Create Wildlife Habitat Anytime, Anywhere

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Remember that every species needs food, water, winter cover, and nesting shelter. If you can fulfill each of these requirements, you're bound to end up with birds and small mammals as neighbors . . . and a yard that appeals to such fauna is aesthetically pleasing. (A pamphlet entitled "Inviting Wildlife to Your Back Yard", which lists appropriate plant species for each climate, is available for 250 from the National Wildlife Federation, Dept. TMEN, 1412 16th Street, Washington, D.C. 20036.)

Better yet, try to get each of your neighbors involved in his or her own backyard project. After all, one yard will make just a small (even though significant) contribution . . . while a whole neighborhood can equal a mighty big habitat!

WHAT WE DID

While living in eastern Oregon, we found that our job consisted mostly of inaction. We didn't rip up the native grasses and shrubs to plant a lawn, and we cut down only one tree (which was threatening to fall on our house). At the same time, we left two rotten but unhazardous snags that looked like they'd topple in the next breeze. (As it turned out, they withstood even 70-MPH winter winds and sheltered numerous pairs of nuthatches, wrens, and bluebirds each spring.)

Once, when we thinned out a stand of insect-infested trees for a neighbor, we peeled each cull as soon as we cut it down . . . to kill larvae living in the cambrium layer beneath the bark, before the immature insects could develop and attack other trees. One infected tree in the grove, however, housed a pair of nesting red-breasted nuthatches . . . so—to save their home—my husband climbed and peeled the tree where it stood. It was a lot more work, but worth the effort to us and (I hope) to the birds.

At that time, we lived in the middle of a large piece of open rangeland that was in very poor condition, so we shut the cattle out of our five acres, using a pole fence that deer and elk could easily negotiate. The native grasses were able to put on some growth, which helped to hold the soil on our slope . . . and the wildflowers had a chance to go to seed and provide food for seed-eaters.

On our small lot in Missoula, we tried to create a little wildlife habitat in the "desert" of a newly created subdivision. We planted a small lawn that included some native mountainside flora, to offer food and shelter.

We're living now on 20 acres of farmland and trying to re-create its environment of 100 years ago. Since much of the topsoil has been eroded away, we plan to let the worst areas rest for a few years—to develop a little better grass cover—after which, we might plant a green manure crop.

We have about one acre that's too shady to produce a paying harvest but too big for a lawn . . . so we're going to plant a mixture of grains and let them go to seed each year to make food and shelter for the local ringnecked pheasants and Hungarian partridges. And, of course, we've put in a number of native shrubs and trees.

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