irrigated graminoid plant in the U.S.
• Americans apply over 30,000 tons of pesticides to their yards every year.
• Of the 30 most used lawn pesticides, 17 are routinely detected in groundwater.
• The National Cancer Institute finds that children in households that have lawn treated with pesticides have a 6.5 times greater risk of developing leukemia.
• American lawns require 200 gallons of fresh water per person per day to maintain and keep green. People in Developing Countries would kill for that amount of water, and here we are carelessly using it on silly turfgrass.
• Of 30 commonly used lawn pesticides, 19 are linked with cancer or carcinogenicity, 13 are linked with birth defects, 21 with reproductive effects, 26 with liver or kidney damage, 15 with neurotoxicity, and 11 with disruption of the endocrine (hormonal) system.
• Of those same pesticides, 17 are detected in groundwater, 23 have the ability to leach into drinking water sources, 24 are toxic to fish and other aquatic organisms vital to our ecosystems, 11 are toxic to bees, and 16 are toxic to birds.
• If present consumption patterns continue, two out of every three people on Earth will live in water-stressed conditions by the year 2025.

For more information follow the link below:

https://healthylandethic.com/2013/11/17/why-prairies-matter-and-lawns-dont/