Creating Homes for Wildlife

Creating homes for wildlife in our gardens is more than just providing shelter for bees, birds, butterflies, and insects. Nancy Lawson creator of the Humane Gardener initiative (www.humanegardener.com) broadens the scope of our thinking when protecting wildlife in ways we don’t normally consider. For example, did you know that vertical-sided ponds and pools are death traps for creatures such as small mammals, amphibians, and smaller insects that cannot climb up the slippery sides of a pond or pool? Lawson reminds us to think about ground bees when doing spring clean-ups. Placing excessive fresh mulch in the garden bed in spring covers up the ground nesting bee’s home. Removing leaf litter out of the garden bed can dislodge slumbering bumblebee queens. Leaf litter provides a home for the winter for insects and caterpillars. Lawson recommends using groundcovers under shrubs and around perennial plants to help stop the need for removing leaf litter. Mother Nature is messy. Leaf litter has its purpose as do dead stalks. As homeowners, we have become accustomed to a neat, clean, and tidy landscape that serves our purpose but not nature’s intended purpose. Have you ever thought about disrupting bunnies, insects, and amphibians on the move when you start mowing in spring? How many will scout your lawn before mowing? It sounds a bit over the top. What if stopping to scout it helps build a better ecosystem for your landscape? In turn, that welcomes more beneficial bugs and lessens the need for insecticides. Think of all the times the garden beds were raked clean of leaf litter. Then as the season continues into summer, we wonder where the bumblebees or native bees are. According to Lawson, 30 percent of native bee species are cavity nesters. They lay eggs in those dead stalks. Cut the stalks of wildflowers to 12-18 inches and leave them that way this season into next so that the eggs can become mature bees. Going beyond the garden, Lawson talks about the disruption of roads through our environment. Roadways are part of the reason habitats are broken. In one instance, road ecologists are working to reconnect those broken habitats to save the number of turtles being run over. A new book by Ben Goldfarb, Crossings, explains how road ecologists reconnect the habitat. In a rural patch of road in Maryland, turtles were getting run over repeatedly until silt fencing diverted animals safely through an underground culvert. The overarching idea is that, outside our home, the world around us is someone else’s home. We may face natural hazards while wildlife faces both man-made and natural hazards.

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