Add more wildlife-friendly plants to your yard. Decrease the size of your mowed lawn and create areas that attract a variety of pollinators. A variety of host plants in your yard with flowers that bloom from spring through fall will attract the pollinators. Enhance wet areas with native, moisture-loving plants. If pesticides are needed in your yard, apply carefully and consider environmentally safe alternatives.

Use native plants around your house. In contrast to exotic species, native plants are part of cooperative communities of plants, animals and insects that rely on one another for survival and to compete against invasive species. For example, the primary food for most baby birds is the larvae of butterflies and moths. Audubon’s Native Plants Database lets you search by zip code to find wildflowers, shrubs and trees that attract birds and the National Wildlife Federation’s Native Plant Finder lists plants and the specific moths and butterflies each one hosts.

Cedar waxwings love serviceberry fruits in the spring.

Keep messy spots in your yard. You can attract wildlife visitors by keeping overgrown areas such as hedgerows or brushy tree lines. They are attractive to wildlife, providing safe cover for them as they move across otherwise open landscape. Protect existing bee nests and caterpillar host plants. Consider leaving leaves on your garden beds and delay a full garden clean-up until spring, after several 50 degree days. This allows overwintering pollinators to “wake-up” for spring and move on.

Find and remove invasive species. Non-native invasive plants including wild parsnip, buckthorn, purple loosestrife, multiflora rose, and shrub honeysuckle can quickly dominate an open area and threaten wildlife that depend on native plants. Keep invasives from spreading or remove them entirely. Visit vtinvasives.org for help with identifying and managing these plants.

Common buckthorn.--

Understand wildlife habitat needs. Be mindful of the affects of household noise, nighttime lighting, use of pesticides, pets running free, and physical changes to the forest on neighboring wildlife. The impact on wildlife from development can extend away from the house, up to 600 feet. Often wildlife still live nearby, but the species tend to be different, favoring generalist species that use a wide range of resource food and shelter. Make wildlife-supportive choices such as using yellow LED bulbs and motion sensor lights for nighttime illumination. This reduces illumination time and will attract 50% fewer bugs.

Natural buffers around sensitive areas. Ideally the clearing of land or building should not occur close to sensitive features like steep slopes, ponds, banks of streams or wetlands. Keeping a natural buffer of trees, shrubs and grasses along the edges reduces erosion, provides important wildlife habitat and safety, and allows more secure corridors along which animals can travel. Consider a buffer of at least 100’ wide.

Understand your future impact on the woods and wildlife. New driveways, homes and outbuildings break up an existing forest into smaller pieces. This can disrupt natural wildlife corridors and creates more openings where invasive species and pests can spread. As a result, a new house can have a wildlife impact of 15-30 acres into the surrounding forest! If you are considering building a new home in a wooded area, locating it at the forest edge and/or near existing infrastructure will reduce these potential impacts.