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Weed Laws Article on Landscaping (John Marshall Law Review) Page 17 of 27 Fort Collins, Colorado has gone further than Long Grove. The city employs a full- time wildlife biologist and has a ten acre nature preserve in the heart of downtown on land that used to be a formal park. There is a city program to identify and certify homeowner's backyard wildlife habitats. To receive this certification, homeowners must let Nature reclaim their non - native lawns. Hundreds of citizens participate in the program.128 Such pro- active natural landscape laws are, of course, the ultimate goal that we must attain. They truly reflect the teachings of the Land Ethic. V. SOME VILLAGES STILL DON'T GET IT - WHAT TO DO IF YOUR VILLAGE IS ENFORCING ITS WEED LAW AGAINST YOUR NATURAL LANDSCAPE. The types of old weed laws used by municipalities to prosecute natural landscapers generally suffer from a variety of legal flaws. These flaws can be exploited by natural landscapers who are targeted for prosecution in order to win his or her case, or hopefully, convince his or her village that the weed law should not be applied to natural landscapes. The flaws are constitutional, practical and evidentiary. A. Natural Gardening as a Fundamental Right. 1. Landscaping as Speech and Art Natural gardening can be constitutionally protected speech and, therefore, any weed law must be closely related to a compelling state interest. While not all natural landscapes are obvious to even a casual viewer, many are. Indeed, this is often the real "problem." Symbolic speech is as protected as oral speech. One of the best ways a person can announce his or her concern for what humankind has done, and is doing, to the environment is to restore a portion of the environment to its natural state. Restoring natural vegetation can, therefore, be a form of speech and, as such, is entitled to the same protection that speech receives under the First Amendment) 29 The attempt made by natural landscapers to politically express themselves through the cultivation of wild plants is one that parallels historical and traditional precedents.l3° The political use of flowers as symbols is as important today as it has been in the past. The red rose is the symbol of the Socialist Party in France and the British Arbor Party. In the War of the Roses, opposing sides took roses of different colors as their symbols.131 Natural landscaping can also be artistic expression protected by the First Amendment.132 State law recognizes the beauty, artistic expression and virtue of landscape gardening.133 Landscape architecture is defined as "the art and science of arranging land together with the spaces and objects upon it, for the purpose of creating a safe, efficient, healthful, and aesthetically pleasing physical environment http: / /www.epa.gov /glnpo /greenacres /weedlaws /JMLR.html 2/22/01