Backyard Wildlife Primer
(Page 7 of 14)
September/October 1986
By Raymond Zoanetti and the Mother Earth News editors
If your area's soil is more porous than clay, or if you want to build a pool larger than a yard or two wide, line the pool with one or two layers of PVC plastic sheeting (be sure to remove any sharp rocks or roots that could puncture the liner). Then anchor the plastic by placing dirt and rocks around the perimeter.
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Probably the best place to dig a pool is in an existing spring or stream, where water will seep into the excavation and keep it filled. Another way to develop such sites is to build several low dams with rocks, soil, logs, or a little cement, to create a series of shallow, welcoming pools.
Regardless of the type of pool, it's important to establish a plant community in and around it to oxygenate and cool the water and provide cover for its users. In standing water, add a layer of soil and sand to the bottom and introduce such plants as bladderwort, water milfoil, fanwort, and pondweed. Water lilies grown in pots and anchored to the bottom of the pool, or set on a pedestal at about midlevel, will serve as attractive loafing areas for dragonflies, frogs, and songbirds. Moisture-loving plants such as arrowhead, cattails, jack-in-the-pulpit, Virginia bluebell, and jewelweed can be set around the perimeter of the pool.
Brush piles. These are particularly useful if there's little or no ground cover on your property, and will provide shelter and resting places for birds and small mammals — especially rabbits. Although any loose heap of limbs and branches will suffice, it's best to erect a more permanent structure that won't settle over time. Start by building a base: rocks eight to 12 inches in diameter, arranged in several clusters of small piles about a foot apart . . . or four logs about six feet long and six inches in diameter placed parallel to one another, eight to 12 inches apart, and topped with either flat stones or a second layer of logs placed perpendicular to the first. Then cover the base with brush, using larger limbs first and adding increasingly smaller branches, to a height of four to eight feet. Such piles should be located near feeding areas, preferably in open territory such as an overgrown field or forest clearing. Avoid placing brush piles near gardens, or beneath trees where hawks and owls could make easy prey of the residents.
One way to make a brush pile quickly is to lean six to 10 discarded Christmas trees against a wire or wooden support. Position the trees so that they will block prevailing winter winds and form protective snowdrifts. Also, you can build a living brush pile by cutting partway through the lower limbs of a conifer with close-to-the-ground branches, so that the boughs droop to the ground and form a protective "tent."
Snags. The term snag refers to standing dead timber or dead and decaying limbs on large trees. When a tree dies and begins to rot, woodpeckers (and other species of birds known as primary hole nesters) excavate cavities in the softening heartwood, and use the holes for roosting and nesting. Eventually, they abandon the snag — leaving ready-made homes for other cavity-nesting species (secondary hole nesters) such as squirrels, kestrels, pine martens, owls, flickers, and raccoons. Many additional species of birds and small mammals require, or at least prefer, snag habitat for feeding, since the weakened wood plays host to a variety of insects.
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