Douglas Tallamy

Went to a talk on Saturday afternoon by Douglas Tallamy, author of Bringing Nature Home. Interesting, straight-forward guy with a good sense of humour. Talked in very simple yet well-illustrated terms about how the deforestation of our nation through development and, on a local level, the use of non-native, exotic aka foreign plants can lead to a breakdown in the support system for insects, birds and other wildlife.
Although we often leave small woodland pockets thinking we are doing good, these pockets are often not large enough to support sustainable populations and thus insects and wildlife are lost, sometimes, irrevocably from our environment.
Graphically illustrated "carrying capacity" or ability of a plant to support multiple forms of life. Interestingly he did not touch on America's (lawn)chemical dependency as a part of the eradication of natural bugs and insects that do good. Talked about how we can all help to change the direction in which this is going by doing simple things and making simple choices when we plant and landscape.
He had been mentioned in passing by someone in the BBG class and I happened to see he was talking nearby. A very interesting hour.
Link to his carrying capacity chart of most plants is at http://copland.udel.edu/~dtallamy/host/index.html