Imagine a world, for a moment, where your yard has wild turtles roaming through the bushes, and Garter snakes freely sunning themselves on the grass behind your house. Magnificent Emerald Beetles and Goldenrod Soldier beetles flitting between bright yellow, and deep red spike flowers. Imagine a world full of slimy snails for kids to find, and the majesty that we all feel on a warm summer night as we watch the various species of lightning bugs dancing through the dusk. This is the world we once enjoyed, and though we have all but destroyed that world, we CAN have it back, though it will take time and effort for us to restore. Over and over we have seen that given an opportunity, life will find its natural habitat and restore itself to its former resplendence. We can be a part of a more sustainable world by encouraging life in our own backyards.
As much as Technology can help us, we also find it strangling our ability to stave off the anxiety and negativity that comes from social media and isolation. There is a growing movement of people, including Gen Alpha, who are pushing to get people back outdoors, connecting with nature, and restoring the land we live on to a more natural state. Getting away from the boring, dead landscapes of cookie cutter homes and H.O.A.’s and instead planting Keystone species like Oaks, Cherries, Goldenrod, and Sunflowers will support a diverse range of creatures. Our backyards can become a miniature Discovery Channel in their own right. Douglas Tallamy and other researchers are naming this “Homegrown National Park.” The beautiful thing about this is that you are able to cultivate species that you want, and support the types of creatures you would like to see more of.
Wonder Just Beyond the Doorway
Watching the lifecycle of endangered species, and helping to watch them grow and thrive will help our kids connect to the world around them as well as get them away from the addictive pull of the screen. When we look outside now, there is a proliferation of American Robins, Chickadees, Finches, and Starlings. These four species are overabundant, and consume much of the foods in our yards, making it hard for other species to gain a foothold. Couple this with a lack of habitat and food and it makes it nearly impossible for some of our endangered species to build nests, and rear their babies to adulthood.
Rearing chicks requires a strong presence of Lepidoptera, or Caterpillars. Caterpillars are a feast for birds, and can provide them with the necessary nutrients and antioxidants that they need, not only for growth and migratory strength, but in order for chicks to grow bright, beautiful feathers. You may know that Flamingos are born grey and gradually become pink, and this is due to the antioxidants and Carotenoid’s in their diet. Much the same as these iconic animals, the birds in your yard also need these critical nutrients to grow the bright yellows and inky blacks and deep blues that make them so much fun to watch, and these are most nutritionally abundant in caterpillars. Baby chicks can eat a full 30 meals in a day. This means that without sufficient habitat for these critical weeks, with lots of caterpillars to feed on, birds need to travel further to gather, without an abundant food supply we know that baby birds will be pushed out of nests to support one or two birds per clutch rather than the full nests of yesteryear.
A Little Wild? Maybe so
There are several ways to begin this process of cultivating a yard for your enjoyment and the life of hundreds of species to thrive in. Planting Keystone species like Oaks is a wonderful way to start, considering that Oak trees can support over 500 different species throughout the year. These species range from cicadas that stay underground for decades, to migratory species on the endangered species list. If you cannot plant oaks, which come in a variety of sizes, you could consider adding some Goldenrod, often confused for an allergy aggravating species of ragweed, or Sunflowers, which can provide amusement for children as they watch squirrels trying to get to the heads, or as a part of the “Three Sisters” planting that was taught to us by the Natives of the Americas.
There are other ways to support your local endemic species through lighting choices, habitat restoration, and doing things that differ from your neighbors. Leaf towers and dead hedges are a great start for most people. Dead hedges are piles of logs, sticks, leaves, and clippings that you pile up and allow to decay, and leaf towers are smaller versions of this that can be done in smaller yards. These two spaces can create places for bugs to lay eggs and live, create space for solitary pollinators to grow, and can help produce rich soil and nutrients to help your yard grasses to grow strong as they break down nutrients in wood and leaf materials. They also are wonderful at water retention, helping to stop flash flooding by absorbing rainfall, and purifying water as it drains down into our aquifers, keeping you and those you care about healthier by reducing the amount of chemical purification needed to keep our drinking water clean.
Wondering How to Begin?
Habitat restoration is easily achieved through a small number of native additions to your yard. In order to provide habitat that thrives with life your yard must take restoration as a multi-pronged approach. It is good to plant more of the trees that species need to nest in and thrive on, but there are birds who nest in shrubs, bushes, and thickets as well. Helping to provide ground crops and spaces for them to hunt in allows for, not only the birds to predate in, but for other insects to thrive that will eat destructive species like aphids, keep rodents outside where they belong, and give ranges for bugs like lightning bugs to habitate in. You can also do things like hanging gourds for Cerulean Warblers in trees which can be an exciting activity for kids and adults alike as you watch them become occupied year after year.
Lighting your yard can also be tempting depending on where you live. Country dwellers know all too well the depth of a dark night and how scary it can be. Lighting your outdoors can extend your living space and provide a cozy feel to the yard if done right. Problematically, much of the lighting for outdoor spaces is bright white, flood lighting, and can disrupt the circadian rhythms, and lives, of the wildlife around your home, attracting bugs and destroying their ability to pollinate your yard and feed the predators that you want to attract to your yard. These predators can control pest creatures like mosquitoes, mice, and insects that will eat your garden fruits.
Bringing a multifaceted approach to reworking your garden and outdoor spaces will allow local species to thrive. They will see opportunity, and they will take it, so long as you give the life the opportunity to have their own space. Natives can bring you a sense of peace and joy in the natural world around you, reduce your stress, and give your family and children a reason to be outdoors rather than sitting inside and glued to screens that will stress them out and make them feel alone. Even if you are restricted from growing your own natives, learning about your native surroundings can allow you to encourage others to join us in imagining a world we want to see.
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