Health Hotline Magazine | September 2025

Biodiversity, Keystone for Life

By Lindsay Wilson

Every spring my yard comes alive. Violets, clover, and buttercups mingle with dandelions and thick grass, creating a lush carpet to welcome bumblebees, honeybees, and swallowtail butterflies with the first food of the season. Virginia creeper vines along the fence, the moss thickens and ferns unfurl in the shade, while robins, cardinals, finches, and woodpeckers flit around looking for their first bites of spring. The occasional box turtle, b ack snake, deer, or rabbit passes through. This year, the Pharoah cicada emerged after a 17-year hiatus. Now, think of your favorite outdoor space—your yard, a park, a beach or river, the forest. Think of the variety of life that lives there, from the tiniest insect to the argest mammal, and even all of the fungi and bacteria you can’t see. This is biodiversity, and it’s what makes this a living, breathing p anet.

Biodiversity, the variety of all life on Earth, is crucial for maintaining healthy ecosystems and supporting human wellbeing, providing economic stability and essential ecosystem services like pollination, food security, and clean water. But it’s under threat. Insects and birds are disappearing at alarming rates, while other wildlife populations are facing “mass extinction” events. The good news is that people are learning about the importance of biodiversity and taking action to protect and cultivate it, on both the large and small scale. The idea of “No-Mow May,” backyard meadows, and pollinator gardens are spreading through neighborhoods across the country, while large-scale re-wilding projects—a type of ecological restoration aimed at increasing biodiversity and natural ecological processes—and regenerative and organic agriculture are actively working to increase biodiversity on the large scale, with real results. For example, the 2025 State of the Birds Report reports that more than 100 ranches have signed on to the Conservation Ranching program, which “guides grazing practices to create a diverse mosaic of grasslands habitat,” adding up to 3 million acres of restored rangelands from Wisconsin to California. One participating ranch in North Dakota saw a 20 percent increase in the Baird’s Sparrow population in just three years; the Baird’s Sparrow is a “tipping-point” species (one with “perilously” low populations) and has declined more than 67 percent over the last 50 years.

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