(Source: fuckyeahanarchistgraffiti, via lukehandcool)

recalibrating lately

lisa-rayner:

(via The Washington Post)

My township calls my lawn ‘a nuisance.’
But I still refuse to mow it.
Manicured lawns are ruining the planet.

By Sarah Baker

In June, my partner and I received an official written warning from the trustee board of St. Albans Township, stating that our yard had become “a nuisance.” Ohio law allows local governments to control any vegetation on private property that they deem a nuisance, after a seven-day warning to the property owners. But the law does not define what “a nuisance” is, effectively giving local leaders the power to remove whatever grass or plants offend them. In our case, the trustees decided that our lawn was too tall and thick and would attract “nuisance animals” such as “snakes and rodents.” If we didn’t cut it, they would hire someone to do so and bring law enforcement with them.

But the point of a natural yard is to attract wildlife and build a self-regulating environment. The un-mowed plants in our yard attract plant-eating bugs and rodents, which attract birds, bats, toads and garter snakes that eat them. Then hawks fly in to eat the snakes. Seeing this life emerge in one growing season made me realize just how much nature manicured lawns displace and disrupt.

There are 40.5 million acres of lawn in the U.S., more than double the size of the country’s largest national forest. We disconnect ourselves from wildlife habitat loss by viewing it as a problem caused by industry and agriculture. But habitat loss is happening in our own back yards.

This has serious consequences. About 95 percent of the natural landscape in the lower 48 states has been developed into cities, suburbs and farmland. Meanwhile, the global population of vertebrate animals, from birds to fish, has been cut in half during the past four decades. Honey bees, which we depend on to pollinate our fruits and other crops, have been dying off at an unsustainable rate. Because one in three bites of food you take requires a pollinating insect to produce it, their rapid decline is a threat to humanity. Monarch butterflies have been even more affected, with their numbers dropping 90 percent since the 1990s. Butterflies are an important part of the food chain; ecologists use them to measure the health of ecosystems.

Nature preserves and parks are not enough to fix the problem; much of wildlife is migratory and needs continuous habitat to thrive.  Natural yards can act as bridges between the larger natural spaces.

(via thattasteslikeheaven)

van-life:

Model: 1984 VW Westfalia

Location: Montana 2014

Photo: Hannah Dewey @hannah__dewey www.hannahdeweyphotography.com

(Source: van-life)

blue-bell-the-van:

Out here in New Mexico. Playing some music under the desert stars tonight. 

eatsleepdraw:

The Nighthouse

www.oneleggedkiwi.com

(Source: eatsleepdraw)

updated shaker chair.

(Source: cazuiyo, via thingsofinterest)

shutupandrun:

Create Yourself. 

(via undoordinary)