This website provides information to help people care for nature in their yards and along their neighborhood streets by
- removing invasive plants
- planting native trees and other native plants
- enhancing habitat through ecological yard care practices
We are located in Takoma Park MD. We hope people in surrounding jurisdictions will also find our website useful.
Why Your Yard Matters
Yards can provide native habitat to support biodiversity
Nature is under severe stress worldwide due to the loss of biological diversity — precipitous declines in species numbers, in too many cases to the point of extinction.
Ecosystems that lose biological diversity — like any complex system that loses its constituent parts — can’t function well. Failing ecosystems will not produce nutrients, water, air, and other products necessary for life on Earth.
Biodiversity loss is thus a global threat on par with climate change, although the consequences from reduced biodiversity have not yet manifested themselves as dramatically as climate change impacts.
In our region, the main driver behind the loss of biological diversity (“biodiversity” for short) is native habitat destruction.
We can address this cause of biodiversity loss literally in our own backyards. Simple actions can turn our yards and streets into native habitat that provides native species with food, water, shelter, and space to complete their life cycles.
Since American yards contain more acreage than all our national parks combined, homeowners can potentially have a major impact on saving nature.
Learn more about why biodiversity matters and how our yards can help stem its loss…
Below and throughout the website, green bars link to FONTT webpages with more information on topics.
Three Key Actions to Take in Your Yard
Welcome nature into your yard and along your street by taking these three actions:
1–Remove Invasives, 2–Plant Natives, and 3–Enhance Habitat.
This page provides access to information on what invasive plants are, the harm that they cause, how to identify and remove them from your yard, and who to hire if you need help with invasives removal.
This page provides access to information on how to select native plants suitable to your yard, where to buy good plants, and who to hire if you need help with plant selection and installation.
This page provides access to information on ecological yard care practices to help ensure that removing invasives and planting native plants will produce the intended result–a yard that you can enjoy and that supports biodiversity.
Featured Content
FONTT member Tim Rahn shows off the low-key water feature he set up to give birds a place to drink and bathe in his back yard–and shares how do-it-yourselfers can follow suit.
Talk by Lisa Kuder, Native Plants and Landscape Specialist with the Maryland Extension Service. Access recording and slides.
FONTT and the UMD Insect Zoo returned to celebrate their FIFTH ANNIVERSARY at the TPSS Coop Earth Day Celebration, April 12th.