The United States has a lot of grass lawns. What does this add up to?

Lawns represent one of the largest, fastest growing landscapes in the U.S. These ecosystems — water-hungry, energy-intensive monocultures — extend far beyond the picket fence, including highway medians, cul-de-sacs, corporate office parks. De facto lawns also exist under solar arrays, on soccer fields, and in city parks. In the U.S., it’s a landmass that, by some estimates, covers an area about the size of Iowa.

I am not sure if this sounds like an impressive comparison or not. How big is Iowa? It is the twenty-sixth largest state by land area. That’s a good amount of space. Yet Iowa accounts for roughly 1.5% of the land area in the United States so lawns account for a small percentage of the total area.

Perhaps here is a way to put this into perspective: the United States idealizes single-family homes and the lawns around them. Those lawns get a lot of attention in terms of time and resources (and natural opportunities lost). But those lawns do not take up a huge percentage of space, even if their concentration in certain areas can cause issues.