Rethinking Urban Green Space for Bees: Meadowscaping (Ep.61)

In a world where biodiversity is increasingly under threat, our urban landscapes hold untapped potential for ecological balance. So how should urban greenery be managed? As manicured lawns or organic meadows? Traditional lawns, with their aesthetic appeal, often rely on chemicals and regular maintenance, which can harm the environment. Urban meadows, on the other hand, offer a diversity of plant species that not only beautify the landscape but also provide crucial foraging and nesting resources for native bees.

Shishir Paudel shares insights into the impacts that transitioning from lawns to meadows can have on biodiversity. Meadows provide continuous food resources throughout the growing season, but they can sometimes be perceived as untidy or unattractive, posing challenges in public acceptance. How can we encourage a shift in perspective to encourage the ecological and cultural benefits of meadows over manicured lawns?

Dr. Shishir Paudel is a plant ecologist at Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens in Pennsylvania, US. If you’d like to learn more about ecosystem services and disservices in urban greenery, read the study we discussed. You can also listen to Episode 35, From Bees to Biodiversity: Shaping the Future of Ecosystem Services, to learn more about bees, biodiversity and ecosystem services.

Good to know

The benefits of ecosystems are fairly well-established—clean air, water, food—the fact that they can also produce disservices isn’t as well-known. These are natural processes that negatively impact human well-being. Shishir mentioned a few of them directly connected to manicured lawns; pesticides and water waste. Other examples include illnesses transmitted from animals to humans, crop damage caused by pests, and natural hazards such as floods and wildfires.

Transcript

Jacy: [00:00:00] Welcome to The Bees Knees. A podcast wild about native bees. Wild and native bees are under threat worldwide. In each episode, we look at actionable things we can do to support these adorable little guys whose pollination work is crucial for maintaining biodiversity. I’m Jacy Meyer, and I thank you for being here.

What happens when we trade pristine grass for buzzing biodiversity? Today I am speaking with Shishir Paudel, who recently considered a seemingly simple question with far reaching implications. Should we be managing urban greenery as manicured lawns or let them flourish as diverse meadows? This conversation goes beyond aesthetics.

We explore how different approaches to landscaping can shape biodiversity, water infiltration, and even our cultural connections to nature. Enjoy this deep dive into the balancing act between lawns [00:01:00] and meadows. First, can we start off with the definition of urban meadows and manicure lawn, so we all have a picture of what we’re talking about?

Shishir: Thank you. It’s a very great question, but there are so many definitions people put in the perspective where they are living and what they are looking at. But generally what I define the lawn as a typical, very short stature, urban grassy area, and which is dominated by a very few grass species with some kind of here and there, spontaneous occurrence of.

forbs, like dandelion or clover, um, those are often weeds. And then those are managed through a very regular mowing. It’s every week depends on where you are. It’s more moisture area versus more drier. And also applied different [00:02:00] pesticides and herbicides as well as irrigation, of course, for just to see very smooth and clean and aesthetically beauty, and then used for recreational purpose.

So those are, uh, we define, is a lawn in our area. But based on what we publish in our papers, and then it’s general understanding how we define Meadows as a intentionally created urban green space, which established by either you converting traditional lawns or vacant areas by removing existing vegetations or other structures, and then actively planting the regionally appropriate native plants.

Perennials mostly those are forbs and grasses. Um, either within existing lawn or you clear the lawn and then plant those. Those are meadows.

Jacy: So compared to [00:03:00] manicured lawns, how do these meadows support pollinators like bees in terms of biodiversity and foraging opportunities?

Shishir: Very interesting. And then it’s good question, and then it’s a very simple answer for that.

So, unlike these manicure lawns, these meadows with diverse, um, plant communities with different functional groups, which flower. Throughout the growing season, from early spring to the late fall that’s providing continuous and abundant, uh, these foraging resources in the early flowering plant and then provides resources for those insects or bees or other pollinators from early spring.

And then it’s a late stage of the growing season as well. So it’s just, it’s not one time if we have these lawns and then maybe frequent. These flowering forbs like clover or dandelion, they provide very shortened, very [00:04:00] limited resources for a limited type of insect or pollinators. But these meadow plants flowering across the seasons and providing variety of resources, habitat, as well as nesting resources all throughout the growing season.

So there’s definitely. Advantage in terms of biodiversity as well as sustained bees diversity and other pollinators as well.

Jacy: So in your view, what role could Urban Meadows play in perhaps reversing pollinator decline? Especially I’m thinking in these densely populated areas with limited natural habitats.

Shishir: Thank you very much.

I think this is a very pressing issue globally. Not only one location or one region. The pollinator decline is a great threat to our biodiversity as well as food production. The urban meadows play a. Critical [00:05:00] role in reversing, uh, pollinator decline by providing diverse season long. Like I’m talking about the growing season long floral resources, and of course, the nesting habitat in otherwise in those resource limited or resource scarce urban.

Landscapes because we are making these buildings, corporate buildings or other buildings, and we’re cutting down these green spaces, squeezing those them into a small parcel of like manicured Lawn when we have these natural like habitats. In the name of Meadows and that will provide enhanced these resources and ultimately abundance of bees or other pollinators, increasing diversity even in densely populated area.

Because if you put even a floral pot that will attract these pollinators, if we are putting like what we call pop-up garden or floral garden, uh, putting in the parking lot or any other locations that [00:06:00] will provide these. For raising resources for bees and other pollinators and enhance the population and then we basically, if not completely, but reverse the declining population into at least the maintaining those population in these urban landscapes.

Jacy: In your paper you talked about the ecosystem services and disservices that Lawns and meadows may provide. Can you define ecosystem disservices?

Shishir: Okay, thank you very much. Yes, it is not easy, but it does disservices context dependent when we’re talking about an urban landscape. So what we are looking at, uh, the ecosystem processes like for instance, soil or other like, uh, storm water or biodiversity in all those, when we put these together, so in our paper we define the ecosystem.

Disservices are the benefits we are losing. I mean, when we have this manicur, [00:07:00] highly manicured lawn, and compared to Meadows, particularly in terms of drinking water, when we are using a lot of water to irrigate lawn there, we are reducing the drinking water or the water availability to the population of the humans.

At the same time, when we are using these pesticides or insecticides to control weed or insects and others pests, then we are polluting environment because that not only go to the year ultimately flow into the water system that is polluting water and then impacting the water, like aquatic animals or plants as well.

So those are the ecosystem disservices.

Jacy: So you also mentioned cultural ecosystem services. How do public perceptions of bees and biodiversity influence the acceptance of meadow style management?

Shishir: I think it depends [00:08:00] on, sometimes it is hard to navigate through these very sensitive issues because the human involvement is always a critical in both management as well as how we wanna put our natures for the future generation, because people may not have always.

Good or positive perception towards the meadow because sometimes they look unkempt or sometimes, uh, what happens, like they will ask question about, oh, there may be more mosquitoes or ticks are coming, or maybe small mammals, and then my kids may not be able to go nearby to play or something like that.

That’s the very brief, like outside pictures, but when we try to explain them to the inside picture of that, educate them, so recognizing them bees as essential pollinators and valuing the natural aesthetics. Not only [00:09:00] looking at the very flat or highly maintained these grassy surfaces, but uh, giving them how the one small strip of meadow can help your future generation to understand the naturalness.

And they don’t need to go to any other locations to see, like in the wild, to see them so they can see those in their backyard. So that is something you can convince. To the people and ask them to believe on how. Little things we do, we can make a significant contribution to the nature and to the people, and highlighting the importance of education and community engagement to build trust between the science and management.

As well as public perception, that’s, well, we can change their perception towards a more cultural and ecological benefits of meadows. And then also, I wanna mention one thing [00:10:00] people, like some of the indigenous plant we can plant to those meadows and keep them for generation. The people can believe, oh yeah, maybe a hundred years ago there is some plant.

But now because of these. Global climate change and invasive species, we are changing the landscape and we don’t have those plants anymore. But when you are creating this wild meadow type, then you can plant this native or sometimes endangered endemic or rare plants and have them there. So that’s a conservation as well.

So you have a value of conserving, not only for now. But what we call like some sort of like a value to preserve for the future generation as well. So that is the way we can convince the public and then change their perception towards Meadow and their views on the meadow.

Jacy: Where would you like to see the research go in this area?

I.

Shishir: A lot. I mean, there is, uh, so many dimensions we can put there, for instance. Um, what I would like to see the focus on these urban [00:11:00] meadows, how we can design them and manage to maximize this benefit, either this ecological aesthetic or economic. Either this in terms of pollinator supports or carbon sequestration to stormwater mitigation, the reducing urban heat island impact, and then the social acceptance.

That is the big hurdle right now. The big sort of like, um. We need to break them. And then there is a conservation agencies, government legislation and all those because people are, uh, for instance, if they want to have a meadow, the homeowner association may not be allowed to them to have that because those are the hurdles.

So. First, bring the people in a trust and make them to believe in science. And then the outcomes is, is always better for the future, not for ’cause. We need to convince them. Don’t just look at [00:12:00] yourself. Look at for your future generation. That’s how we maybe able to convince them. And then. Increase the public understanding of the multiple functional values of these meadows.

I mean, if they completely don’t want to put, just make a small strip of land, devote that into a meadow. And then regular long-term scientific studies because we have a very limited information here and there. And then also look at, because we don’t have to afraid of looking at the long term. Trade-offs of community engagement strategies and how different culture demographics can change the attitude, uh, towards these meadows.

And I mentioned earlier, like some of those plants, they may be very important to their locality and then for the people they may be using for medicinal purpose for traditionally, for hundreds of years. So you can have those. So those sort of things put together in a research as well [00:13:00] as. Education, then I think we will have a brighter futures for meadowscaping in these advancing urban landscape.

Jacy: If you could encourage people to do just one thing to support native bees, what would it be?

Shishir: Thank you. That is what I just mentioned because there are not always positive perceptions. There are negative, and then we have to come out with that even when we are writing a paper and the reviewer came back and asked about this public perception, do not.

Like force people to do this versus that, that is very negative in some localities and some communities. And ask them, why did you just put a little small strip of flowers? Don’t talk about meadow. Oh, we need this and that. It’s like bio conservation. Do not bring that. Just put that so you can smell that. A sense of that flowers.

At the same time, the butterflies are buzzing around, like bees are buzzing, butterflies are [00:14:00] flying. Hummingbirds will come and then get the nectar from your flowers, and then your kids will see all of those in front of your house. And that way you are providing education, teaching education to your kids at the same time you are.

Giving a little small foraging habitat for bees and butterflies and then you are preserving those, them there. And then you can play around. So you have a lawn still, but why don’t you put little small parcel in to make it meadow and then flowery, uh, flower garden. And that way you can do both.

Jacy: Urban green spaces are more than just pretty scenery.

They’re dynamic systems that deliver valuable services. And intriguingly Disservices, which was one of the most interesting parts of our conversation. Ecosystem disservices, like increased allergens, pest habitats, or water usage demands are part of the picture too. It’s a fascinating reminder that even good things can come with trade-offs.

My thanks to Shishir for speaking with [00:15:00] us today and to you for listening in. Our actionable advice is to reimagine lawns, what biodiversity might flourish in a mini meadow in a corner of your personal green space. So until next time, think fresh.