A guide to converting your lawn into a wildlife friendly garden 

A guide to converting your lawn into a wildlife friendly garden  May 21, 20265:00 AM ET By  Celia Llopis-Jensen Three years ago, this garden near the Kansas City metro area was a lawn. Now it's full of Midwest native plants — like the Ohio spiderwort and mountain mint pictured here —that attract plenty of pollinators. Celia Llopis-Jepsen/KCUR hide caption toggle caption Celia Llopis-Jepsen/KCUR NPR is dedicating a week to stories and conversations about how communities are moving forward on climate solutions despite significant political headwinds. As the federal government halts plans to address climate change, states, cities, regions, and even neighborhoods are trying to fill the gap by cutting climate pollution and adapting to extreme weather.  Lawns are great surfaces for throwing a football or laying out a picnic. But turfgrass in the United States now covers an estimated 40 million acres — an area about the size of the state of Georgia — and these manicured lawns take an environmental toll. Sponsor Message Gas-powered yard equipment, like lawn mowers and trimmers, put out 30 million tons of air pollutants a year, the Environmental Protection Agency says. To keep our lawns tidy and green, we also use weedkillers and fertilizers. When it rains, those chemicals escape our yards and make their way through storm drains to our lakes and rivers. Shrinking lawns can reduce all these impacts. It can also create space for gardens that feed wildlife — great news at a time when North America has lost one-quarter of its birds and the U.S. has lost one-fifth of its butterflies. University of Delaware entomologist Doug Tallamy has calculated that if Americans reduced their lawns by half and added native plant gardens to feed birds, butterflies and other wildlife, this would create more habitat than Yellowstone and a dozen other major national parks combined. Interested in ditching your lawn? These tips can get you started. 1. Choose a spot where you'll kill some grass C...