This is an excellent book by the leader of the movement to save our birds and all of nature by planting native plants and trees. It is an extreme deep dive into the subject in the form of questions and answers. At over 300 pages, it is not for light reading but it will tell you anything you need to know.

I read a temporary digital copy of this book for review.

How Can I Help? is a great guide if you want to increase the biodiversity and sustainability of your yard. Imagine if everyone did their little bit? I'm so excited to put a lot of the described practices into place.

The problem begins with our estrangement from nature…
Urban Sprawl: in 2009, 80% of the people in the world lived in or near a town or city. In the state of Washington alone, over 35,000 acres of wildlife habitat are destroyed or degraded each year for housing and other development. Rural settings are no longer safe havens for native species due to monocropping, GMOs, and pesticide use, causing wildlife to immigrate into cities and suburbs in the search of food and shelter.

Urban public spaces, parks, yards, and parking strips appear green but are often planted with turf-grass and exotic or invasive plants which offer little or no sustenance to native fauna. Worryingly, the EPA reports that homeowners in the U.S. use 70 million pounds of herbicides & pesticides per year. The ugly reality is that your backyard may be laced with a toxic cocktail of chemicals that are deadly. Of 30 commonly used lawn pesticides 19 are found in our groundwater, 22 are toxic to birds, all 30 are toxic to fish and aquatic organisms, 29 are deadly to bees, and 14 are toxic for mammals; some fungicides and pesticides can kill 60-90% of the earthworms where they are applied. In addition, the EPA reports that the run-off from lawn care products into our fresh water includes carcinogens, hormonal disruptors, and neurotoxins, and that there are no federal regulations for these products.

How Can I Help? Saving Nature with Your Yard by Douglas Tallamy offers many answers. He outlines how individuals and families can take small actions that add up to create backyard wildlife sanctuaries that create healthy ecosystems and wildlife corridors in our neighborhoods.

This book will enhance any library. It is easy to navigate and has information for both beginners and seasoned gardeners. I would recommend this book for homeowners, teachers, and gardeners, or anyone really, who yearns to reconnect with nature.

Good info for gardeners and backyard bird watchers. Will be one to put out on display in the spring and summer as people are doing planting for the season.

I thoroughly enjoyed Nature’s Best Hope (2020) and I love love love that the author followed it up with a Q&A book. It is just that.: a book of our questions and his answers. Simple, but super concept. For sure, this is a book I’ll be buying and coming back to again and again.
4 stars!

Many of do not know where to start with conservation and are overwhelmed. The author uses l\lectures to show us how to use conservation in our own backyards. He talks about evolution and the environment and how we can use ell this ourselves in oiur own environment. I recommend this book for environment readers.

Start the spring with reading this book on how to healthy sustain a native gardening and nature in your backyard. Educational and insightful.

This book was absolutely fascinating and will be a huge source of information for people.

From what flowers/native grasses to plant, to what trees provide the best environment for wildlife, this book has it all. It even goes into why things have vanished it seems, and how we can work to bring them back in little ways.

You will not need to read every question and answer in this book to get something out of it. Even if you only focus on a few, it'll be worth it because of how much good information the author has made available. I think, at times, a lot of us get overwhelmed when it comes to changing the world around us into its former self when it comes to the great outdoors. This book makes it so that even with just a few plants and a tree, you can change the world you live in for the better and for the environment at large. One thing this book does talk about that I know will be a hard pill to swallow for some people is that mosquitoes and wasps have a place in the environmental food chain that is important, and without them, the other things we love will not be able to continue on. There are ways to protect yourself from them, but ultimately it does seem that we need to learn to share are environment more and to learn to ignore them as best as we can.

Now, if you'll excuse me I need to go find a place to plant a few oak trees.

Fantastic information, great layout, and highly relevant in today's world. Written to be accessible for everyone, Douglas W. Tallamy knocks it out of the parks with this guide. I will be recommending this to everyone who needs a little more information about what they can do to help save our natural world.

Can your yard help the entire world? Maybe not, but it can change your neighborhood, and the world for some bugs. Through a series of suggestions on how to make your yard a bug haven and to cause the waves that will, the reader learns all sorts of good stuff about insects and the ecosystem. Tallamy is very knowledgeable on his subjects, that much is clear. However, the Q&A format that the entire book takes makes it slightly tedious reading. This is better off as a reference text than anything to read in one sitting.

Wow !!! this is a big (over 300 page) book with so much comprehensive information to help in your gardens, yards and help all the birds and animals that might show up. This book must have taken hours and hours of research. It's broken up in large chunks with the chapters being Ecology and evolution, Biodiversity, Native and Non Native Plants, Oaks, Invasive Species, Pest Control, Conservation and Restoration Home Landscapes, Supporting Wildlife at Home and concluding questions. When you read this book you will want to set aside the time to dive deep into these categories, Once you read it though I am sure you will have some specific parts that you will come back to from time to time. I definitely marked spots that I know I will need in the future.
I really like at the end that he also included Online resources to further your search if needed and whole slew of sustainability initiatives for anyone who's interest.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc.

How Can I Help? is an accessible, interesting, and often sobering look at natural diversity and the challenges of invasive species in the context of suburban and exurban spaces presented by Dr. Douglas Tallamy. Released 8th April 2025 by Hachette on their Timber Press imprint, it's 376 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout.

According to the WHO one of the biggest threats to humanity is the loss of biodiversity across climates and geographical areas. Dr. Tallamy does a good job of presenting the facts along with a list of achievable local/personal actions readers can incorporate which will have a net positive benefit for local native species.

It's written in layman accessible language and although it's not annotated or academically rigorous, the author does a very good job of "showing his work" and the resources bibliography and links at the end of the book will provide readers with many hours of further reading. The concluding chapter/appendix contains a number of good questions from the author for readers to consider.

Graphically, it's simple and direct. There's not a lot of photography, but what there is, is high quality, clear, and in color.

Four stars. Dr. Tallamy has a strong and sure voice, and provides concrete ideas for helping recover our planet. It would be an excellent choice for public or school library acquisition, for home use, and for book club discussion.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this eARC.

Douglas W. Tallamy’s "How Can I Help? Saving Nature with Your Yard" is a call to arms, a quiet but urgent revolution for anyone who has ever looked at their backyard and wondered whether it could be doing more.

Tallamy, known for his work in conservation and native plants, continues his crusade against ecological apathy, offering homeowners, gardeners, and everyday citizens a tangible way to make a difference in their own slice of the world.

A Shift in Perspective
One of Tallamy’s greatest strengths is his ability to reframe ordinary landscapes as critical ecosystems. Lawns, traditionally seen as symbols of suburban neatness, are unmasked here as sterile monocultures, stripped of biodiversity. Tallamy dismantles the idea that environmental conservation is an exclusive endeavor reserved for policymakers or scientists. Instead, he argues that real change starts at home—with native plants, thoughtful landscaping, and a rejection of the aesthetic conventions that prioritize uniformity over ecological health.

Unlike some environmental books that drown readers in abstract ideals, "How Can I Help?" thrives on actionable advice. Tallamy outlines clear steps for readers to transform their own yards into thriving habitats—no need for grand gestures, just a willingness to rethink traditional gardening norms. Whether it’s planting keystone species that support insect populations or eliminating pesticide use, the book offers a practical roadmap to rebuilding ecosystems from the ground up. His writing balances optimism and urgency; the planet is struggling, yes, but individuals wield incredible power to restore what has been lost.

This book speaks to multiple audiences: the seasoned environmentalist will find affirmation in Tallamy’s work, while the beginner—perhaps someone who never thought twice about the importance of their backyard—will leave with a newfound sense of responsibility. Tallamy doesn’t preach; he persuades, with evidence, logic, and a passion that’s hard to ignore.

"How Can I Help?" is an instruction manual and an inspiration that challenges conventional wisdom about land stewardship, offering an alternative vision in which yards, gardens, and public spaces become tools for ecological recovery.

By the last page, you won’t just be convinced—you’ll be ready to act.