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Fundamental Habitat Practices

Landscapes can mimic the disappearing habitats of many wildlife species, and provide them with the elements they need to survive.

A sustainable landscape can attract a variety of native wildlife based on wise choices and planning that will benefit the local environment as well as your landscape. The following practices provide broad important practices and considerations to create valuable habitat for songbirds, pollinators, beneficial insects and other wildlife.

  1. Conserve and protect existing wildlife, pollinator and beneficial insect habitat. Larger-scale habitat protection and restoration are critical for conserving these populations. However, practicing sustainable native plant landscapes on a smaller scale does contribute to overall restoration of the local environment. Creating sustainable landscapes in residential yards, neighborhoods, parks, businesses, schools and municipal properties will help to increase the available habitat for wildlife.
  2. Mimic local natural plant groupings and incorporate features that provide as many habitat elements as possible to have the greatest ecological value for wildlife. Habitat-friendly landscapes are inspired by local plant communities and are therefore most familiar and attractive to creatures that live there year round or pass through during spring and fall migration.
  3. Create native landscapes that complement and link to existing natural areas. Create corridors, hedgerows and transition zones for wildlife in a landscape otherwise fragmented by lawn turf, buildings, roads, parking lots and other development.
  4. Plant locally adapted pure species of native plants. These plants are genetically programmed to leaf out, bloom and fruit at precisely the right time for pollinators, beneficial insects and migrant songbirds with which they have co-evolved.
  5. Avoid planting native cultivars or exotic ornamental plants for wildlife habitat. These compromised plants may have tempting fruits for birds, but they are often too large for birds to swallow or lack the pure species optimal nutrient value of the fruit. In addition, cultivated native plants (i.e., double flowers) compromise the foraging ability of pollinators that have depended on the pure plant species to obtain the nectar or pollen they depend on.
  6. Provide a diversity of native food sources and places for shelter or nesting which will help support a variety of enjoyable, beneficial wildlife. The more diverse native landscape will attract a more diverse array of wildlife, pollinators and beneficial insects.
  7. Provide food sources year round. The leaves, stems, twigs, bark, flowers (nectar), seeds, fruits (nuts, berries) of native plants form the basis of the food needs for many animals.
  8. Include a water source. Water is important to all living creatures, including insects, and is needed year-round for survival. Include water in your landscape to benefit wildlife – whether a small bath, small lined pond, a large pond with a wetland edge, marsh, misters, mud puddles or saucers.
  9. Provide structure. Emanate nature and use vertical layers of plant types, heights and arrangements to provide necessary shelter from the elements and nesting space important to many types of wildlife. Re-create the layers of plant growth found in local woodlands – canopy, understory, shrub and ground layer.
  10. Supply cover. Brush piles, rocky outcrops or walls, bramble patches, and hedgerows are features to consider including if the site is appropriate, as these provide protection from predators and other threats for a variety of wildlife.
  11. Minimize your turf area and replace it with wildlife-friendly habitat. Minimizing turf with native plantings not only provides the food and shelter wildlife depends on, but will also help to reduce or eliminate chemicals, conserve water and reduce maintenance costs.
  12. Practice Integrated Pest Management (IPM) and use alternatives to pesticides. All life, including humans and pets, are susceptible to harm from pesticide use. For example, spraying to rid the yard of an insect pest can also kill butterflies and their larvae, birds eating affected insects can become ill, and the effects are magnified up the food chain. Choose safer options instead.
  13. Keep cats indoors. House cats are non-native predators. Even with a full stomach, their instinct to hunt drives them to stalk and kill available prey. In a wildlife-friendly yard, birds, small mammals, amphibians, reptiles and even large insects are prey to feline carnivores. House cats are effective hunters but unnatural predators in any outdoor setting.
  14. Do not purchase invasive plants and eradicate any invasives in your landscape. Invasive plants are replacing the valuable habitat for wildlife. In addition, birds that eat the fruits of the invasive plants deposit the seeds as they fly elsewhere.
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