Stephen Thomforde

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    • Summary of Research
      • Emergence of Grazing Ecosystems
      • Grazing and Biodiversity
      • Grazing and Environmental Impacts
      • Pasture Management for Productivity and Environmental Attributes
      • Policy, Programs and Research Needs
  • Planning a better future
    • Creating a Unified Pollinator Ecology
      • Pollinators Are Grazers
      • The Grazing Lawn
      • Cool season species
      • Increase graminoid diversity
      • Functional groups, niche theory
      • Revise Current Genotype Restriction
      • High Density Patch Planting
      • Nitrogen Pollution Issues
      • Hay Instead of Chemicals
      • More Frequent Burnings
      • Afforestation
      • Conclusion: Creating Unified Pollinator Ecology
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    • Grazing lawns as a model for urban lawns
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Grazing lawns as a model for urban lawns

The grazing lawn biotic community represents the most evolutionarily advanced, productive, and provisional terrestrial ecosystem ever. A predictive framework based on the first and second laws of thermodynamics elucidates a biosphere trend towards maximizing solar energy capture and degradation through the grazing lawn model: a living earth desires to become, in multiple themes and variations, one large grazing lawn. The grazing lawn concept is first described by S. J. MacNaughton in a foundational paper titled “Grazing Lawns: Animals in Herds, Plant Form, and Coevolution”. Although the paper is based in the Serengeti, the general principles apply anywhere herbivores are/were common, including the Great Lakes Midwest Ecoregion. Prehistoric evidence suggests grazing lawns have been a prominent planetary feature for the past 30 million years, and are the emanation of many current plant and animal species including Poaceae, Asteraceae, Fabaceae, Bovidae, and Cervidae. Prior to Midwest settlement, grazing lawns were common throughout the region creating a mosaic of intensely grazed and lightly grazed patches across the landscape. Despite their prominence and functional capacity, grazing lawns are rarely described as target trajectories in restoration, mainly because North American vegetation models used to inform restoration are negligent to the symbiotic feedbacks between vegetation and herbivores. This presentation describes the grazing lawn concept and how it fits into the North American landscape, especially as a suitable substitute to urban lawns, including residential, commercial, and public spaces that still require some form of annual maintenance. Grazing lawn species, installation procedures and maintenance regimes are also described. Finally, we see how an urban grazing lawn model can be used to inform rural land restoration. Grazing lawns could again become a prominent landscape feature to the benefit of ecological integrity including wildlife, pollinators, water quality, carbon sequestration, food-fiber production and aesthetics.

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