The Backyard Revolution: Your Role in Combating the Biodiversity Crisis

Ever given a side-eye to your backyard and considered its hidden eco-potential? In today's episode, I dig into the unsung narratives of local ecosystems. We're diving into the silent retreat of our six-legged friends and what it means for our environment. From the sprawling concept of rewilding to quirky yet effective ways to boost life in your own patch of green, we'll unpack the big impact of small choices. Tune in, and arm yourself with the know-how to transform your outdoor space into a buzzing, thriving slice of nature's paradise. Who knew your backyard held such power?

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Transcript:

Kia ora kaitiaki and welcome back to Now That's What I Call Green. I'm Brianne West, the founder and CEO of Incrediballs, and more importantly, I believe that if we change business, we will change the world and solve many of the social and environmental problems we face today, in most part, because business created them. Now, today we're going to be talking about the world of backyard biodiversity. We're going to explore how to turn your garden into a wildlife haven, why insects matter, yeah, we're going to talk about insects, and a little bit more. Okay, so let's talk about biodiversity.

What is it, why does it matter? Biodiversity is simply a measure of the number of species in an area. It is not the number of animals, it is the number of species, because the healthiest ecosystems have the greater number of species. This is why you hear people talking about monocultures and agriculture. It's something that's very bad for the planet. A healthy ecosystem relies on what you call a food web, which is where you've got things like insects. Biodiversity matters for a shitload of reasons. The more biodiverse, the more healthy the ecosystem typically. And ecosystems, I think we'll all agree, are quite important. Ecosystem services like pollination, decomposition because you don't want to be deep in dead bodies, water purification because those freshwater sources are self-cleaning thanks to various species of microbes and insects and so on, and of course climate regulation. A diverse ecosystem is more resilient to environmental stress, and that's particularly helpful in this current climate, as you'd imagine. Of course, ecosystems with a higher biodiversity are more productive. So polycultures in agriculture are generally more productive. I talked about monoculture a minute ago. It's self-explanatory.

Monocultures are you growing one crop, so think like a corn field, whereas a polyculture you're growing three or four or more in one area. That helps the soil quality, it helps with plant productivity, it helps the biodiversity in the area. Diverse ecosystems are also more stable. And what do I mean by that? When there are many species, each of those services that I mentioned earlier, so pollination, decomposition, they have backups.

If you are reliant on one species to pollinate something and then something comes along and wipes out that species, like the varroa mite, for example, in the case of honeybees, that ecosystem is kind of buggered. When you have a biodiverse one, that's less of an issue. And finally, you've got what you call trophic interactions. And species have different trophic levels. This is where you've heard of, it's like the whole herbivore carnivore discussion.

Trophic levels are producer, primary producer, consumer, so on and so forth. So a producer is something that uses natural elements like sunlight, oxygen, water to produce something. Of course, I'm talking about plants primarily here. Then you've got consumers who are the animals that eat those plants. Now there are different levels of consumers that go up and up food webs and it becomes very complex.

The more complex, the better regulation of populations of those organisms within that ecosystem, including potential pests. Also it has massive agricultural benefits. We want large, diverse genetic pools to breed more resilient, productive, and disease-resistant crops. Medical discoveries often come from plants and, to a degree, animals, and biodiversity is a crucial resource for medical research. So think about that next time you need to go to the hospital because of some infection you've picked up somewhere. Tourism is a massive economic factor. Biodiversity is a massive draw for tourism. As you listen to this, I'm currently in the Kimberley, diving around some of the most spectacularly biodiverse reefs on earth.

The only reason I went there was because of that biodiversity. Biodiversity has massive cultural importance. Many indigenous and local communities are very closely tied to their natural environment and their cultural identities often include specific local flora and fauna. People find joy, inspiration, spiritual fulfilment in interacting with these natural environments. And frankly, in my opinion, all species have an intrinsic value, regardless of whether they're important or not, and they should be preserved simply because they exist. In my opinion, just because something isn't useful doesn't mean it doesn't matter. But that's a philosophical discussion I'm not going to get into today.

Of course, the greatest reason people usually turn to when they think of why we need to maintain biodiversity is it's an ethical obligation to look after our planet for future generations, right? I mean if you want to have children you want to ensure that the planet they live on is happy and healthy and that's directly linked to biodiversity. So, biodiversity is quite important really. Now, my entire life I have been obsessed with animals as people, if you've heard me talk before, you'll know. And I was collecting caterpillars when I was seven, I was pulling worms out of puddles when I was, I don't know, from whatever age I can remember. I still do that as an adult now to make sure they don't drown. I rescue birds. I've done a lot of work on my property in Aotearoa to ensure that I preserve as much biodiversity as possible.

So we're going to have a chat about a little bit about what I did, but mostly about what you can do, because I live on 10 acres in rural Otatahi, Christchurch, and most people don't. I'm very lucky, so I've had the opportunity to have a big impact on quite a large amount of land And if you've seen any of my TikToks, you'll know what I'm talking about. So to give you a brief rundown I bought a very neglected block two years ago That had had no love for ages. There was a bit of a forest, a pine forest at the front of the property there's some very overgrown gardens and Frankly, everything needed redoing. My sole purpose was to create a happy thriving ecosystem or series of ecosystems. So I've done a lot of planting, like quite literally tens of thousands of plants. My God, do the nurseries around here owe me shares. And I put a lot of it into natives, but not exclusively natives, because we do want to encourage some of the insects that now respond to some of the more exotic plant species. Focus a lot on plants for pollination, focus a lot on things like manuka and kānuka, flaxes and hebes.

They're all great plants that cope well with the climate around here and they are phenomenal for encouraging wildlife. Now over the last two years the difference has been phenomenal. It has been an enormous amount of work and I have, I think I have like permanent calluses on my hands from digging but you know I got a lot fitter. But now the difference, the amount of birds you see, I have a dino dome, I planted an area specifically to encourage native lizards and tried to make it harbour predators to get in, although there's cats, so that's just a tricky one. We've planted lots of rotten wood, again lots more native plants and rocks for basking. There is a video on TikTok. And seeing the change has been one of the most rewarding things of my life and I cannot wait to see in another couple of years where those gardens and those plants are at because we've planted massive native shelter belts of really diverse plants and already you can just see the life around them.

And what it tells me more than anything is just how, I don't want to say easy because it hasn't been easy, but just how possible it is to make a difference without truly knowing what you're doing. Because yes, I'm a biochemist and yes, I have more than a passing interest in this, so I've done a lot of research, but I certainly don't know what I'm doing. I'm not a botanist. I don't have a huge interest in plants, but the difference you can make anyway is really astonishing. Now I want to turn to insects, because when I say biodiversity and wildlife in my backyard, I am mostly talking about the six and eight-legged critters. I appreciate most people don't like spiders and they're not everybody's favourite topic, but they are a crucial part of our ecosystems, and they are facing the most unprecedented decline. Scientists are even calling it the insect apocalypse. Now, before you get excited about the idea of fewer mosquitoes, let's dive into why this is actually a massive problem. Recent studies have shown that insect biomass might be declining by as much as 2.5% per year. That might not sound like much, but if you compound that over the next several decades, it's pretty catastrophic. But what is much worse is, depending on the source, insects have declined between 50 to 75% in the last 50 years. That is genuinely terrifying, because without insects, there is no life on earth. Let me make that very clear. I'm not being overzealous when I say that.

They form the foundation of global food webs and ecosystems. So why is this happening? Well, loss of habitat. Urbanisation, agriculture, particularly monocultures, deforestation, they're all destroying the natural habitats that insects live in. Pesticides and chemicals? Yes, pesticides are obviously going to be a huge issue, that they are directly harmful to insect populations, particularly on farms, but also in your backyard, in your home when you spray something you are indiscriminately killing everything in that area. You're not just killing that irritating fly you can't get rid of that won't fly out of the window because it's stupid, you're also harming a lot of things you can't see. Of course the biggest damage is done by farming. Climate change. Climate change is a huge deal because insects are very fragile based on what is going on around them and the changing temperature, changing weather patterns, increase or decrease in water massively affects insect life cycles and habitats. And finally, light pollution is an interesting one actually. So all the artificial light around them is disrupting the natural behaviours of nocturnal insects, like moths and things, that is affecting their ability to feed and mate. We all think it's really funny and irritating when a moth bashes itself repeatedly at your lamp.

But on a global scale, that's actually quite a big problem. Insects matter for some big reasons. So pollination is the one you're gonna know about. Bees, butterflies, beetles, they're all vital pollinators for plants. And without pollination, of course, we don't have food. Neither does everything else on earth.

The decomposition, imagine if there were no flies. Imagine if there was no decomposition insects. You would be knee deep in poo and dead bodies and all sorts of other nonsense. They are nature's recyclers. They break down dead animals and plants, turning them into nutrients for the soil that are then recycled back through food webs and ecosystems. Man, go to the smell if we didn't have them.

There are food sources. Insects are a primary food source for so many other animals. No insects means no food for birds, bats, some mammals, even some plants. Insects control other insects. That's what the idea of behind biological control is. So instead of using insecticides and pesticides, you use other insects as natural predators to prevent harm to gardens and crops. So ladybugs for example eat aphids which has saved a lot of gardeners from having to spray their plants. There is a lot more to insects but that sums it up nicely. So we are aware of what biodiversity is, we understand why it is important to everybody and we are particularly focused on insects. So what can we do about it? Because I promise you, like so many of the problems that we face, we can absolutely do something about it. Number one, plant more stuff. Trees. Particularly natives are wonderful, but anything that is resilient to the climate around it that provides some kind of habitat or food for insects and other wildlife. Brightly coloured flowers for bees, manuka and kānuka for a variety of insects. There are lots of amazing plants out there, and if you're concerned with the beauty of your garden, there are some fabulous examples of stunningly beautiful New Zealand natives that are a win-win for you, your garden and biodiversity. Reduce pesticide use. In fact, stop killing animals and insects. I appreciate a lot of people don't like lizards. I appreciate that you don't like insects.

Try if you can. If you can't move past that fear, and I get it, I used to be quite phobic of spiders, get someone to help you remove them and take them outside. Please, please don't just indiscriminately squish things or electrocute things with those funny bat things. Or spray spray. And out in the garden, reduce pesticide use. I know, if you've got lettuces, slugs are a pain in the bum.

But try and find some natural methods of pest control wherever possible. There's some clever things you can do with companion planting, for example. So if you've got roses, you want to protect your roses from aphids. If you plant garlic near them, that repels aphids. So, yes, again, that requires a little bit more research, but it is worth doing. If we return to the idea of those slugs, slugs hate crawling over things like copper or egg shells because they're soft and squishy. Surround your lettuces and other plants with some crushed up egg shells, some sand, some gravel, some coffee grounds. There's actually a whole load of things you can do. Rosemary and mint are said to repel slugs and snails. I don't know how true that last one is. Of course, the other side of encourage more wildlife is you'll encourage more birds and the birds will keep the insects in check. So it might feel as you begin this journey that you have so many insects you don't know what to do with, but the balance will quickly be restored. Some of the more specific things you can do to encourage wildlife are to create little micro habitats in your garden. Now these, this is my favourite thing to do. So I bought a house with a lot of lawns, now I mean acres of lawns. I have no idea why, what is the point in having a flat monoculture of grass that doesn't support biodiversity and simply has to be mowed. I have no idea. Sure, it looks nice, but does it? I think it's boring. Down with lawn culture.

Anyway, I dug up as much of that lawn as possible. I created things like insect islands. So big lawns, because they're a monoculture, they're kind of like a food desert for insects. So insect islands are little areas of oases, if you like, within these lawns that are filled with plants. They're allowed to grow wild, they are quite beautiful, again if you want to see what these look like head over to my TikTok. But they support so much life within them.

And then you still have your lawn, but you also have some beautiful plants around it as well. And you're encouraging more wildlife. The birds that live in those insect islands are amazing, and this spring the nesting I'm seeing is so cool. So many baby birds. I talked about the dino dome before, and how it's a lizard habitat. I've used a lot of rotten wood, a lot of stones, a lot of soil and native plants to create a really nice damp but sunny area that the skinks and the geckos I've seen around, and I'm seeing more and more, can use to eat, breed and grow their populations because of course lizards and otter are struggling. Now you're probably thinking, yeah, but you have loads of land, so of course you can do all these things. In view of a small backyard, you can do loads. My first home was a lot smaller than where I currently live and it was in a brand new subdivision, so it was flat, dead clay. The ground stunk because of all the stagnant water because there was no drainage. I spent a lot of my life digging it all up, chunking it full of compost, and planting all sorts of plants as many places as possible. I got rid of a lot of the lawn. I planted trees. Within, I think, about eight months, I started to see a lot more bird life because the complete lack of birds, of anything living in that area, was gross. Finally, I'm going to talk about wilderness. We talk about wildflower meadows and wildflower meadows look wonderful on Pinterest, but really a good example of wilderness is just leaving it alone.

If you do have a lawn, don't mow it as frequently. Let it grow long. It gives other species a bit of an opportunity to get growing. That long grass provides much more of a habitat for animals. Yes, insects are animals. I have a few areas on the property where I have just ignored it largely. I have a little stream that runs through the property and I've just left the edgings to it. It's growing all sorts of amazing plants and down there if you go and sit, it's ever so calming because you can just hear life. And tips for those who want a wildflower area, it's actually a lot harder than Google would tell you. You have to destroy the plants that are on it. So that means digging it up and flipping it over or using weed killer, obviously you'll know which I'd prefer, to make sure that you've got bare grass. And then make sure that the ground is nice and loose. Then simply sprinkle your wildflower seeds on the ground, ensure it stays damp, and watch what happens.

The problem is wildflower meadows do not last very long. They get quite tatty and untidy and people don't like how they look. But that's like the wildness of nature. They don't look like they do in movies for very long at all. So instead of chopping it down and trimming it or mowing it whenever you get bored of how it looks, just leave it. Because honestly, you have created something wonderful by the wildflower meadow, it just doesn't necessarily look like it for very long. Now, if you're keen to have a look at what I've been talking about in this podcast, head over to my TikTok @BrianneMWest. I'll put the link in the show notes. So that sets back our biodiversity. Insects are the unsung heroes of our ecosystems. And I'm sure they may not be as majestic as whales or as cute as pandas, but they are just as, if not more, important. The insect apocalypse is a serious issue, but it's definitely not too late to act. As always, if we make small changes in our own backyards, we can definitely make a difference. So that's it for today's episode, kaitiaki. I hope you gather some seeds of wisdom that you can sow in your daily life. I really do like puns.

I've been told that I shouldn't use them, but most of you seem to enjoy them, even though conventional marketing wisdom says there are no. But remember, it's all about making informed choices and progress, not perfection. So thanks for tuning in and I will see you soon for another episode where we will continue to dig deeper into sustainability. And I will see you next week for another episode where we will continue to dig deeper into sustainability. Until then, keep it clean and green.

This has been Now That's What I Call Green.

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