I am honestly tired of looking at ugly green grass. It has no benefits for the insects and contributes very little to the environment. Virginia lacks biodiversity and needs more flowers and plants. People should be allowed to turn their front yard into a beautiful plant display that not only benefits the environment, but also makes the neighborhood and state look beautiful. Grass is whack, let’s give back to nature. We have already taken so much , it is time to give back to nature. I demand you to give your strongest support to HB528, In the face of the harmful effects of climate change, it is extremely important and urgent that we act now in Virginia to do everything we can to improve and sustain habitat for pollinators and birds--both of which are essential to local food chains and biodiversity. Native plant conservation landscaping improves air, water and soil quality, manages stormwater runoff, and supports healthy communities

Please vote in favor of HB528. We are facing a biodiversity crisis and every converted lawn helps. This bill simply allows homeowners to plant beneficial plants on their property without fear of legal action and fees. The amount of legal fees spent by HOAs in the U.S. on preventing beneficial plantings is a staggering waste of money and time for the homeowner fighting the allegations and the homeowners who are part of the HOAs and disagree with its rules. Those funds could go to much better use. From the perspective of the environment and individual property rights it should be a no brainer to pass this bill.

I'm a little dismayed this is even a question. Preventing this from passing not only restricts homeowner freedoms, but actively hurts the planet, which in turn hurts it's people. Homeowners should be allowed to grow anything that won't hurt their neighbors.

I urge you to give your strongest support to HB528, Property Owners' Assoc. Act; managed conservation landscaping, unreasonable restrictions prohibited. In the face of the harmful effects of climate change, it is extremely important and urgent that we act now in Virginia to do everything we can to improve and sustain habitat for pollinators and birds--both of which are essential to local food chains and biodiversity. Native plant conservation landscaping improves air, water and soil quality, manages stormwater runoff, and supports healthy communities. As a volunteer ambassador for the Audubon Society of Northern Virginia's Audubon at Home Program, and a volunteer Fairfax Tree Steward, I personally have encountered many homeowners who are prohibited from installing conservation landscaping with native plants because their HOA forbids it. A managed conservation landscape is not only more beautiful than expanses of turf, it provides critical ecosystem services that benefit the health of the community around it. Buying a home outside of an HOA is harder than ever: With more than 8,810 HOAs in Virginia, nearly one in four Virginians live in homes controlled by HOAs. It is increasingly difficult to buy a new home outside of an HOA: According to the U.S. Census, 82% of newly built homes sold in 2021 were a part of an HOA. That figure has more than doubled since 1990 when it was just 40%. Turf (or lawn) is not ecologically sustainable: Turf-only landscapes provide little to no food or habitat for wildlife. They demand large amounts of energy, fertilizer, and water to thrive. In Virginia, homeowners manage approximately 700,000 acres of turf. That is more than the combined acres of corn and soybeans across all of Virginia. Conservation landscaping is sustainable and right for our times: - Conservation landscaping incorporates native vegetation including no-mow ground covers, reducing the needs for fertilizer, herbicides, and pesticides. - Conservation landscaping purifies our air, sequesters carbon, reduces water use, and reduces polluted runoff that comes from turf and degrades our local rivers and streams, as well as the Chesapeake Bay. - Managed conservation landscapes are designed to be attractive to the human eye while also providing habitat for birds, bees, and other pollinators. Property rights are important: As the current climate crisis increases the intensity and durations of rainstorms, homeowners should have the flexibility to manage their private property in sustainable ways that help mitigate the impacts of climate change. I appreciate your consideration and support of this important legislation. Rear Admiral Elizabeth Train, USN (Ret)

There is grave concern over the decline of populations of birds, bees, pollinators, and other animals in Virginia. Managing declining populations and endangered species is very expensive for the government. The costs include studies, monitoring the species, and creating or preserving habitat. Habitat preservation often conflicts with development, making citizens unhappy. Conservation landscaping provides food and habitat for many species of animals. This bill would allow homeowners to create and manage habitat, all with funding provided by the homeowners themselves. It would increase the amount of wildlife habitat in Virginia, with zero cost for the government. I have personally converted my non HOA yard to conservation landscaping. I have reduced water runoff, sediment and other contaminants leaving my property. This helps keep storm sewer management costs down. and helps keep the Chesapeake Bay clean, both of which save even more taxpayer dollars. I have received nothing but positive feedback from my neighbors in suburban Henrico. This bill gives homeowners more freedom, saves taxpayer dollars, helps save species such as pollinators, and helps clean the Chesapeake Bay.

The Virginia Association of Soil and Water Conservation Districts (VASWCD) is a private nonprofit association of 47 soil and water conservation districts in Virginia. The Association provides and promotes leadership in the conservation of natural resources through stewardship and education programs. It coordinates conservation efforts statewide to focus effectively on issues identified by local member districts. Our mission is to serve and strengthen soil and water conservation districts in the stewardship of natural resources. In December 2021 the VASWCD at its annual meeting unanimously adopted a policy to support adoption of natural landscaping in the Commonwealth of Virginia. HB528 provides property owners in homeowner associations (HOAs) the right to choose to install managed conservation landscaping, which is essentially the same thing as natural landscaping addressed in VASWCD policy, on their private property, unless regulated via their HOA’s declarations. This legislation still allows for an HOA to enforce reasonable restrictions concerning management, design, and aesthetic guidelines for managed conservation landscaping features. Conservation landscaping incorporates native vegetation including no-mow ground covers, reducing the needs for fertilizer, herbicides, and pesticides. Conservation landscaping reduces water use and reduces polluted runoff from over-fertilized turf that degrades our local rivers and streams, and ultimately the Chesapeake Bay. Managed conservation landscapes are designed to be attractive while also providing habitat for birds, bees, and other pollinators. The Virginia Association of Soil and Water Conservation Districts strongly supports HB 528 patroned by Delegate Krizek. We urge its prompt passage.

Hello. Please vote in support of HB528. I am fortunately part of a community whose HOA has very generally restrictive guidelines and I have been able to install rain collection barrels, a rain garden, and pollinator- and bird-friendly landscaping. That being said, I have friends in other HOA communities whose guidelines are highly restrictive. I understand wanting beautiful landscaping, and "beauty" is a subjective term. We cannot deny that traditional landscaping with turf lawns harm our ecosystems in a variety of ways, from the use of fertilizers to chase after a "green," manicured lawn which then corrupt the health of our streams. We cannot deny that we are seeing steep declines in pollinators due to the use of pesticides and gardening practices that reduce or eliminate habitat for our native insects. We cannot deny the need to be responsive to our changing climate and plant native species which, once established, are drought- and fire-resistant, thus requiring less water and chemicals to maintain. We CAN deny HOAs the power to restrict Commonwealth residents from planting sustainable, conservation landscaping. Please support this bill and continue to move it forward. Thank you.

I am a resident of Northumberland County, Virginia in a Homeowners Association community of 13 homes and over the past 6 years I have been repeatedly denied permission to install aesthetically pleasing and ecologically functional conservation landscaping. I have even been denied the right to plant several oak trees on my empty turf-grass 2-acre property. Because of overly strict Homeowner Association rules, I essentially have no property rights to landscape my own property . All requests have been denied because planting conservation landscaping of any sort is not “compatible with a first-class residential waterfront community”. Ironically, our community and Homeowners Association derives much of its value “as a first-class residential community” from being located on a beautiful and relatively clean tributary to the Chesapeake Bay. Our HOA is denying the very type of landscaping that will help protect the water quality, beauty and property values of our community! I spent my professional career as a professor and professional landscape designer at George Washington University’s School of Landscape Design teaching future landscape designers how to protect the Chesapeake Bay watershed and to create beautiful but functional Conservation Landscapes and yet all of my landscape plans have been rejected as unsuitable for this Homeowners Association. It is time Virginians receive the support they need from a bill like HB528 for protection from overzealous Homeowner Associations that over-step their authority by denying homeowners the right to plant conservation landscapes. Extensive turf lawns are not ecologically sustainable, demand huge inputs of time and energy, fertilizer, pesticides and water and contribute to pollution of our waterways. This reverence for sterile turf lawns is especially disturbing since turf is now the largest “crop” in Virginia encompassing over 700,000 acres – more than the combined total of acreage devoted to corn and soybeans. Recent studies have shown homeowners and the companies they hire to maintain their lawns use far more fertilizer and pesticides than necessary, often applying it at the wrong time of year to be taken up and much of this merely runs off into our watersheds. Virginians deserve the right to landscape their own properties so that they are not only beautiful but sustainable – designed to prevent stormwater runoff and sedimentation, to support our pollinators, songbirds and other wildlife, many of which are showing truly alarming declines, in short to reap the many ecological benefits from conservation landscaping and bring life to our gardens.

Hello Delegates and Committee Members, I care a lot about our natural world of Virginia and I think that Homeowners should have a say in providing alternatives to mowing/turf grass to help provide healthy habitats for plants and animals. I urge you to consider supporting HB528. _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Reasons to support: ● Buying a home outside of an HOA is harder than ever: With more than 8,810 HOAs in Virginia, nearly one in four Virginians live in homes controlled by HOAs. It is increasingly difficult to buy a new home outside of an HOA: According to the U.S. Census, 82% of newly built homes sold in 2021 were a part of an HOA. That figure has more than doubled since 1990 when it was just 40%. ● Turf (or lawn) is not ecologically sustainable: Turf-only landscapes provide little to no food or habitat for wildlife. They demand large amounts of energy, fertilizer, and water to thrive. In Virginia, homeowners manage approximately 700,000 acres of turf. That is more than the combined acres of corn and soybeans across all of Virginia. ● Conservation landscaping is sustainable and right for our times: ○ Conservation landscaping incorporates native vegetation including no-mow ground covers, reducing the needs for fertilizer, herbicides, and pesticides. ○ Conservation landscaping purifies our air, sequesters carbon, reduces water use, and reduces polluted runoff that comes from turf and degrades our local rivers and streams, as well as the Chesapeake Bay. ○ Managed conservation landscapes are designed to be attractive to the human eye while also providing habitat for birds, bees, and other pollinators. ● Property rights are important: As the current climate crisis increases the intensity and durations of rainstorms, homeowners should have the flexibility to manage their private property in sustainable ways that help mitigate the impacts of climate change. Thank you for your consideration. Kind Regards, Anna Finch, in Staunton, Virginia

I am writing in support of HB528 becoming law in Virginia. We have way too much acreage in endless lawnscapes, which require a huge amount of water, chemicals and maintenance to keep up. The use of more native plants, and of leaving native areas intact, would improve the environmental status, and sustainability of the acreage in the Commonwealth. Please provide homeowners the option of sustainable, natural landscaping! thank you.

HB 528 is the perfect opportunity to diversify the native plants and insects in Virginia while reducing maintenance each costs to HOA,s… Please support HB 528

I support HB528 because it is egregious that vigilante HOAs can stop homeowners from engaging in environmentally sound land use landscaping that doesn't involve the unfortunate standard pesticide ridden sterile lawnscapes with manicured ornamentals which provide no benefits for capturing run off and no benefits to our struggling wild life, not to mention how these chemicals pose a hazard for human health with many having been demonstrated to be significant carcinogens. HOAs are led by volunteers who are in many cases generally uninformed and in too many cases vigilante conformists who have been culturally conditioned to want everything to be the same and have a narrow view of what is aesthetically pleasing largely constructed by chemical industry marketing post WW2. These standard manicured green desolation landscapes also provide no benefits toward carbon capture. We can not allow HOAs to bully homeowners into conformity with the ongoing climate crisis & biodiversity crisis.

Please support HB 528 which supports the ability of property owners in Home Owner Associations to install conservation landscapes. Homeowners should have the flexibility to manage their private property in sustainable ways that reduces the need for herbicides and pesticides, and provides habitat for birds and other wildlife.

HB 528 Property Owners' Assoc. Act; managed conservation landscaping, unreasonable restrictions prohibited - HOA's exercise enough tyrannical conformist power over the affairs of homeowners. They don't need absolute power over every flower and blade of grass as well.

Friends of Accotink Creek supports Paul Krizek's HB 528. With more and more natural habitat being lost to development all over the state, especially in NOVA, all the more reason to encourage homeowners to create natural habitat in their own yards. The current fashion for highly groomed, leaf-litter free properties is much to be regretted. People will have to disabuse themselves of the notion that a yard is an ornamental space that must look neat and pretty. Neat and pretty is no use to our falling populations of birds, pollinators and the wide range of arthropods that form the base of the food chain. Lawns are fine to play on, but provide zero storm water control and of course poor value to our birds and pollinators. Many HOA Boards are deplorably ignorant about natural science. One set of worthies took it upon themselves to define a weed as "an unsightly plant". Some HOAs have limits on plant height and order that this or that shrub or small tree needs pruning. Some object to what they consider "excess leaf litter" without knowing that a thick layer of leaves provides excellent foraging grounds for birds and habitat for box turtles, and countless arthropods including firefly larvae. It's time homeowners fight back. Let us welcome nature into our yards, not banish it.

With more than 8,810 HOAs in Virginia, nearly one in four Virginians live in homes controlled by HOAs. It is increasingly difficult to buy a new home outside of an HOA: According to the U.S. Census, 82% of newly built homes sold in 2021 were a part of an HOA. That figure has more than doubled since 1990 when it was just 40%. As we face the current climate crisis, HOA residents should have the flexibility to more sustainably manage their private land, including reduced reliance on fertilizers and pesticides. Conservation landscaping purifies our air, sequesters carbon, reduces water use, and reduces polluted runoff that comes from turf and degrades our local rivers and streams, as well as the Chesapeake Bay. Managed conservation landscapes are designed to be attractive to the human eye while also providing habitat for birds, bees, and other pollinators. With stronger, longer, and more intense storms, managed conservation landscaping can address stormwater challenges and mitigate the effects of climate change and flooding, while improving water quality through more improved filtration. As we also face a biodiversity crisis, managed conservation landscaping can improve the health and biodiversity of Virginia’s ecosystem, including support for native pollinators, soil health and air quality, while helping to raise awareness about the benefits of native species, which in turn can drive broader demand for ecologically-beneficial sustainable landscape methods and the sale of native plant species.

Support HB528. Virginia code does not protect homeowners wanting to install eco-friendly landscaping, such as using practices that incorporate environmentally sensitive design to address stormwater runoff, reduce pollution, protect clean air and water & support wildlife through the use of native plants. Conservation landscaping purifies our air, sequesters carbon, reduces water use, eliminates need for chemical herbicides, and reduces polluted runoff that comes from turf and degrades our local rivers and streams

There is substantial research supporting the need for habitat for birds, bees, and other pollinators in our suburbs. More than 85% of land east of the Mississippi is privately owned, and almost 25% of Virginians live in HOAs. It's clear that residents of HOA communities can be part of the solution to the climate and insect crisis. Virginians ought to have the right to garden in an ecologically sustainable, wildlife-friendly, climate-friendly, Potomac friendly manner without persecution by HOAs. Most people do not have the wherewithal to fight their HOA even at their local, neighborhood, level, let alone in a legal battle which will cost thousands of dollars. This bill is an easy win for the climate, wildlife, and Virginia.

Please support HB 528. Homeowners should be allowed to create a conservation landscape in their own yard versus HOA restrictions that a turf lawn is their only option. Our world is changing and we all must take steps to change along with it to ensure our health, quality of life and the health of our planet. Conservation landscapes promote biodiversity with native plants, trees and shrubs to attract pollinators and wildlife. By reducing lawn size and sustaining our native flora and fauna, we are taking steps to ensure more biodiverse landscapes and habitat. The resources required to maintain turf lawns is literally water going down the drain and the runoff takes all the chemicals required for that lawn into our streams and rivers. Does that sound like a common-sense kind of practice? Conservation landscapes need to be managed by the homeowner, just as it would for a turf lawn, however, homeowners should have that choice.

I urge support of HB528 allowing homeowners to engage in conservation oriented landscaping which protects our precious Chesapeake Bay and wildlife. HOA policies are typically dead-end approaches to managing landscapes, placing onerous demands on homeowners, demands which sterilize landscapes and are destructive to habitats. Contrary to alarmist claims, a healthy landscape can actually be more attractive and increase home values.

Almost one quarter of Virginia households are in HOAs these days. Owners need to have the flexibility to sustainably manage their private land, including using less fertilizers and pesticides. Conservation landscaping purifies the air, sequesters carbon, and decreases water use. Also it reduces pollution runoff that comes from less permeable surfaces like grass lawns, which is huge for our streams, rivers and the Chesapeake Bay. Please support this bill.

I support HB 528. HOAs should not be able to prohibit homeowners from creating a managed conservation landscaping. As long as the property is managed well and tended to nobody should be able to have a say in what plants are put in and how much grass needs to stay.

With respect to HB517, why would VIRGINIA want a EUROPEAN honeybee as its State Pollinator?! Supporting European honeybees means less support for our hardworking NATIVE bees. Please change your focus to a native bee like the Eastern Bumblebee (Bombus impatiens), which are excellent pollinators for produce as well as native plants. Mr. Hope, bumblebees love your zinnias, too! Thanks for the annual seeds! They beautify many gardens and landscapes.

We need to be able to plant all sorts of native plants to provide forage for pollinators and vanishing animals in an increasingly difficult climate. My eldest Sister is an entomologist, so perhaps my feeling of connection with "the little things that run the world" is what I grew up with. People are feeling increasingly isolated and turning more to dangerous means of expressing discontent (witness January 6 in Washington just a couple years ago!) What anchors us, grounds us, is nature. We cannot afford to limit the very provisions our environment feeds life from-- HOA's here are often run by volunteers with little real knowledge about biology, botany, pesticides and time to care. Please support HB528, so those of us who are witnessing need for conservation landscaping may practice such support of all (including human) species. (I have spent most of the last four years planting to mitigate flooding, loss of pollinators, erosion, habitat loss for birds, and to create beauty.) In Springfield, indeed in Fairfax County, one can walk for miles on a summer evening and not hear the comforting songs of crickets or katydids. In Spring, no peepers call. The HOA where I live has been using a "landscaper" whose heavy equipment runs over wet soils, compacting & cutting tree roots, spraying pesticides without regard to children, pets or birds, fertilizing without regard to runoff, then taking all leaves which would otherwise nourish soils and birds through the winter. As a professional Nurse and gardener, I consider the line between public health and personal health invisible. We have come to a time when if we fail to consider climate we will loose vital working parts of what makes our world literally work. Ecosystem services depend on working pieces- and so do we, as humans. We literally cannot afford to pretend Conservation landscaping is optional. While my neighbors spray pesticides I plant natives that feed the insects that feed the birds-- and we are loosing both at an astounding rate. Storms are becoming more intense. The dead zones in the Chesapeake and the Gulf are bigger from runoff. It is time, Now, to turn the tide to healing our land and recognizing we are not the only, lonely, animal on this planet we call Mother Earth. Yet for the sake of appearance will we pretend turf matters more per HOA rules, or just lazy failing to recognize what is happening around us? Can you remember your windshield being covered by insects when younger? Do you recall the amazing amount of life in a lake or creek as a child? Will your younger family even have a chance to see a Firefly or a Luna Moth? When a great Green Ash was cut two years ago on the corner where I live, the Fairfax Forrester told me 55,000 gallons of water will no longer be absorbed, and will run downhill. I planted as much as I could on that dangerous hill, to take up what would otherwise ruin the lower level of the townhome downhill. If the HOA decided arbitrarily my ground covers, shrubs, and flowers didn't match shallow-rooted turf, me and my pollinators, birds, and butterflys could be banned. That would break my bank, my back, and my heart. Please don't let arbitrary rules from uneducated HOA boards ban conservation landscaping. Virginia has a proud history of wise gardeners and we recognize the need for adaptation, change, and learning. Yes, industry will tell you selling more chemicals matters more. Please listen to the people more than the peddlers. We can't afford to loose our health!

Nature Forward asks you to support HB528. This legislation provides protection for the personal property rights of residents in HOAs to allow them to choose to install managed conservation landscaping on their private property, while allowing their HOA the flexibility to have guidelines regarding the landscapes management, design, and aesthetics (which should be no different than HOAs can do today with any type of landscaping). This would be an important win for the state of Virginia, residents, *and* HOAs to help address stormwater runoff, reduce pollution, protect clean air and water and support wildlife through the use of native plants. It's getting harder to buy outside of an HOA: 82% of newly built homes sold in 2021 were a part of an HOA. Currently in Virginia, nearly 25% of the population lives in an HOA. As we face the current climate crisis, we need every tool in the toolbox to improve the health of our local streams and the Chesapeake Bay. With stronger, longer, and more intense storms, managed conservation landscaping can address stormwater challenges and mitigate the effects of climate change and flooding, while improving water quality through more improved filtration. As we also face a biodiversity crisis, managed conservation landscaping can improve the health and biodiversity of Virginia’s ecosystem, including support for native pollinators, soil health and air quality, while helping to raise awareness about the benefits of native species, which in turn can drive broader demand for ecologically-beneficial sustainable landscape methods and the sale of native plant species. This legislation is a great chance to help our waterways *and* our local ecology by infusing native plants back into our developed communities. Nature Forward supports, and asks you to please support, HB528.

I am a research scientist who lives and works in Loudoun county. I study plant-insect interactions and have a deep appreciation for the importance of planting native plants and curbing the hostile take-over of invasive species in our area. Based upon that expertise, I ask that you support HB528 in the current GA session, which will protect the right of private homeowners' managed conservation landscaping from unreasonable limitations by HOAs. Many of your constituents, including myself, would like to plant more native perennials, trees, and shrubs and less water-intensive lawn, which protects the Potomac and Chesapeake Bay from lawn-chemical pollution. In my own HOA, I am not able to do this due to bylaws mandating that I may not remove more than 10% of my lawn grass, and even to do that, I must submit a plan for approval. I tried to change my HOA by joining it and leading a pollinator garden project (https://www.loudounnow.com/news/education/students-community-create-pollinator-gardens-at-horsepen-preserve/article_9e4c680e-f40b-11ed-a294-435a7c28b160.html ), but they ultimately removed me from my committee because I threatened their status quo. I can't count on my HOA to allow me to garden for environmental conservation, as my research and scientific training have convinced me that I must do. Reducing turf lawn area and increasing native plant use is important because popular foreign landscaping plants do not feed Virginia native insects. This is because most insect species are only adapted to processing the defensive chemicals of one or a few favorite types of food, and they are not able to overcome the defenses of foreign plants. This is a problem because insects serve as a critical point in food chains, and herbivorous caterpillars grow up to be critical pollinators. Pollinating insects are critical to global food security as the majority of food crops require external pollination to generate fruits and vegetables. While most residents may care little for the life of an insect, they likely care very much about the price and availability of food. Birds in particular are harmed by loss of insect food sources, as their young feed almost exclusively on soft, protein-rich caterpillars. That is, caterpillars are essentially bird baby formula. Access to quality natural areas is known to improve health and well-being . In particular, listening to birdsong has been shown to reduce anxiety and paranoia . Birds require landscapes full of trees, native flora, and insects to thrive. All of these benefits are endangered by HOA bylaws that mandate majority turf grass landscaping and restrict the use of keystone species deemed to be too tall or "weedy". HB528 is an important step towards protecting the rights of private citizens and our delicate local ecosystems. Please vote in favor.

Blue Ridge PRISM is a public charity dedicated to reducing the impact of invasive plants on the ecosystems of the northern Blue Ridge Mountains and surrounding areas through regional and statewide advocacy, landowner support, implementing control measures, and public education. Currently, Virginia code does not protect homeowners wanting to install conservation landscaping practices. Nearly one in four Virginians live in homes controlled by HOAs. Managed conservation landscaping has many benefits including stormwater management, habitat for native pollinators, supports water, soil and air quality, and is aesthetically pleasing. Landscaping with native plants also reduces the potential for new invasive plants to escape into Virginia farms, fields, forests, and communities. HOA residents should have the flexibility and right to more sustainably manage their private land. Blue Ridge PRISM supports HB 528.

Dear Representatives: I'm excited and encouraged to see that HB 528 is under consideration. As a Virginia resident who lives in a community with an HOA, I have coaxed and gently urged my neighbors to embrace the emerging aesthetic of native plant corridors and reduced lawns. Many of them are somewhat receptive, but they need information and leadership. I'm thrilled that someone in the Virginia House is thinking about providing that leadership. Various global agencies are reporting on species die-offs on a regular basis. I believe that a re-thinking of how we live as Americans/Virginians is needed. If people could learn to appreciate the beauty of a native meadow, and all the butterflies and other creatures in it, maybe they wouldn't mind converting part of their lawn into a landscape that actually supports the food web and thus the ecosystem and our fellow wild creatures. Please support HB 528. It will help educate the public about the need to tweak our human habitat in a way that supports other creatures. Thank you. Margaret Moore Charlottesville