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Weed Laws Article on Landscaping (John Marshall Law Review) Page 6 of 27 Before humans became "civilized" there were no weed laws because in Nature there are no weeds. Weeds are a product of civilization and cultivation.51 As agrarian society developed, weeds became the bane of farmers because these exotic plants crowded out crops.52 In the United States, even before World War I, states regulated certain plants perceived harmful to agriculture. The prohibited plants were placed on noxious weed lists usually developed by the state's department of agriculture.53 However, agrarian weed control laws, necessary to protect crops, do not pose problems for natural landscapers. Rather, natural landscapers are confronted with the local weed laws - -a recent phenomemon that is unrelated to protecting crops or livestock from exotic plant species.54 Local weed laws exist in the cities and the suburban lands of shopping malls and tract housing. Communities enacted weed laws aiming to protect the public from neglectful landowners whose littered yards could attract rats, mosquitoes or present a fire hazard. As a result of the misunderstanding of some charged with enforcing weed laws and poor draftsmanship, these laws are often wrongfully enforced against natural landscapes. Natural landscapes are not a threat to safety or public health.55 More distressing, enforcement of local weed laws fosters an unnatural aesthetic conformity, by promoting and protecting monoculture laws, that furthers the malignant notion that humankind and Nature are independent. Historically, the "virtues" of such artificial landscape were noted by Frank J. Scott, one of America's first landscape architects, in The Art of Beautifying Suburban Home Grounds. Scott wrote "[a] smooth closely shaven surface of grass is by far the most essential element of beauty on the grounds of a suburban house. "56 Lawns exist today for several reasons. First, lawns serve as a physical and psychological "moat" between the homeowner and the outside world. Second, it is theorized that humans are genetically predisposed to favor open grass -type landscapes as an artifact of our species' development on the savannas and grasslands of East Africa.57 Third, to many sprawling green shaved lawns are a status symbol delineating suburban homeowners from their city brethren who generally have neither the land nor resources to make such a public statement of wealth. Finally, in the land of cookie -cutter tract housing a premium is placed on neatness and conformity both of which are promoted by mono -turf yards. Manicured lawns are, unfortunately, the collective face of modern suburbia. B. What Is Wrong With the Green Lawn and Weed Laws: And Those Who Proved It. The proliferation of the suburban mono -turf lawns, so lauded by Scott, now covers 30 million acres, an area the size of Virginia, requiring billions of dollars in equipment, chemicals, and upkeep.58 In addition to the cost and direct harm to the environment,59 the proliferation of the suburban mono -turf yard hastens the process of plant extinction by reducing the available habitat for native plants, a global threat.60 Exotic plants tend to out - compete native species because the exotics' http: / /www.epa.gov /glnpo /greenacres /weedlaws /JMLR.html 2/22/01