🙌If you would like to help out you can become a member here: www.mossy.earth/ In addition to our own projects in places like Scotland, Portugal, Ecuador and Indonesia we also work with fantastic partners such as BROZ. A huge thank you for enabling our work! - Cheers, Duarte
So true! You don’t have to donate much if you don’t want to. Even a little bit helps! For the price of a cup of coffee house coffee you can help each month.
The average person cannot re-introduce the lynx or the other amazing things you do but almost anyone can create habitiat for insects. This is a passion of mine. I live in a town and have a medium size yard that I have been converting the turf grass to native prairie. It has been gratifying to watch the different insects return and learn about them.
A fellow No-Mow! I haven't cut my lawn in 21 years, and haven't regretted a moment of it. The life restored to my garden is incredible. While the Neonicotinoid era did have a terrible impact here, it is still recovering steadily - with new species coming in along the way (lizards, Bullfinches, the Chimney Sweeper moth, and just a few days ago a very vibrantly coloured type of fly - or bee, maybe - that I have never seen anywhere else before). And although you have, no doubt, added new wild flowers to your mini-prairie, I'll bet Nature has done for you as she has for me - adding new wild flowers of her own. In that regard, the most impressive free gift was the Hemp Agrimony, which is a magnet for Red Admiral butterflies (among others).
Yes! There is so much people could do by just planting native plants in their gardens versus exotic ones from other continents. I've been converting my yard to native plants and it has been amazing how quick the insects return.
The same concept applies to the Famous Monarch butterflies that are native to north & central america. Their host plant are those in the Asclepios genus. aka Milkweeds. We've seen their number decline rapidly over the 20th century due to clearing once untouched wild prairie grazed by megafauna (bison) into monoculture corn fields. No prairies = less milkweeds = less monarchs. And so our solution instead of... putting in an effort to restore their habitat. We've done the classic american move and decided to sell you on planting your own milkweed in your garden to "save the monarchs". I guess it does help that milkweed's have very colorful and beautiful flowers so it's really easy to convince people to buy it lol
Yeah we have one here that depends on stinging nettles, sure its not fun to have plants that stings you in your garden but I still managed to find a spot where its not a problem for me and the butterflies have a spot. Just have to put some thought into it
@@johannahettman1773a lot of european butterflies rely on nettles too, 6 species (Nymphalids) and probably more who have other options but often depend on nettles because the other plants aren’t available. Also nettles make a very cool soup.
It's cool to see that rewilding doesn't have to be about large predators and large swathes of remote wilderness. And I tip my hat to you on pronouncing all those butterflies.
@@MUSTASCH1O No we don't need to keep expanding our towns and cities further and further outwards. That is bad for nature and the planet. We still need more large scale nature rich landscapes as well as these smaller areas. We do need to make sure that our towns and cities are greener and good for nature also and to stop just building and destroying places and not thinking of putting back nature around where our buildings are.
@@DynamixWarePro I feel your sense of loss, but I think you are missing my point. We do need to maintain and improve large national parks, but I am saying our towns and cities should also have smaller areas and nature corridors planned into them. This will increase biodiversity compared to isolated large landscapes and expose far more people to nature. House prices are cripplingly high in the UK and pharma and tech companies are going to America because there isn't enough lab space here. If we don't build we will be doomed to stagnation and social immobility. Biodiversity and development aren't mutually exclusive problems if green space is planned in from the start. Nature won't be preserved unless people are exposed to it and benefit from it, so we need more of it in our settlements.
Insect diversity is fundamental to any ecosystem, and they are usually ignored in conservation. Everybody just talks about bees.. if anything. Kudos to Mossy Earth for dedicating a whole program for them.
I think the primary concern is that the good insects tend to share the same habitats as the famine-causing insects (such as locusts) so it's not as easy as just "bring back nature" like it would be with other flora/fauna.
I have bought a new farm. On this farm I have 28 hectares of European primeval forest and 23 hectares of meadows. However, I have to mow these once a year to provide food for all my animals. But unlike most farmers, I only mow once. Living like this is simply much nicer than the clean forests in my old homeland. I have a lot more wild animals and insects than before. So many animals that I have never seen in my life and didn't even know existed. (Although I have always lived in nature)
@@leilatanner6789 that's not luck. Since i'm out of school i worked 60-80h a week for it, 7 days a week, all my holidays i worked for someone to earn some extra money. If you wanna achive something, you have to do something for it.
CBS Sunday Morning had a video about something similar, maybe last year, somewhere in the Midwest. Should be easy to find in their channel @@noahchevrette7485
I really appreciate the message of taking time to look more closely at a space that we see so often and don’t think about much to notice the surprising amount of biodiversity and beauty
I think it is particularly relevant for the habitats that coexist with us in close proximity. We need to appreciate them and protect them! :) Glad you enjoyed the video! - Cheers, Duarte
This is BY FAR the most uplifting and beautiful video i have seen on RU-vid EVER. As a 14-year old norwegian that has been fascinated and obsessed with entomology for my whole life, me and insects all around the globe are thanking you hardworking, kind and amazing people at Mossy Earth and all of its members. Insects are very often forgotten in conservation work, which is so sad to see, as they are extremely crucial and important to all ecosystems worldwide, and without them, we humans would never survive. In recent years insect populations worldwide has declined massively, mainly due to habitat loss. I am so happy that someone finally are doing some amazing and serious habitat restoration trying to protect and help these beautiful insects. My main interest has always been beetles (Coleoptera), and seeing someone finally mention these cute dung-loving beetles almost makes me cry in happiness. If you were to search for weevils in the family Apionidae here, I think you would find an amazing amount of species of them, as they are often tightly asscosiated with specific, rare meadow and sun-loving flowering plants. KEEP UP THE AMAZING CONSERVATION WORK, IT REALLY MATTERS!!!! ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤
Here in Norway we sadly lost an entire butterfly species a few years ago, due to habitat loss. It was the beautiful blue Plebejus argyrognomon, asscosiated with the plant Astragalus glycyphyllos. May it rest in peace ❤
bees have a larger perceived negative: their stingers the most a butterfly can do is land on you and lick you. this is seen as attractive. so the argument for them over bees is pretty strong
If you read about nature before intensive farming and agrochemicals took over, you realise how much we have lost, when people described countryside with clouds of butterflies. Congratulations on your work, its wonderful. Best wishes from Wales.
Even when I was a teen in the 90s, peacock butterflies used to swarm certain flowering plants in summer. You'd see a dozen at once or more on lilac bushes and such. Haven't seen even a single one in forever. It's so sad.
@@raraavis7782 In the UK we have huge amounts of buddleia, which is otherwise known as the butterfly bush, it grows everywhere, but hardly any butterflies.
@@pauldurkee4764 Yes, that's the one I meant. Gorgeous plant. We had one in our garden, when I was a kid. Looked and smelled so nice. And it was always covered in butterflies, when the weather was nice. Such good memories!
I haven't seen a single firefly in my backyard in the last 20 years. They used to light up the path from the gate to the door. We've lost and we keep losing so much every year it's disheartening.
@@pauldurkee4764unfortunately, buddleia is an invasive species in middle and eastern europe (it's native to China and Tibet). It takes over large areas and replaces native plants. Sure, the butterflies like them because of the nectar, but they're much better off with plants natural to their habitat. A lot of butterflies rely on a certain plant for reproduction (laying eggs and food for the caterpillars) and buddleia isn't providing that to them. There are native plants one can choose to plant instead, like loosestrife or three-leaved valerian.
prairie and meadowland restoration is so important!! large scale agriculture has left it as one of the most endangered habitats....thanks for doing this
Meadows can also easily be replicated in your garden. Set aside a corner, get an appropriate seed mix and mow it once in June and once in the autumn. When mowing in June, let everything lie and dry for 2-3 days to simulate making hay. Then rake it away and compost. This will help with seed dispersal as seeds drop during the drying period. It is really a low effort project
It is a very bad idea to mow it in June. At that time all the plants and insects are the most active and you will kill off everything thing that lives there. Much better to wait until the latter half of July to mow it. And cut it again in autumn. Of course removing the hay each time.
@@klmrk9961 You won't kill everything. Least of all with a hand scythe but a motor scythe is not that big of an issue either. A mulcher is really bad, but we don't use those in natural gardens anyway. However, if you do not mow or mow too late, it causes two issues. First, many plants have already been blooming and won't come up in time before autumns. Second, the dense vegetation blocks the light close to the ground. Plants that have a later cycle or seeds that require light for germination will be at a huge disadvantage. Mowing late mainly profits the grasses which have a low biological value. These meadows have adapted to the cycle of making hay and they need that cut in June. Of course, it is always a good idea to have a different section in your garden that is cut only once per year
@@foobar9220 Maybe you are located in a different part of the world, if so I am sorry. Were I live, in the north of Europe, everything is in full bloom and all the insects are the most active in early July. Here the hay cut traditionally started in the middle of July and went on until the middle of August, and did so for centuries. I didn't mean that you kill all the insects, but if you cut all the flowers too early all the nectar and larval food plants will be gone.
@@klmrk9961 I am in southern Germany. I cut one week ago and it was definitely overdue. With the early spring we had this year, I think that 3 weeks earlier would have been the correct choice. And of course, there are still plenty of flowers left in our garden. Here the classic rhythm was like mid June. But nowadays, farmers have a completely different rhythm.
Videos like this make me really happy to be a Mossy Earth member. Especially when these projects happen so close to home (I live like 65 km from Beckov). I really appreciate you guys! And BROZ of course!
There’s this large field behind my house, with some forested areas surrounding it, with a stream that leads into a lake farther back. The lake is relatively undeveloped, but the scary thing is the land behind my house is owned by a rich developer who is planning on developing the land in the next 5-6 years. I wish I had you guys around right now.
I once heard an idea to plant some endangered plants that are illegal to uproot in areas like that, don't know if it would work though lol. or attract protected species there and report them.
@@ablah949probably need to consult with an environmentalist that knew how to keep secrets and find a rare plant that historically would have been present in the area.
The little guys in the ecosystem always gets looked over by the larger predators and animals so its great to see you all caring for all types of life in these videos. Thanks for all you do! i am currently studying Environmental sciences and hope to help the world just as much as you all when i done with schooling
Your reports on these rewilding projects are like healing salve on an open wound. Thank you so much for the aspiration, for the hard work, and for bringing them to us.
This reminds me something similar that my city did. There is a patch of land on the registry building and it has a no mow zone, specifically for butterflies. Even though the patch is like 20m by 25m it’s still exciting to see in the middle of a city. And yes I do see butterflies when I go past it 😊
I live in a region with meadows of this kind - meaning there are only grazed by sheep to keep the soil quality poor. It attracts so many rare flowers like orchids and butterflies and insects of all kinds. It's very, very beautiful. But also very underappreciated, because not many people know what a rich ecosystem they have right in front of them. Thank you so much for drawing attention to my beloved meadows! ♡
Love to see the familiar view of european meadows and I hope they will be able to expand. The agriculture is vast and I'm personally getting sick of rapeseed fields.
I have about half a hectare of land in la Alpujarra, south side of Sierra Nevada, Spain. Almond, walnut and olive trees. All the land between the trees is meadow, has been for 25 years now. Before the soil was dead, fertilised with chemicals for decades. Many species of butterfly, bee, beetle etc enjoy the renovated meadows on my land. Well, I share ownership with all the plants and animals on this half hectare. Anyone reading this who has a piece of land should consider doing the same. Nice vid, thanks.
Amazing amazing work guyz. ❤️👌 Please keep up the good work 💯 I will certainly help you and donate as much as I can after I turn 18. Please do some reforestation of native species in northern Europe like Norway, Finland etc 😊🌲
Agree, the C.A.P is a disaster. The diversity of herbaceous plants and grasses are so important for the flourishing of bees, butterflies and other insects. Different ways of grazing management to promote meadows and heathlands is so important for rewilding. Wonderful conservation video. So educational.
Projects like this are definitely necessary around a lot of places in Europe. I remember when I was a kid I used to see a ton of butterflies and fireflies everywhere here in Croatia and even then around 20 years ago my parents told me that the number of them isn't even close to how it was when they were young. Now I barely see any butterflies in villages around mine and I'm lucky if i see 5 fireflies yearly. The situation is super bad when it comes to things like these, thank you for thinking about things nobody else really does.
At my stable we have a field that grows tall every year for hay, in addition to the fields for the horses. This year with all the rain we’ve been getting in south Germany everything was full of flowers, I saw so many insects and butterflies it was great!
I love how this video shows that humans are a part of the ecosystem too, and if we align our needs with the natural world we can thrive together. Fantastic work!
I study forestry in Germany. We looked at several amazing projects with grasers (mostly goats and cattle) in the forests, where they keep small areas open and very bright. There where explosions of biodiversity there. Simply amazing!
Next up: Mossy Earth PAC to lobby against chemical monocrop farm subsidies and in favor of natural pastures, permaculture food forests, and hemp replacing GMO cotton, corn, & soy. Every one of those big farm fields should have to have 5% wetland 10% forest 10% pasture land or they get a big tax instead of a subsidy. There are plenty of acres for grass-fed cattle; they very acres we use for corn & soy for them. The new hemp economy produces a protein-rich livestock feed additive (seed cakes) as a byproduct. Converting millions of acres to hemp would in turn free up millions of acres of feed corn & soy for pasture & permaculture. And put less pressure on Brazil for cattle & soy acreage. Global cooperation.
Thank you for the nice comment! We are actually working on partnering with a team that works in the Rocky Mountain! Keep an eye out later this year. - Cheers, Duarte
There are lots of bad things about the CAP, and subsidies for big agrobusiness is one. AND, those same businesses give us cheap food, and as we've seen in the past few years, when food gets expensive, voters get angry, and angry voters tend to vote the worst leaders...
They also rised their prices in the last few years, there are probably some legitimate reasons for it but it's still frustrating. Especially with Mr Babiš who rises the food prices with one hand and then banks on voters being mad about rising cost of living with the other hand. The food prices are definitely a thing to consider, but it is starting to look a lot like that if the industrial farming will carry on like this, the country might not be able to produce any food in 20 or 30 years, and then what will happen? Some form of change is quite literally vitaly important.
Glad I am a member. I’m a great fan of butterflies and other insects, and have rewilded my garden. I don’t have many bare earth / ploughed / disturbed areas such as you’ve skilfully shown here, so will try to do some of that. Sadly, in the UK we only have about 30% of the species which exist on mainland Europe, so showing the gorgeous European ones I can never see over here, was great! Thank you so much, and please create more videos, showing the English names of other insects. 🤩❤️
It is fascinating how doing small things can create great results and eventually, become bigger in the long run. It also demonstrates how flexible they are when it comes rewilding many areas, including a small patch of land to resemble the atmosphere of the last century. With projects like this, we either go big or go home, no matter how small.
Imagine if we could do this in suburban america. All these monoculture grass yards managed by HOAs could actually be used for something environmentally beneficial.
I remember seeing a couple butterflies per year in Paris but I dont really anymore, you'd think an animal as charismatic as that could promote and protect itself but alas, youre now doing that great work
Thank you for all your effort, everyone at mossy earth! You give me more hope for the future, despite all the destruction and change occurring in the world currently. Keep it up!
In Edmonton's North Saskatchewan River Valley(considered the longest urban green space in North America), we use goats that are trained to eat the specific invasive weeds on the riverside&parks areas. They've also been hired to clear up the land below the solar panels.
Gorgeous. And there’s a lot of potential for road verges in rural areas and nature strips in urban areas to host meadow plants and butterflies too. I’ve been able to plant my nature strip here in Australia with a surprising number and variety of indigenous plants. And growing grass that has a natural height of 15 cm allows it to host some local moths.
When I saw the ploughed field and heard the explanation, I couldn't help but think of a nature reserve near Cologne. The Wahner Heide, a former military training area where tanks are regularly driven for nature conservation reasons, as they form a special biotope by rolling around and forming grooves.
Glad you enjoyed the update and a huge thank you for the support as usual! Whether it is a partnership project or a project we setup from scratch, your funding is what makes it happen! - Cheers, Duarte
I let half of my yard grow up wild a few years ago, maybe 4 or 5 years. I have so many butterflies, and beneficial insects , like preying mantis and black and yellow garden spiders. The birds seem to follow the insects, I have so many types nesting here, that I had never seen before. I get a lot of enjoyment from it,. There is a lot of wildlife there, and I have a dog and a cat ( inside /outside). Still the birds come. Some things I need to keep out of my yard, coyotes, ground hogs and raccoons etc , which can do damage. So a little wild life area, makes a difference! To me its a compromise, between nature and I.
Omg I just lately saw a post about how the best indification for biodiversity are butterflies and how many organizations depend on volunteers to try to identify and count them to monitor the progress in restoration. I have been thinking of joining such org to learn more
Acacias growing in slovakia? That's something novel. :) Perhaps you mean false acacia, Robinia? If you paid someone €21,000 in a relatively poor eastern european country to clear a small amount of wood, you got robbed. Where I live, (and I oddly think this is the norm) the loggers pay YOU to take the wood. Robinia is highly valuable and very expensive wood. Won't the goats eat the wildflowers too? Yay for butterflies! :)
I have some questions about the longevity and financial part of this project. Typically, your projects, after the initial investment, seem to run without a lot of human interference (and thus i assume also low costs). But as mentioned in the video, this property is managed. Are there plans to make this project financially sustainable? Is this already the case, or will this be an ongoing investment from mossy earth? How does this work exactly? Im just curious about a bit more in-depth vieuw one how you guys are managing these projects. Best regards, Me
I've wanted to turn the small backyard I have with my appartment into a wild-ish meadow. looks better than just a lawn and attracts the good insects, but no one wants to see an 'overgrown' garden in the suburbs. It's been 2 years now and just bought a pack of wildflower seeds that'll end up on dedicated meadow patch. Where that patch will be depends on where the battery of my lawnmover decides it's empty.
While every video you make has been awesome, this video made me tear up a little. I work with a community garden in Singapore that restored a tiny little hillside into a biodiversity hotspot, and it being the tropics, the diversity of insects is absolutely insane. We will never bring back the tiger to Singapore, but we can easily nurture the tiger butterflies, and the birdwings, and all their fluttering kin. And the more we know what really lives around us, the more we know what we have and how much it's worth, the harder we can work to protect that. Thank you for this video!
So happy I finally signed up to donate. Watching this video, aside from the hope your vids always give me, I feel a sense of pride in knowing I'm playing a role. Keep up the amazing work =]
What a coincidence, I'm just getting into making photos of butterflies and learning to identify them. Where I'm from there aren't many kinds of butterflies because there are very little natural habitats for them. But I've just moved to a place where there are some beautiful meadows teeming with butterflies and other insects. Thanks for doing all you do! I often talk about your projects to my family and friends
What a beautiful, beautiful video. As you said, everyone loves butterflies - and flowers, too! It's so lovely, too, to see farm animals living a great life, and not being brought up to exploit their milk or their babies. It's inspiring to think that such a small piece of land can be so beneficial: how can anyone resist a bit of local rewilding ater seeing this? ❤
Your video's and messages give me so much hope and make me feel reassured and calm. I love to watch them before I go to sleep❤ I'm looking forward to financially support these beautiful causes in a few years
I love this! The past two years I've been turning my lawn into a meadow that will only get mowed once a year. Trying to figure out when that mowing should happen has been a struggle to find the least damaging moment. So far I've just been cutting down the annuals by hand in fall and spring to make room for more annuals. I'm worried about the perennials getting chopped every year, but we'll see!
Absolutely love this video!! Especially when you highlighted the flaws with the EU agricultural subsedies this is a HUGE issue people should be very concerned with. Appreciste videos like thrse immensely 😁😁😁
Due to heavy rain and lack of sunshine and unusual cold temperatures during the Spring season I have been struggling all Spring to get wild flower seeds germinated. But I changed strategy and the weather finally warmed up and now I have many wild flowers seeds germinating in pots and planters which I have put at the most sunny spot in my tiny garden. For a moment I even had to protect them from the sun with shade cloth. But now they grow really good. And my plan is to let them grow at that spot in my tiny garden, and when they start to develop seeds I put the pots all around in my garden and let the flowers spread the seeds for next year. And hopefully next year the weather will be better, and then the seeds had their natural cycle, and I hope that it will help to get much more seeds germinated and that I get much more flowers. It is just an experiment that I came up with. Because a city nearby had many wildflowers growing in city plant areas, and once established they grow perfectly fine despite the colder weather and all the rain, although they started growing a little later than usual. I also have the Buddleja davidii, or the butterfly bush, and it attracts a lot of butterflies, and multiple species. It is a feast for the eye. And the flowers smell absolutely magical. And the flowers bloom for a long time in the season. But be aware that in some countries it is considered as an invasive species. As always a huge 👍You inspire and teach me and many others to change our own gardens, no matter what size it is. Because in nature, size doesn't matter. 😁
I am trying to create a meadow of similar size with my local park district. I am finding working with them to be impossible. Just going to do it on my own without permission:
Thank you for your work. In norway where i live in the 6 years i've done instect photography i have noticed a real decline in the amount of insects and it scares me. Before there used to be butterflies and ladybugs + others everywhere, now i have to sit down and look for movement to see them.
Just to play Devil's Advocate I'd say one insect I definitely love more than butterflies is fireflies😊 if you've ever seen a wood or Meadow lit up at night with their sparkling lights you'll know how truly enchanting they can be❤❤
That part about plowing a field like centuries ago sounds like something that could be used to get money for the project. Show visitors how it was done and why you do it, maybe let visitors help with the plowing. Place a few pieces of old farming equipment etc.
Make it an actual historical reenactment, complete with costumes. Mrs. Crocombe's video on English Heritage have a large following and actually get people to visit Audley End, maybe similarly they can have a channel for this specific project, to attract visitors.
Lately we've been hearing about the summer cutting of the road sides. How does this pertain to meadows? With the medows declining, one of the available spaces still left that is often kept free of trees is the side of the roads. So the road sides often contain the same kind of meadow plants that you'd see on wild meadows. But the cities like to keep the road sides short and neat, not just to look like it's well kept, but for road safety reasons too. But they've been finding endangered meadow plants lately so there's been debate on to cut or not cut. (Also small bird habitat) Meanwhile there's a creeping problem of invasive lupine around, not just taking space, but changing the soil. Our ground is naturally poor, so the plants we have have adapted to it, the lupine enriching the soil makes it disadvanteous to native species. There's all sorts of stuff going around on small scale locally if you pay attention.
A re-wilder ploughing a field is very funny to me, but like you if that's what the mosaic needs, that's what we do. It's a bit like in a Scottish Highlands, where a lot of selective tree felling is taking place because the artificial pine forests were so dense that nothing other than a few mosses could survive on the ground
