Mm-hmm.

So, you know, you can approach this from a conservation-minded aspect where we are seeing declines in insect populations.

And we know that insects are super important for our ecosystems.

If you've read the work of Doug Tallamy, he talks all about how important insects are for breeding bird populations.

But you can also approach it from a gardener's perspective where We are thinking about the ecosystem services to our own yards.

And for that, I mean, the big thing is natural enemies, pest control services that are provided for free organically by predacious and parasitic insects, not to mention all of the soil insects that are present.

creating healthy soil for us.

So Max, I was thinking about bringing in leaf grow or you know, partially composted leaves to your site, do you think that will speed things up? And what do you think about bringing leaves that weren't necessarily from that original location? Say, you know, I have all oak trees and I'm bringing in maple leaves.

Yep

... for, you know, wildlife, also for our own gardens as pest control and pollinators, things like that.

So that was kind of the angle that we were, we were focused on, uh, coming from an entomology lab.

We also did work on soil health a little bit.

Um, but there are so many angles that you can look in.

I've gotten a lot of questions about emissions from leaf blowers and just the effects on landfills and things like that, but we particularly were really focused on the backyard ecosystem.

Wow.

Uh, or maybe more now.