计算美国所有高尔夫球场、运动场、工业园和庭院的面积总和，和佛罗里达州的总面积差不多。简单来看，这些草坪都像是被单一物种长期占领后形成的生物荒原。 

But while natural areas in the U.S. continue to decrease thanks to urbanization, urban green spaces—including lawns—could become more important reservoirs of biodiversity.

美国的自然环境面积随城市化的进程而持续减少。城市中的绿色空间——包括草坪——其保留区域生物多样性的重要作用愈发明显。

"What happens if we mow our lawns less? Do we get more lawn flowers? And if we get more lawn flowers, can we get more bees?

“如果我们少修剪几次草坪会怎么样？草坪里会留下更多的花草吗？如果留下更多的花草，能引来更多的蜜蜂吗？”

苏珊娜·B·勒曼是美国国家森林局的生态专家。

She and her colleagues devised an experiment to see if front lawns could in theory provide decent habitat for bees – and if so, how to do it. So they recruited 16 homeowners from a Massachusetts suburb and monitored for flowers and bees throughout the summer for two years. Each of the homeowners agreed not to use any kind of pesticide or herbicide. And none had cultivated any sort of pollinator or vegetable garden that could skew the results. Some of the lawns were mowed weekly, some every other week, and others were mowed every three weeks.

她和同事们设计了一个实验：房子前的草坪能否为蜜蜂提供适合的栖息地——如果能，如何才能实现。他们招募了来自马萨诸塞州郊区的16位屋主，检测夏季他们房屋前的花和蜜蜂。实验持续两年时间。每个房主都同意不使用任何杀虫剂或除草剂，而且不会有意培育任何传粉者或耕种蔬菜，防止实验结果受到影响。其中，部分草坪每周修剪一次，部分隔周修剪一次，剩下的三周修剪一次。

"When we mowed the lawns less, we got more flowers, roughly two and a half times more. But it was those that we mowed every two weeks that had the most bees."

“当草坪修剪频率减小，我们能保留更多的花，这个量大约是原先的2.5倍。但实验发现，每两周修理一次草坪时能栖息的蜜蜂数量最多。”

No surprise, flowers were most abundant on the lawns mowed least often. But why do bees like a bit more frequent mowing? Lerman thinks that's because most of the bees she found were tiny native sweat bees, roughly the size of a grain of rice. Critters that small could find it difficult to navigate through the taller grasses.

毫无疑问，草坪修剪越不频繁，留下的花种类越多。但是为什么蜜蜂会更偏向于修剪次数略为频繁的草坪呢？勒曼认为观察到的大多数蜜蜂都是当地小型的集蜂（或称汗蜜蜂），体型大小相当于一粒米。它们太小，很难在过高的草地中穿行。

In all the researchers found 111 types of bees over the course of the study. That represents a quarter of all bee species known to occur in Massachusetts.

实验过程中，研究人员总共发现了111种蜜蜂，囊括了马萨诸塞州里已知蜜蜂种类的四分之一。

"When you get down on your hands and knees, there's a lot going on in these lawns.

“用手撑着膝盖蹲下来，你会发现这些草坪上发生了很多故事。”

So not only do lawns hold more biodiversity than it might seem, but it turns out that one way to manage them for wildlife is to be lazy—but not too lazy.

总的来说，勒曼的实验不仅发现草坪具有超乎预期的生物多样性，而且证明想要更好地打理一片适合野生生物的草坪——有时需要懒惰一些——但是不能荒废。

"A lot of people have been telling me that they feel vindicated now. That they have a realize to tell their neighbors why they're not mowing, it's for the bees…By mowing your lawns every two weeks or so, you're letting these flowers grow and bloom and they seem to be having a positive impact for bees."

“很多人告诉我说他们在减少修剪草坪这件事上如释重负。他们有意识地和邻居解释为什么现在不修剪，这是为了蜜蜂……每两周打理一次草坪，你就能让更多花生长开放。这些花会对蜜蜂有积极的影响。”