Every decision we make on land impacts wildlife. The Four Things for Wildlife series helps you think about how you can help wildlife wherever you find yourself! This page explores opportunities for doing right by wildlife in yards and other landscapes tended by people!
1. Mimic natural spaces
Wildlife and people have coexisted for as long as wildlife and people have been together on Earth! But until only recently, much of that coexistence was in similar ecosystems that sustained both wildlife and people. Today, the human footprint is much more extensive, and perhaps nowhere is that more apparent than in the places we live most, in our cities and among our homes. The places where people thrive today have been designed to suite people and our own sense of aesthetics. To help wildlife continue to thrive alongside us, we have to be intentional about finding ways to provide the things they need, while still getting what we seek from the aesthetics or function from the landscapes around us. That’s why we should mimic natural spaces in our gardens and landscapes so that wildlife can find what they seek there too. Consider the structure of any landscape element and how wildlife may benefit from it. Dense shrub plantings or diverse gardens of flowering native perennials in sun or shade. Water features bordered by nourishing plants. Groves of trees. Down or dying wood on the ground or safely in a tree. Boxes that mimic the natural places they seek to roost or raise their young. These are all examples of landscape elements that may suite our human sense of aesthetics while also providing wildlife the places they need to thrive.
2. Favor native plants
“Nature endows or blesses each state or section with an indigenous flora and fauna best suited to that particular soil and climatic conditions,” once wrote George Washington Carver. And one critical way to help wildlife thrive in any yard is to provide wildlife with as much of that natural endowment as possible. Native plants are uniquely adapted to our soils and our climates, and thus can thrive in our yards. They also have what wildlife seek, when wildlife are seeking it. The early-spring blooms of our native woody plants are what have sustained our native queen bumblebees for thousands of years in spring. The regular and reliable growth and blooms of our native milkweeds are what the monarchs built their continent-spanning migration on. The nourishing nuts of our hickories and hazelnuts are what small mammals and blue jays use to fuel their long winter days. And the palatable chemical composition of our oaks and plums and willows are what sustain the hundreds of species of butterflies and moths who rely on them to raise their larval caterpillars. Native plants come with natural pests, which can sometimes make the gardener or homeowner’s job harder. But those natural pests are also a part of nature’s way to keeping plants in check and preventing them from becoming invasive. Native plants, with their natural pests, are much less likely to leave our landscapes and become problematic invasive species in nearby natural areas, which is one final important rationale for favoring them in our yards.
3. Grow a bouquet-a-day.
Flowers signal food, not only for familiar pollinators or other insects, but also for hundreds of other species who may drink their nectar or consume the fruits a flower soon becomes. Plus, they’re conspicuous and easy for us to monitor in our yards, where we can ask, from May to September, what’s blooming when, and whether it’s providing what wildlife need. Many different species of flower-feeding insects or birds are active during different times of the year. Queen bees are among our earliest emergers, and early in April and May, they search their surroundings for nectar to start their year. Providing early-spring blooms are thus critical for these species. Then come dozens of other species reliant on flowering plants or their fruits, whether just a seed or a fleshy fruit. And finally, near the end of the summer, many insects, including migratory ones like the monarch, rely on nectar to sustain their final activities of the year before winter sets in. Thus, the best yards for wildlife, are those where an observer can scan the yard each day from May to September and find a bouquet of flowers in bloom. If you notice days, or weeks, or even months with missing blooms, find a native woody or herbaceous perennial plant to fill the void or even pot some annuals to lend wildlife a helping hand when blooms become lean.
4. Mow less and mow less often.
Many yards use lawns as the default feature. To benefit wildlife, consider using diverse landscape elements as the default feature, maintaining low-diversity lawns only in places where function or aesthetics necessitates it. Lawns provide very little for most species of wildlife since they have little or no diversity of plants or plant types in them. Of course, human function in a yard is essential, so maintain turf grass in those areas of the lawn you need. But for every other spot, imagine ways to apply our other rules to promote diversity in function or form that will benefit the greatest diversity of wildlife. And, in areas where you do mow, consider mowing less often. Research all over the northern hemisphere has shown that insects benefit from reduced frequency of mowing because where there’s less mowing, there tends to be more flowers or more structural diversity to support insects. Simple measures like mowing once every two weeks rather than every week can help insects, and insects help many other kinds of wildlife thrive in our yards.