Conservation starts in your own backyard

By By Steve Strong / extension service horticultre agent
Oct. 22, 2003
Land use has changed drastically during the past few decades, largely due to economic trends and the modernization of agriculture.
What once were working family farms are now often pine plantations and residential subdivisions, and many rural areas have much less biological diversity than they once did.
Of course, there are many more hunting camps and game preserves nowadays, with food plot plantings and water sources to support certain kinds of wildlife like deer and turkey. But that in itself is yet another type of monoculture and does not necessarily provide suitable habitats for a wide range of mammals, birds, insects and lower critters on the food chain.
The neat thing about conservation is that it can be as expansive as a thousand-acre game management area, or as minute as your own backyard landscape.
What critters need
The four main things that all living creatures need for survival are food, shelter, water and a safe place to raise their babies. If this description of a habitat sounds like a family shopping around for the right house in the right neighborhood, then go ahead and think of it that way.
Whether your main interest is songbirds, butterflies or other wildlife, the better job you do of providing the four elements in a healthy habitat, the more you are likely to be rewarded with visits from your favorite critters.
And the more diverse type of habitat you create, the greater the range of species that your backyard conservation area can support.
There are a couple of important points to consider if you expect to attract and support wildlife for long periods of time.
Make sure to provide both food sources and water supplies throughout the year for the various growth cycles of different critters. For example, planting flowering zinnias or lantana as a nectar source for adult butterflies, but also planting dill, fennel or other plants for the caterpillar larvae to feed on when they hatch from their eggs.
Hummingbirds are another good example, and someone always raises the question of when to take down the feeders so the birds will leave in time to migrate south ahead of the winter freeze. The answer is that the birds have natural instincts and know when it's time to fly, so it is perfectly fine to leave the feeders up year round, except during freezing temperatures that might crack the feeder.
More considerations
Cover is needed to protect animals from predators and severe weather, and it can be man-made shelters like birdhouses, or natural cover like evergreen trees and shrubs.
Keep in mind that different species use unique kinds of shelter placed in specific areas, as in the case of bluebird houses they should be placed about 5 feet high in an open area, at least 100 yards apart from each other, with a 11⁄2-inch circular entry hole, and a nearby shrub cover for young birds' first flight protection.
Remember that reproductive areas also need protection from predators such as snakes or raccoons, and there are various methods for screening or blocking them out.
Check with your county Extension Service office at 482-9764, or the Natural Resource Conservation Service at 483-4100 for more information on developing wildlife habitat and predator control.
The best way to enjoy more kinds of wildlife is to grow as many different kinds of plants as your landscape can support. Wildflowers that bloom in spring, summer or fall, and may produce seeds throughout the year, along with perennials or shrubs that produce fleshy fruit during different seasons (nandina-winter, blueberry-summer) are just a few options for nature loving gardeners.
Do not count out poison ivy, which is a major fall food source for more than 30 species of migratory birds, and has golden yellow fall foliage, too. So if you didn't get around to killing it this year, just tell your neighbors it's a valuable component of your backyard conservation plan.