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Weed Laws Article on Landscaping (John Marshall Law Review) Page 7 of 27 predators, animals and diseases often do not exist in the foreign land. Local weed laws, which continue to protect and proliferate exotic mono -turf, are a constant reflection of the detachment of modern society from Nature. Early local weed laws were enacted in the 1940s outlawing "weeds" usually above some arbitrary height. These fiat laws are typified by the Chicago weed law which flatly outlaws "any weeds in excess of an average height of 10 inches. "61 Perpetually green lawns, like plastic trees, implicitly reduce the entities they portray to terms of serviceability, utility, and adornment. And such caricatures in turn reinforce the belief that the depicted objects exist not for themselves but to service superior needs.62 As such, mono -turf yards are the most obvious example of humankind's disregard for Nature and its failure to recognize and practice the Land Ethic. Lawns are imposed on the landscape without regard for local geography, climate, or history.63 True gardening, by contrast, is the natural give and take between the gardener and a piece of land - the essence of the Land Ethic. Putting in an exotic lawn "represents instead a process of conquest and obliteration, an imposition... of an alien idea and even a set of alien species (for the grasses in our lawns are all imported). "64 The lesson of the Land Ethic is that "humans must change their role from conquerer of the land to member and citizen. "65 With the publication of Silent Spring66 and the attendant growth of environmental awareness in the 1960s, homeowners began to cultivate natural landscapes. These practices collided directly with the establishment's wooden view of what was proper groundcover for a house and the weed laws used to keep it that way. The history of suburban natural landscaping and its conflict with local weed laws is a story about people and organizations. Leopold firmly believed that if the Land Ethic was to ever succeed it must be practiced by private citizens, not just government.67 The natural landscape movement is the story of how the efforts of a dedicated few can convince the many of what is good and right. It is a tribute to the power of people to change society's attitudes, and in turn its laws, for the better. 1. Lorrie Otto - The High Priestess of Natural LandscapingMovement The modern suburban natural landscape movement's roots are traced to the efforts of one woman, naturalist- teacher Lorrie Otto. When the Ottos moved to their suburban Milwaukee home in the 1950s, the front yard was an acre and a half of lawn with a bed of tulips and 64 spruce trees. It looked like a swiss chalet surrounded by Christmas trees. Mrs. Otto wanted her children to learn first hand about the wonders of Nature so she planted some blue and white aster (Aster azureus), yellow goldenrod (Solidago canadenis), fragrant bergamot (Monarda fistulosa), and some ferns.68 In the early 1960s, Bayside, Wisconsin, officials viewed her wild fern garden as "weeds" and cut it down. An enraged Lorrie Otto took up the fight and convinced village officials that a natural landscape was a public good and not a health hazard. She went on to become the director of the "Wild Ones - Natural Landscapers, Ltd.," a non - profit organization whose mission is to educate and share information with http: / /www.epa.gov /glnpo /greenacres /weedlaws /JMLR.html 2/22/01