An Imperfect Guide to Environmental Dilemmas at Home

Guest Opinion

By Lauren Teichner | Sept. 19, 2026

As a homeowner, parent of two small kids, and full time professional, I constantly grapple with how to lead an environmentally conscious life. There are many questions that do not seem to have easy answers: When it comes to our lawn, how can I steward our land while creating space for our kids to play? What controls should I use, if any, to tackle the swarms of mosquitos we get in the early summer? Is spraying worth the collateral damage to bees, butterflies, and birds?

Even though environmental law is my job, I get overwhelmed at how complicated these questions can become. At work, I hire experts to provide guidance; at home, I don’t have an expert to weigh in on my day-to-day choices.

At one extreme, I could let my environmental concerns outweigh nearly every other consideration. If I go down this path, I see myself transforming our entire lawn into a flowering garden to support pollinators and birds, granting zero green space for our kids to run around. I become the garden-police to my neighbors, demanding everyone do the same. I never turn on our string lights out back to avoid disturbing insects at night. This approach is full of anxiety and can become exhausting. Taken too far, it can make everyday decisions feel impossibly high stakes.

At the other extreme, I could prioritize convenience and enjoyment without giving much thought to the environmental impacts of my actions. This is the “business as usual” approach. On this path, I use traditional home lawn maintenance methods—mowing, irrigating, fertilizer, pesticides—focused on cultivating a vast, thick green carpet that feels good on my family’s toes. It provides little to no benefit to the critters and ecosystems around our home, but no matter—out of sight, out of mind. This approach has a cost, too. When we stop supporting the wildlife and natural systems around us, we lose an important connection to the places in which we live, and our role in the bigger, interconnected picture.

Perhaps, instead of these two responses, there is a more sustainable way, not so much a solution as an ongoing practice. On this path, I don’t stop asking questions or looking at the data. I keep trying to do better. I accept that I’m making these choices amid competing needs, limited time, and imperfect information. I can reflect on what my family’s goals are, consider the environmental consequences, and look for feasible alternatives that protect natural resources and support habitats.

Sometimes this will mean changing what I do; sometimes it will mean accepting an imperfect choice. The goal is to stay informed, make thoughtful choices where I can, and accept that I will not always “get it right.”

This way of thinking is rooted in Indigenous traditions that emphasize relationship and reciprocity with the natural world—taking only what is needed, giving back where we can, and considering how our choices will affect future generations, while practicing gratitude for all the Earth provides to us.

This approach also has a surprising practical parallel in Michigan law. (The lawyer in me can’t help but throw this in.) The Michigan Supreme Court reaffirmed this same standard for the State’s environmental review processes in the recent Line 5 decision. Known as the Michigan Environmental Protection Act, this statute requires that we—both individuals and the State—ask these questions if natural resources could be or are impaired by actions. If there are “feasible and prudent” alternatives to those planned, then otherwise destructive behavior cannot go forward.

Some ways I can make these adjustments in my own backyard: I can support endangered butterflies and birds by choosing native plant species for my family’s garden on the borders of the lawn, for instance, by planting milkweed for monarchs. I can let my grass grow longer before I mow. I can leave corners of the yard or the area behind the shed undisturbed for ground nesting bees. I can build a mosquito bucket that targets larvae with “dunks” that prevent them from developing into adults, without spraying harmful chemicals.

Spending some time considering alternatives before acting is a small way to move beyond “business as usual” without expecting perfection from ourselves, and while channeling integrity, acceptance, and gratitude.

The next time my kids are running through our (longer than traditional) grass, they will hopefully spot a hummingbird at our feeder, hear the buzz of the bees at our flower beds, and be proud to show off our cool homemade mosquito buckets to their friends. As Robin Wall Kimmerer writes in the book Braiding Sweetgrass, “all flourishing is mutual.”

Lauren Teichner is the principal attorney at Teichner Law, an environmental and land use law firm based in Traverse City.