Re-Thinking Landscape Choices

The following is adapted from Let’s Grow Wild (Dept of Wildlife Resources) article by Carol Heiser, CBLP-1 (Retired DWR Habitat Education Coordinator and Education Section Manager)

Wildlife needs our help more than ever. Over 884 species are currently listed in the Virginia Wildlife Action Plan as “Species of Greatest Conservation Need,” including species we’ve probably taken for granted as being very common, such as the gray catbird, eastern box turtle, brook trout, tiger salamander, carpenter frog, little brown bat and rusty-patched bumblebee.

Almost 70% of the species listed in the Action Plan are invertebrates, a group that includes mollusks, spiders and many insect families like ants, bees and butterflies. Populations of these species of greatest conservation need—and indeed of all other wildlife species that aren’t yet listed in the Action Plan—are increasingly being threatened by extensive habitat alteration and losses that can be directly linked to the everyday choices we make across the landscape.

The challenge is that too many of us seldom consider the ecological function of our own yards. An ecosystem is a functional system of continuous energy exchange, made up of diverse plant and animal communities, as well as the non-living elements in the environment, like soil, water and sunlight. Ecosystems provide us with all the “services” we need to survive, such as oxygen in the air we breathe, or food and water. Healthy ecosystems contain robust, interactive assemblages of plant and animal species that co-evolved together, called natural communities.

Unfortunately, today’s urban and suburban landscapes provide very limited support of natural communities. Instead, we’ve replaced the complexity of forest, grassland and wetland ecosystems with vast artificial constructs of mostly non-native plant communities made up of exotic species we affectionately call “ornamentals.” Non-native landscapes are one of the greatest factors contributing to habitat loss, because non-native plants have very little to no value for wildlife.

You can make a difference!
Every space, no matter how small, matters!

There are so many places around our homes, neighborhoods and towns where we can make simple changes, such as “Leaving the Leaves!” to improve habitat quality for a broad diversity of wildlife species.

Here are just a few tips, to get you started:

1. Control or remove invasive species that are known to be problematic in the environment, such as English ivy, Japanese honeysuckle, periwinkle, privet, butterfly bush, nandina, barberry, tree-of-heaven, mimosa and Bradford pear.

2. When re-landscaping, replace non-native trees, shrubs and groundcovers with native plants suitable to your growing conditions. For a list of plants native to your region.

3. Leave the leaves! Setting aside an area(s) in your landscape for leaf beds, leaving leaves around the base of your trees, or using leaves as mulch, provides essential habitat for insects, like butterflies and moths. Learn more at the sites below:

   Turning Over a New Leaf: Learn to Love Your Leaves!

   VPM ARTICLE | By Peggy Singlemann

   befriending our butterflies all winter | Plant NOVA Natives

   Where do butterflies go in the winter? If you are picturing the adults hibernating like bears, that’s actually not that far from the truth for a few of them…

   Leave the Leaves! | Xerces Society Blog

   Leaves provide valuable organic matter and build up healthy soil. Fallen leaves have the same weed suppression and moisture retention ...

   Why You Should Leave the Leaves | National Wildlife foundation

   Removing leaves also eliminates vital wildlife habitat. Critters ranging from turtles and toads to birds, mammals and invertebrates rely on leaf litter ... at the link below. Recycle the leaves that trees give you for free in the fall by shredding them up with a leaf shredder or lawn mower, and use these as mulch around your landscape beds to build up organic matter and support a greater diversity of soil organisms.

4. Be strategic in reducing the size of your lawn; transition your landscape by gradually adding native shrubs and groundcovers in patches, which will require much less maintenance in the long run, once established.