Heather N. Kolich, ANR Agent, UGA Extension Forsyth County
Long before our landscapes became landscapes, they were habitat. In natural environments, hundreds of species share unrestricted acres in which to move, nest, and hunt. They occupy niches in horizontal and vertical space, above and below the soil line, on land and in water.
When humans settle an area, we alter the environment to better suit our convenience. We cut down trees, disturb soil, change the flow of rivers and streams, remove native vegetation, construct buildings, install pavements, erect fences, and create landscapes with limited plant diversity.
The artificial ecosystems of residential landscapes are rapidly increasing in number. In studies published in 2003 and 2005, researchers estimated that the area of land planted in lawn turfgrasses covers 163,000 square kilometers (40,474,861 acres) and expands at the rate of 155,000 hectares (383,013 acres) every year. Turfgrass covers three times the area of any other irrigated crop in the continental U.S.
When habitats are lost, degraded, or fragmented, the wildlife species that depend on them for food, water, and shelter die out or move away. When the birds, mammals, and insects are gone, they no longer spread seeds and pollen to regenerate native plants, and the entire ecosystem declines.
Fortunately, there are some simple things we can do – and stop doing – right now to create habitat for native wildlife in our landscapes. Because residential yards associated with single, detached housing units make up 30 percent of the U.S. – more than four times the area of protected national forest and park lands – landscape management changes really can make a positive impact on biodiversity and species protection.
Allow habitat to happen
Most wildlife species prefer a slightly messy environment. Heavily manicured plants and grounds limit options for shelter and refuge. Doing less landscape maintenance is one of the easiest ways to create habitat for pollinators, birds, and small mammals. Fall and winter are times when many animals need quiet, undisturbed places to hunker down and hibernate. Here’s how homeowners can help.
Leave the leaves
Fall is the perfect time to adopt the “Leave the Leaves” landscape practice. Leaves on the ground provide overwintering habitat for butterflies, moths, and even some species of bats. If the leaves can’t stay where they fell, it’s okay to rake them to a more suitable area. Leave them whole so they provide warmth and cover for mammals like Eastern Red Bats that burrow into leaf litter to hibernate. Over the seasons, beneficial insects shred, consume, and digest the leaves into soil-improving nutrients and organic matter.
Dead wood is good
Wildlife species from songbirds to salamanders rely on brush piles, fallen logs, and standing dead trees for habitat and protection from predators. Loosely pile sticks and branches from pruning or storms into a quiet corner of the yard. Roll logs into garden or trail borders. As long as dead trees aren’t a hazard, let them stand. Holes, cracks, and crevices in standing snags provide nesting and denning spaces for owls, racoons, foxes, and many songbirds.
Bare a little soil
Bare ground isn’t necessarily empty of life. Solitary bees are some of our best native pollinators, and many species nest in patches of bare ground. They dig tunnels – which help aerate the soil – and lay their eggs in chambers underground.
Save the stems
Several pollinators and beneficial insects nest in the hollow stems and branches of landscape and garden plants, including dead raspberry canes, wildflower stems, native grasses, and roses. Pollinators such as orchard mason bees and leaf cutter bees lay eggs in hollow tubes of plant stems, installing a cache of pollen and a wall of mud or leaves between each egg chamber.
This season, let’s take a break from yard work, allow nature to creep in, and share our yards with something wild.