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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. For our last 15 minutes or so today, our climate story of the week, which we do every Tuesday on the show, and your calls on how you mow your lawn. Why? We're about halfway through the month of May, and for some of you, that might mean your lawn is looking a little bit more like a meadow. While the idea of encouraging native species and wildflower growth in grassy areas isn't new, the concept of No Mow May-- Have you heard that term yet? No-Mow May where people let their lawns grow wild for a month in an effort to help the environment has been gaining popularity over the last few years.

Listeners, we're inviting you for our climate story of the week call in today. Have you turned off your mower for the month of May? Are you participating, if you live in a single-family home with a lawn, in No Mow May? 212-433-WNYC. I wonder if anybody who happens to be listening right now is. 212-433-9692. If you've changed the way you're mowing, have you noticed more bees, more butterflies, maybe on the downside, more ticks. Part of the goal of No Mow May is to turn lawns into a habitat for pollinators. If you've been seeing them, if you're doing this or not doing this, 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692, or maybe you've even replaced the grass in your lawn with something else entirely.

We know that in the past couple of years, and we've talked about this before, clover has become a popular alternative to grass. Some people are also reducing the size of their lawns and choosing to landscape with native plants on the other parts. If you've done this, how are you liking it? 212-433-WNYC. Joining me now to talk about this with you is Allyson Chiu, a reporter covering climate solutions at The Washington Post. She worked on an article recently entitled Why You Should Let Your Grass Grow. Hey, Allyson. Welcome to WNYC.

Allyson Chiu: Hi, Brian. Thanks so much for having me.

Brian Lehrer: First, this may be a nice idea for various reasons, some of which I laid out in the intro, but why is it linked to climate?

Allyson Chiu: Absolutely. When we think about the idea of the traditional lawn, it looks really lush and vibrant and green, obviously very neatly trimmed as well and so it's aesthetically pleasing, but really, it's an ecological wasteland. There's nothing else growing in that lawn except for turf grass. We know that right now in the US there is widespread habitat loss for wildlife. These tens of millions of acres of lawn could be wildlife habitat if more things were allowed to grow. That's really where the environmental impact lies.

At the same time, we know that the traditional lawn care practices to maintain these types of lawns are involving a lot of chemicals, whether that's herbicides or pesticides, and, of course, lawnmowers, many of which are fueled by gas and do emit pollution while you're mowing these lawns. The idea behind the No Mow campaign is you not only can you be helping to restore some of this lost habitat, you're also moving away from these polluting lawn care practices.

Brian Lehrer: Let's hear from a colleague. Gina in Rockland County, you're on WNYC. Hi, Gina.

Gina: Good morning. I heard about No Mow May a couple of years ago, and we started to do it. What we do is leave our backyard pretty much tall and we cut a couple of patches with a regular gas-powered mower. We cut a couple of patches where we're going to use the lawn and then paths, say from the patio to the flower garden, from the patio to the shed, from the shed to the vegetable garden, et cetera, and underneath the clothesline. [chuckles]

We try and minimize the fossil fuel expenditure and also the noise. One thing I will say though is we see a lot of flowers in our yard in the grassy areas, but I really do not see the honeybees. They came about a month ago all over our ornamental flowering cherries, and then they disappear.

Brian Lehrer: Gina, thank you so much for that story. Allyson, any advice for Gina or anybody else on how to attract the honeybees, how to attract the pollinators if you're going to go the No Mow May way?

Allyson Chiu: Yes. Gina, that sounds really incredible what you've been able to do. One thing that in my interviews I learned from experts is that it doesn't require a full lawn overhaul. As you mentioned, you're carving out different spaces for this mowing in some places, not mowing in others. You can even have a pretty significant impact if just 30% of your lawn is converted into a space that has a lot of native plants or where things are left to grow a little bit more. You can keep the rest of the 70% more traditional lawn. Even that is better than an entirely turf grass lawn.

To your point about seeing more pollinators, one thing to keep in mind is that a number of pollinators, they specifically feed on certain types of native plants. It might be helpful to contact either your local university's extension service or there are online databases for native plants where you can search on your area and see which--

Brian Lehrer: For the best ones to return them.

Allyson Chiu: Exactly.

Brian Lehrer: Let me go to our next caller. I think this is going to be really interesting because it's Lori in Atlantic Highlands. She says she's the mayor of Atlantic Highlands and into this whole idea. Lori, Ms. Mayor, you're on WNYC. Hello.

Lori: Hi, Brian. I've called a few times. I'm really excited about this segment because Atlantic Highlands is actually a certified wildlife habitat municipality. An initiative was started a couple years ago by a couple of our residents. My husband is enjoying No Mow May because it's given him the month off. Really, we're seeing a lot of people in Atlantic Highlands committed to planting native gardens and becoming certified wildlife habitats.

Brian Lehrer: How do you do that? How do you promote it as a town?

Lori: We've passed resolutions at the municipal level. The previous mayor, Loretta Gluckstein, was the first to do that. We've continued the initiative by passing resolutions supporting No Mow May. Our code enforcement officer has been really helpful in not fighting anybody for violating our code. We are advertising it on our social media. 100-plus houses have actually certified their gardens as places that have water sources and feeding sources and resting sources for wildlife and pollinators.

Brian Lehrer: That is so cool, Lori. How about that, Allyson, official backup from the mayor?

Allyson Chiu: That's incredibly exciting to hear because one thing that has come up time and time again when we do this reporting on No Mow May is that No Mow May is a fantastic first step to take, but if we're really trying to have a significant impact and being able to restore these habitats, it requires a year round effort that is sustained for the long term. That's where you really start to create a true pollinator lawn or garden that's going to be able to feed and shelter and serve as a nursery for wildlife.

It's really exciting to hear about municipalities getting behind this effort, and really supporting homeowners and such and allowing them to experiment with their lawns in this way. One thing that comes up time and time again when we read these stories is that we have people writing to us saying, "Oh, but I don't know. My HOA is going to get upset about this." It's great to hear that there is support at this level for what experts say can be a really critical effort.

Brian Lehrer: Yes. There are some criticisms of No Mow May. I think you just addressed one of them, but another is that if it's too short, even if your lawn sprouts some wildflowers for the month, the first mow in June will take away those flowers from the pollinators, and that the plants that will grow might be invasive species, which can reduce biodiversity. I wonder how people can take these critiques into account when reconsidering their lawn. I did mention ticks in the intro. I don't know if you've looked at that, but when people go hiking these days, they say, and partly because of climate change, increasing the number of ticks, stay out of the tall grass or wear high socks.

Allyson Chiu: Yes. Absolutely. These are absolutely valid concerns. The great thing about native plants and thinking about converting your lawn is it doesn't have to look overgrown or unkept or messy. There are a lot of really beautiful native plants that can have the same ornamental aesthetic purpose as something that is maybe non-native, or even worse, potentially invasive.

There are some really beautiful pollinator lawns out there. Actually, one thing that we did with our most recent story is we're really encouraging our readers and hopefully now anyone listening that if you are doing this, we would love for you to come to our story. There is a form at the bottom where you can submit photos of your lawn or garden space, and we'd love to see what you're doing.

Brian Lehrer: On The Washington Post website. Let's see if I can sneak two more people in here before we run out of time. Julianne, Ossining, can you do it in 30 seconds?

Julianne: [laughs] I've been told I'm long-winded, but I'll try. Hi, Brian. I live in Ossining in a pretty suburban area here. I did No Mow last year. I was very excited about it. I put up a big sign. The only thing I wanted to say was that, talking about unkempt, it got really unkempt, which is hard when you're in a neighborhood and competing with everybody's manicured lawn. I had read an article earlier this year that for our area in the New York area that you don't necessarily have to go all the way to the end of May. As long as you wait till there's been a couple of warm nights and you see the bees out, the birds are singing in the morning, you--

Brian Lehrer: I'm going to leave it there as a tip. I think you got to your main point. I apologize. We're going to get Ed in Livingston in here, who I think has a practical question. Ed, you're on WNYC. 20 seconds.

Ed: Yes. If I let the lawn grow too long, my push lawnmower, the powered one, can't handle it. I was wondering if there's any tips about that besides just not letting it grow too long.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you very much. Did you get into the weeds, as it were, on if the mowers can handle it when it hits that high?

Allyson Chiu: Yes, we absolutely did. One of the tips that we have is that if you're concerned about the grass getting too long, you want to mow at the highest setting. That's ideally four inches or more. There is research to support that. Even if you cut your grass, if you reduce cutting your grass to every two weeks, that could actually still help boost the number of bees so you don't have to let it grow to, say, a foot and a half tall before you mow. When you do mow, you really want to be making sure you're mowing at the highest setting that your mower allows for. In that way, you don't end up chopping the heads off of some of these flowers.

Brian Lehrer: First time we've ever ended The Brian Lehrer Show with lawn mowing advice-

Allyson Chiu: [laughs]

Brian Lehrer: -for which we thank Allyson Chiu, C-H-I-U, who covers climate solutions at The Washington Post. Again, go to her page if you want to submit your story. Allyson, thanks for joining us for our climate story of the week.

Allyson Chiu: Thank you so much again for having me

Brian Lehrer: That's Brian Lehrer Show for today produced by Mary Croke, Lisa Allison, Amina Srna, Carl Boisrond, and Esperanza Rosenbaum with Briana Brady today. Zach Gottehrer-Cohen edits our national politics podcast. Juliana Fonda and Milton Ruiz at the audio control. Stay tuned for All Of It.

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