Some Americans Want Fewer Grass Lawns

The area in front of Janet and Jeffrey Crouch's house in Columbia, Maryland, does not look usual for their neighborhood.

La zona frente a la casa de Janet y Jeffrey Crouch en Columbia, Maryland, no tiene el aspecto habitual de su vecindario.

That is because the Crouches do not have a grass lawn.

Eso se debe a que los Crouch no tienen césped.

Instead, they have some small trees and many native plants.

En su lugar, tienen algunos árboles pequeños y muchas plantas nativas.

Lawns are areas around a house or in a park that are covered with short grass.

Los céspedes son zonas alrededor de una casa o en un parque cubiertas de hierba corta.

In recent years, support for replacing lawns with native plants has been increasing in the United States.

En los últimos años, ha crecido en Estados Unidos el apoyo a reemplazar el césped por plantas nativas.

The process is called rewilding.

El proceso se llama resilvestración (rewilding).

In fact, the number of Americans planning to turn part of their lawn to native wildflowers doubled between 2019 and 2021.

De hecho, el número de estadounidenses que planeaban convertir parte de su césped en flores silvestres nativas se duplicó entre 2019 y 2021.

By 2021, it rose to 19 percent.

Para 2021, la cifra subió al 19 por ciento.

Paul Robbins is the writer of Lawn People: How Grasses, Weeds, and Chemicals Make Us Who We Are.

Paul Robbins es el autor de Lawn People: How Grasses, Weeds, and Chemicals Make Us Who We Are.

He said that most people would prefer not to have lawns.

Dijo que la mayoría de la gente preferiría no tener césped.

“But they feel that they need to have them, or that they can't do anything about it.”

“Pero sienten que necesitan tenerlo, o que no pueden hacer nada al respecto”.

He added that many homeowners feel they should have lawns to please their neighbors.

Añadió que muchos propietarios sienten que deben tener césped para complacer a sus vecinos.

It can be costly to keep a lawn looking good and green.

Mantener un césped bonito y verde puede ser costoso.

But the Crouches had to spend much more money for the right not to have one.

Pero los Crouch tuvieron que gastar mucho más dinero por el derecho a no tener uno.

People living in a house next to them complained to their homeowner's association, or HOA.

Las personas que vivían en la casa de al lado se quejaron ante su asociación de propietarios, o HOA.

The neighbors did not like that the Crouches did not have a grass lawn.

A los vecinos no les gustaba que los Crouch no tuvieran césped.

HOAs can make rules about the plants that homeowners in a neighborhood are permitted to grow.

Las HOA pueden establecer normas sobre las plantas que los propietarios de un vecindario pueden cultivar.

Many HOAs require grass lawns.

Muchas HOA exigen césped.

The HOA ordered the Crouches to pull out their native plants and put in grass.

La HOA ordenó a los Crouch arrancar sus plantas nativas y poner césped.

However, they refused.

Sin embargo, ellos se negaron.

“We knew we were doing things that were beneficial for the environment,” said Janet Crouch.

“Sabíamos que estábamos haciendo cosas beneficiosas para el medio ambiente”, dijo Janet Crouch.

She told VOA that it seemed wrong to put in only grass, which she called an environmental dead zone.

Le dijo a VOA que le parecía un error poner solo césped, al que llamó una zona muerta ambiental.

Lawns are called environmental dead zones in part because they provide no food or shelter for wildlife.

Los céspedes se llaman zonas muertas ambientales en parte porque no ofrecen alimento ni refugio a la fauna silvestre.

They also do not support pollinators like birds, bees, and butterflies.

Tampoco sostienen a polinizadores como aves, abejas y mariposas.

Bee populations have been getting smaller in North America and may be getting smaller around the world.

Las poblaciones de abejas se han ido reduciendo en Norteamérica y podrían estar reduciéndose en todo el mundo.

Ted Steinberg is the writer of American Green: The Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Lawn.

Ted Steinberg es el autor de American Green: The Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Lawn.

He said there are other reasons that lawns are bad for the environment.

Dijo que hay otras razones por las que el césped es malo para el medio ambiente.

He said they require a lot of water and chemicals.

Dijo que requieren mucha agua y productos químicos.

Large amounts of water can remove nutrients from the soil.

Grandes cantidades de agua pueden eliminar los nutrientes del suelo.

Steinberg said that after the water removes the nutrients, people buy even more chemicals to put on their lawns.

Steinberg dijo que, después de que el agua elimina los nutrientes, la gente compra todavía más productos químicos para su césped.

Scientists say some of these chemicals might cause cancer and other health problems.

Los científicos dicen que algunos de estos productos químicos podrían causar cáncer y otros problemas de salud.

Nancy Lawson is the writer of The Humane Gardener and Wildscapes.

Nancy Lawson es la autora de The Humane Gardener y Wildscapes.

She is also Janet Crouch's sister and the person who urged the Crouches to put in native plants.

También es hermana de Janet Crouch y la persona que animó a los Crouch a poner plantas nativas.

The Crouches’ battle against their HOA took three years.

La batalla de los Crouch contra su HOA duró tres años.

They say they spent $60,000 fighting to keep their natural garden.

Dicen que gastaron 60.000 dólares luchando por conservar su jardín natural.