Mitigation and Adaptation Strategy: Protect, Create, and Enhance Meadows, Gardens, and Farms

Recent studies have documented significant declines in insect and bird population. Meadows provide food and habitat for many insects and birds, as well as other small animals. Meadow wildflowers and native grasses sequester significant amounts of carbon and provide infiltration of stormwater. Moreover, native grasses and wildflowers develop deep, extensive root systems. As these roots decay, organic matter in the soil builds up relatively quickly.

Image left: Big bluestem. Big bluestem (Andropogon gerardii) is one of many deep-rooted prairie grasses in North America that can contribute to soil carbon sequestration. (https://www.flickr.com/photos/acryptozoo/21321111812 Licensed thru Creative Commons 2.0)

Properly managed gardens can sequester and store large quantities of carbon, especially if compost and organic waste are used as soil amendments. As pollinators decline in the environment, the need for natural pollinator plants increases. Leaving areas unmown and discouraging application of herbicides and pesticides along the margins of fields can provide more refuges for pollinators as well as other wildlife.

According to landscape ecologist Professor Robert Zomer (2017), more than a billion tons of atmospheric carbon could be sequestered and stored in the soil per year by improved agricultural practices alone. The strategies involve both preventing the loss of carbon and sequestering new carbon. Some of the management practices that reduce atmospheric carbon include the following:

Adding organic amendments such as compost, manure, and crop residues to increase soil carbon and improve soil biology.
Reducing or eliminating tillage to reduce carbon loss.
Reducing erosion by contour plowing or terracing to reduce carbon loss.
Using cover crops to reduce carbon loss and increase carbon input.
Planting pollinator plants for insects and seed-bearing flowers and native grasses for birds.

Mitigation and Adaptation Strategy: Protect Interconnected, Resilient Ecological Reserves

Develop comprehensive plans to protect important ecological areas within the watershed. Ecosystems are complex and vulnerable to damage by human activity and climate change.
Connect and expand large conservation areas in order to allow plant and animal communities to migrate or adapt. Connections among protected areas expand their significance, especially when there are north-south orientations or areas with significant elevation change.
Identify and protect optimum habitat for the endangered or vulnerable species within the watershed that have limited ability to migrate.
Develop baseline documentation of existing conditions in order to understand and plan for the changes that are taking place within our watershed.
Provide connectivity for wildlife to move through the landscapes. Many important wildlife species can move through developed areas that have cover and no barriers, significantly improving connectivity of reserves and allowing critical migration to take place.
Road culverts can serve as barriers to aquatic and terrestrial species that would otherwise be able to move through the landscape. Doing an assessment of culverts in your community can reveal where they need to be replaced with more sustainable and ecologically friendly culverts. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts has a program that provides funding for such assessments and replacements.
Identify and control invasives, the non-native plants that displace native plants or have the ability to create monocultures.

Image top: Celebration for the permanent protection of the Pepperell Springs property in Pepperell, MA, accomplished thru a broad partnership of state and local agencies, conservation groups, and individual efforts.

Mitigation and Adaptation Strategy: Educate and Coordinate

Many people associate climate change with increased storms and sea level rise, not the types of impacts that are taking place right now in our watershed. Educating the public about the changes that are taking place and the mitigation strategies that are available is therefore a critical, immediate need.
Coordinate conservation plans among different conservation groups and among different towns. Municipalities and conservation groups can work across town boundaries on ecological strategies and habitat protection. By sharing plans, larger and more effective protected areas can be created.

Mitigation and Adaptation Strategy: Establish Ecology-Based Municipal Open Space Plans

Often municipal open space plans are oriented more toward recreational and visual values than ecological values. Critical ecology-based mitigation strategies are also needed. The concept of ecology-based municipal open space plans can be introduced and implemented.
Massachusetts municipal officials can assure that their communities participate in the Massachusetts Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness Program, which provides grant funding for preparing and implementing mitigation strategies to address climate impacts.

Mitigation and Adaptation Strategy: Create Backyard Habitat

Even small yards can become excellent habitat for insects and birds; and many yards support a range of wildlife. The National Wildlife Federation has a program to certify backyard habitats that can be valuable programs, especially for children.
Use pollinator plants in gardens to support bees and other insects.
Replace lawns with meadows: Wildflowers and native grasses provide excellent habitat for insects and birds. Converting lawns to meadows has the added benefit of creating attractive landscapes that reduce maintenance requirements.
Remove Wildlife Barriers: maintain barrier-free landscapes that allow movement of wildlife through private lands.
Plant Trees: Landowners, municipalities, and other private or public entities can work together to plant and maintain trees. Trees sequester and store carbon, moderate temperatures and provide critical habitat, and they enhance the visual landscape. If trees must be removed due to disease, aging, or other requirements, plant new trees. According to Eiseltova and coauthors (2012), a single shade tree can provide the cooling equivalent of many air conditioners running continuously. In Worcester, MA, after thousands of the shade trees infested with the Asian Longhorn Beetle had to be destroyed in 2008, a representative neighborhood city’s summertime energy consumption increased by 37%, demonstrating the great value of shade trees in reducing the urban heat island effect.

An Example: Lawn to Meadow: Creating Biodiversity in Your Backyard

Transform you lawn to meadow - photo by Deb Fountain Imagine waking up to a choir of birds singing, bees buzzing, and butterflies fluttering about! Over the years, Pepperell resident Deb Fountain, turned her turf lawn into islands of native wildflowers, and even a meadow. “I started by planting a meadow and converting small patches around my yard to native plants adapted to my soil, and over the years, it gave me such pleasure, that I couldn’t stop! Now I grow natives for friends, neighbors and our public grounds. I am always delighted to share what I have learned and often even a plant or two.”

Give it a try. Start small. By reducing turf lawns with native wildflowers, hedgerows, trees, and swaths of meadow, you can eliminate the use of toxic pesticides and fertilizers that pollute our water, and you will be providing an essential habitat for wildlife, including for our most at-risk native pollinators. You’ll love it and so will the birds!

Just getting started? Buy native plants at your local garden club plants sales; ask your public librarian for books on native plants for New England; or check out these garden and lawn online resources: