The area in front of Janet and Jeffrey Crouch's house in Columbia , Maryland , does not look usual for their neighborhood .
珍妮特和杰弗里·克劳奇夫妇位于马里兰州哥伦比亚的房子前面，看起来和社区里其他人家不太一样。
That is because the Crouches do not have a grass lawn .
这是因为克劳奇家没有草坪。
Instead , they have some small trees and many native plants .
取而代之的是几棵小树和许多本地植物。
Lawns are areas around a house or in a park that are covered with short grass .
草坪是房屋周围或公园里覆盖着短草的区域。
In recent years , support for replacing lawns with native plants has been increasing in the United States .
近年来，在美国，支持用本地植物取代草坪的人越来越多。
The process is called rewilding .
这个过程被称为“再野化”。
In fact , the number of Americans planning to turn part of their lawn to native wildflowers doubled between 2019 and 2021 .
事实上，计划把部分草坪改种本地野花的美国人数量在2019年至2021年间翻了一番。
By 2021 , it rose to 19 percent .
到2021年，这一比例升至19%。
Paul Robbins is the writer of Lawn People : How Grasses , Weeds , and Chemicals Make Us Who We Are .
保罗·罗宾斯是《草坪人：草、杂草和化学品如何塑造我们》一书的作者。
He said that most people would prefer not to have lawns .
他说，大多数人其实宁愿不要草坪。
“But they feel that they need to have them , or that they can't do anything about it .”
“但他们觉得自己必须要有，或者觉得对此无能为力。”
He added that many homeowners feel they should have lawns to please their neighbors .
他补充说，许多房主觉得应该有草坪来让邻居满意。
It can be costly to keep a lawn looking good and green .
让草坪保持美观翠绿可能花费不菲。
But the Crouches had to spend much more money for the right not to have one .
但克劳奇夫妇为了争取不要草坪的权利，不得不花了多得多的钱。
People living in a house next to them complained to their homeowner's association , or HOA .
住在隔壁的人向他们的业主协会（HOA）投诉。
The neighbors did not like that the Crouches did not have a grass lawn .
邻居们不喜欢克劳奇家没有草坪。
HOAs can make rules about the plants that homeowners in a neighborhood are permitted to grow .
业主协会可以规定社区内的房主可以种植哪些植物。
Many HOAs require grass lawns .
许多业主协会要求必须有草坪。
The HOA ordered the Crouches to pull out their native plants and put in grass .
业主协会命令克劳奇夫妇拔掉本地植物，改种草。
However , they refused .
然而，他们拒绝了。
“We knew we were doing things that were beneficial for the environment ,” said Janet Crouch .
“我们知道自己做的事对环境有益。”珍妮特·克劳奇说。
She told VOA that it seemed wrong to put in only grass , which she called an environmental dead zone .
她告诉美国之音，只种草似乎是不对的，她称草坪为“环境死区”。
Lawns are called environmental dead zones in part because they provide no food or shelter for wildlife .
草坪被称为“环境死区”，部分原因是它们不能为野生动物提供食物或栖身之所。
They also do not support pollinators like birds , bees , and butterflies .
它们也无法为鸟类、蜜蜂和蝴蝶等传粉者提供支持。
Bee populations have been getting smaller in North America and may be getting smaller around the world .
北美的蜜蜂数量一直在减少，全世界的蜜蜂数量可能也在减少。
Ted Steinberg is the writer of American Green : The Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Lawn .
特德·斯坦伯格是《美国绿：对完美草坪的执念追求》一书的作者。
He said there are other reasons that lawns are bad for the environment .
他说，草坪对环境有害还有其他原因。
He said they require a lot of water and chemicals .
他说，草坪需要大量的水和化学品。
Large amounts of water can remove nutrients from the soil .
大量的水会把土壤中的养分冲走。
Steinberg said that after the water removes the nutrients , people buy even more chemicals to put on their lawns .
斯坦伯格说，在水冲走养分之后，人们会买更多的化学品撒在草坪上。
Scientists say some of these chemicals might cause cancer and other health problems .
科学家说，其中一些化学品可能会导致癌症和其他健康问题。
Nancy Lawson is the writer of The Humane Gardener and Wildscapes .
南希·劳森是《人道园丁》和《野景》的作者。
She is also Janet Crouch's sister and the person who urged the Crouches to put in native plants .
她也是珍妮特·克劳奇的姐妹，正是她劝说克劳奇夫妇种植本地植物。
The Crouches ’ battle against their HOA took three years .
克劳奇夫妇与业主协会的斗争持续了三年。
They say they spent $60,000 fighting to keep their natural garden .
他们说，为了保住自己的自然花园，他们花了6万美元。