From Parklane Landscapes
Shifting Baseline Syndrome (SBS) is what happens when we forget how vibrant the natural world used to be. Each generation grows up with a more depleted environment and calls it "normal," simply because it's all they've ever known.
Think about walking through a park and thinking, "This seems healthy." But maybe 30 years ago that same park had twice as many birds, wildflowers, or insects. If you never saw that version, you don't feel the loss - and that quiet forgetting becomes the new baseline. Over time, we start accepting degraded ecosystems as normal.
Researchers warn that this shift lowers our expectations, increases our tolerance for decline, and reduces our urgency to protect what's left.
What helps:
Intergenerational conversations that reconnect us with what nature used to be.
Direct experiences with nature that sharpen our awareness of change.
Remembering (knowing) the past is the first step to restoring the future.
Not a sponsor, I don't think it's an AI graphic, and I think it has something important to say. Plus it does have an owl. We can't save our animals if we don't save them the spaces they need to thrive.
One of the reasons is the trend of a boring, uniform yard. I remember growing up we had honey suckles, various plants and such in the yard, some were not pleasant to step on but had bio diversity. With the drive of a "perfect" lawn and the use of so many chemicals including pesticides and removal of native flora as well as trees, this has decreased bio-diversity. I hate lawns, I'd rather have natural grasses and shrubs and such.
Then people tell me "well you have to tend to those and it's a lot of work." No you don't, you tend to them because you're keeping up with the neighbors. Let them grow, water them when conditions require, clean up leaves in autumn. There's no need to modify plants for aesthetics, that's not what I'm interested in.
No do not clean up your leaves. Baby bugs use the leaves to keep warm in the winter. Cleaning up the leaves is reducing the population of helpful bugs.
I like to ask people i meet IRL if they have a lawn. Follow up question is why then?
A lot of people seem to be unaware of the history and origin of lawns. Put oversimply, they are and have always been about gross excess resources expenditure to show those around you how rich you are.
Or, leave the leaves, and have beautiful lightning bugs in the summer
Are leaves good to leave for the health of the ecology? If so, for certain!
Insects and other invertabrates use them as a snow/wind barrier to keep themselves an/or their eggs and larvae safe through the winter. It should be a near endless resource for them, but if we remove them, we take their shelter and babies away.
They're great! Plrnty of bugs like moths and butterflies nest in ground coverage so leaves are super important. Thats why you shouldnt mow or move them
Good to know, thank you!
Native plants should also be less upkeep by virtue of being native. They have developed to thrive in that environment. They've developed resistance to local bugs, and the local rainfall and temperature cycle.
I've met some people that say they enjoy yardwork, but that sure isn't me! I'd rather see cool spiders, dragonflies, bees, and butterflies. And with local wildflowers, it's something unique to where you live, I'd think people would enjoy that.
Grass is just another chore to me.
Only thing I don't enjoy is ticks. I trim and spray cause of those suckers.
I do hate those little buggers. The lack of extended cold winters has made them increasingly bad here. I'll treat myself with bug killer before I'd voluntarily blast a whole area though. I love my spiders and other useful critters too much.
Keeping the area of grass you play in trimmed short and clear is usually enough to keep the ticks at bay without spraying.