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Weed Laws Article on Landscaping (John Marshall Law Review) Page 8 of 27 members and the community at the "plantslevel" and to promote bio- diversity and enviromentally sound practices 69 By 1992, the Wild Ones boasted five chapters in Illinois and Wisconsin and more than 1200 members. Mrs. Otto, now in her seventies, has received national awards for her environmental efforts. Her naturally landscaped yard is considered one of the best gardens in America. It contains 80 wildflower and grass species reflecting the diversity of a native Wisconsin prairie. In a poetic turn of fortune, in the village that once sent a mower to level Mrs. Otto's wildflowers, there are now sold -out bus tours of a dozen naturally landscaped homes including her now famous yard. 2. The National Wildlife Federation The National Wildlife Federation (NWF), formed in 1936 by conservationists concerned with the loss of fishing and game,7° is the United States' largest not -for- profit conservation education organization with 5.4 million members. In 1973, in connection with its efforts to teach and promote the notion of shared stewardship responsibility towards water, soil, air, plants, and wildlife, the NWF developed and promoted its Backyard Wildlife Habitat Program. The program educates its members, supporters and the public about how to provide the basic habitat requirements of wildlife - -- food, water, cover, and a place to rear young - - -as they plan and plant the landscapes around their homes, schools, and places of work.1 Since the program's inception, the NWF has sought to explain that a great variety of plants, not just the limited selection of trees, shrubs, flowers and turf grasses traditionally used in planting yards, provide superior habitat for wildlife. The NWF enthusiastically promotes alternatives to the turf grasses. Those alternatives include small woodlots and wetlands as well as meadows and prairies and other traditional alternatives such as vegetable gardens, shrub masses and flower beds. The NWF has joined the natural landscape movement by encouraging cities to change their weed laws and by joining in litigation with both legal and technical support. More recently, the NWF brought the message to schools teaching students the Land Ethic by creating natural habitats on school property.72 3. City of New Berlin v. Hagar73 The Hagar decision marks a significant watershed in the natural landscaping movement. It is the first, and best, judicial recognition of the practice and the irrational assumptions that underly the use of weed laws to prosecute natural landscapers. The City of New Berlin, Wisconsin elected not to appeal Judge Gramling's decision and, as a result, the opinion is unpublished. Because this opinion is so significant it appears in its entirety in Appendix D. In April 1976, New Berlin sued Donald Hagar for violating its weed law by practicing natural landscaping and cultivating a several -acre meadow.74 Hager, a http: / /www.epa.gov /glnpo /greenacres /weedlaws /JMLR.html 2/22/01