Willa

“I will close this section with actual species counts that I have made in my yard over the past three years. So far, I have recorded 923 species of moths (I haven’t gotten to the butterflies and skippers yet). Of those 923 species, 811 have known host plants; we still have much to learn about what many species eat. Of the 811 species for which we do have host lists, 245 species include oaks in their larval host choices, and 27 species can develop only on oaks. These numbers are probably low because some of the 112 species for which there are no host records will likely turn out to be oak-feeders. We have 59 genera of woody plants on our property, only one of which is Quercus, the oaks. My point is, oaks represent less than 2% of our woody plant diversity but support at least 30% of our moth species. In comparison, of the 811 moths I’ve found so far and whose preferences are known, 129 species (16%) use hickories, 70 species (9%) use viburnums, 49 species (6%) use serviceberries, and just 17 species (2%) use tulip trees. This is good evidence that oaks shine brighter than other plants in their contributions to biodiversity on the national level, the regional level, and even the level of a single yard.”
― Douglas W. Tallamy, The Nature of Oaks: The Rich Ecology of Our Most Essential Native Trees

“As water that is held on-site by leaf litter seeps through soil pores on its way to the water table, it is purified. Excessive nitrogen and phosphorus loads that come from lawn and farm fertilizers are filtered out of the water, as are heavy metals, pesticides, oil, and other pollutants.”
― Douglas W. Tallamy, The Nature of Oaks: The Rich Ecology of Our Most Essential Native Trees

“As we know more or less well how to deal with our individual mortality, so we will deal with the collapse of our civilization. It is not so different. And it’s certainly not the first time that this will have happened. The Maya and Cretans, among many others, already experienced this. We are born and die as the stars are born and die, both individually and collectively. This is our reality. Life is precious to us because it is ephemeral. And as Lucretius wrote: “our appetite for life is voracious, our thirst for life insatiable” (De rerum natura, bk. III, line 1084). But immersed in this nature that made us and that directs us, we are not homeless beings suspended between two worlds, parts of but only partly belonging to nature, with a longing for something else. No: we are home.”
― Carlo Rovelli, Seven Brief Lessons on Physics

“Keep in mind that birds don’t care two whits which tree they forage in as long as there is food there. They do, however, care about foraging efficiently. They cannot afford to waste time and energy searching for food where it doesn’t exist, so they stay in unproductive trees as long as you would shop in Acme if all the shelves were bare—only a few seconds.”
― Douglas W. Tallamy, The Nature of Oaks: The Rich Ecology of Our Most Essential Native Trees