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Wildlife stewardship refers to actions that support animals.
Click on the below topics to learn about specific actions you can take to support different animal groups
Bat House
Bat House
Attracting bats to your property is an excellent way to reduce mosquitos. A single bat can consume up to 600 mosquitoes per hour. Some of our bats are endangered and face dramatic challenges with the still-mysterious White Nose Syndrome. Providing supplemental housing for bats can be an interesting and fun way to help these important animals.
Install a bat house on a steel pole, wooden post or the side of a building.
These places are better than trees for three reasons:
They receive less sun among the branches.
Bat tenants are more vulnerable to predators.
Obstructions in the form of branches and surrounding vegetation make it more difficult for bats to drop into flight.
Learn more about supporting bats in your yard here.
Nest Boxes for Birds
Nest Boxes for Birds
An artificial nest box provides supplemental nest opportunities for the birds while giving you to see them up close. Quality houses are built to accommodate specific birds. You can learn more about the specific types of birdhouses here.
For small birds such as wrens, be aware of encroachment by English House Sparrows. They are aggressive and will take over most nest boxes that are available. To help prevent this, be sure the entrance hole is less than 1 ⅛inches in diameter. This will allow entrance by smaller native birds such as the Downy Woodpecker, White-breasted Nuthatch, Tufted Titmouse, Carolina Wren, and House Wren but prevent use by English House Sparrows and Starlings. If your existing nest boxes feature entrance holes larger than 1 ⅛ inches in diameter, you can purchase metal plates specifically designed to affix over the openings with holes cut to the proper diameter.
Reduce Artificial Light at Night
Reduce Artificial Light at Night
Artificial light at night (ALAN) negatively affects bats, moths, migrating birds, and plants and other organisms.
Follow these five principles to provide better habitat for nocturnal wildlife:
Useful – Use light only if it is needed: All light should have a clear purpose. Consider how the use of light will impact the area, including wildlife and their habitats.
Targeted – Direct light so it falls only where it is needed: Use shielding and careful aiming to target the direction of the light beam so that it points downward and does not spill beyond where it is needed
Low Level – Light should be no brighter than necessary: Use the lowest light level required. Be mindful of surface conditions, as some surfaces may reflect more light into the night than intended.
Controlled – Use light only when it is needed: Use controls such as timers or motion detectors to ensure that light is available when it is needed, dimmed when possible, and turned off when not needed.
Warm-colored – Use warmer colored lights where possible: Limit the amount of shorter wavelength (blue-violet) light to the least amount needed.
You can do a Home Lighting Assessment from DarkSky to help you identify problematic lighting and determine solutions.
Native Bee Stewardship Practices
Native Bee Stewardship Practices
There are over 100 native bee species in the region. Unlike non-native honeybees, most of these bees are solitary and only in incredibly rare circumstances will sting you. They do not form a colony, instead a single female builds a nest, lays eggs and provisions the eggs with pollen she collects from plants.
Here are some actions you can take beyond planting native plants to support native bees:
Leave stems over winter for -nesting bee habitat: How to create habitat for stem-nesting bees.
Keep dead wood on site such as logs, stumps, snags (standing dead trees) for wood-nesting bees.
Instead of wood mulch, use leaf mulch or compost which is just as effective but is light enough for ground-nesting bees to pass through. Increase Nesting Habitat for Native Bees.
Leave some bare ground. Even 1 inch of wood mulch is too much for many native ground-nesting bees to burrow through.
Do not use garden fabric. Bees cannot build nest through fabric. Instead, use materials such as cardboard which will degrade over time
If you want to install a bee hotel, make sure you are following good practices. Bad practices can lead to more harm than good.
Deter Deer Browsing
Deter Deer Browsing
You may want to shelter your first- and second-year shrubs from deer or rabbit browse by fashioning a fence around and over your young shrubs and trees. Once they are into their third year of age, they will be less susceptible to mammalian browse.
According to the late Cindy Gilberg, a respected native landscaper in the St. Louis area for many years, each planting should be 70% to 80% browse-resistant natives to be effective. You’ll find her article Creating a Deer-Resistant Native Garden in the March 2012 issue of The Healthy Planet helpful in making your plans. Creating A Deer-Resistant Native Garden « The Healthy Planet
Yet Cindy does point out there are no absolutes to hungry browsers, especially in early spring. Everything newly sprouted is tender and juicy. At that time, it is best to use a spray deterrent until the plants are established. Several of our volunteers have found a rotation of treatments to be the most effective approach, with no single repellent used for more than a month or so at a time, possibly avoiding the deer becoming conditioned to the treatment. It is good to place repellants “deer-nose height.” one to three feet off the ground can work well.
Native Plants to Use or Avoid
Native Plants to Use or Avoid
Shaw Nature Reserve conducted a three-year study in Wildwood, MO and created a list of native plants sorted by how much deer browse they sustained. In general, consider that deer tend to avoid hairy or aromatic vegetation.
Plant Age
Plant Age
Shrubs and trees that are less than two years old are much more likely to be killed from deer browsing. Fence or cover them into to third year. Additionally all plants are much more likely to be eaten in the spring than other seasons.
Shaw Nature Reserve conducted a three-year study in Wildwood, MO and created a list of native plants sorted by how much deer browse they sustained. In general, consider that deer tend to avoid hairy or aromatic vegetation.
Repellents
Repellents
We recommend a product called Deer Out. It is non-toxic to plants and has a peppermint smell, which deer avoid. Other commercial brands include Plantskydd, Sweeneys, Ortho, and Liquid Fence. Some gardeners have had success in spreading the organic lawn fertilizer Milorganite around the planting area. Others swear by cut-up Irish Spring soap bars hung directly from plants or stakes or enclosed in small mesh bags hung from the same.
Scare Devices
Scare Devices
There are a growing number of devices such as the Scarecrow Motion-Activated Sprinkler that can be used in combination with other strategies to startle deer away from native plantings.
Buck rub
Buck rub
Buck-rub can be an even greater challenge which may not be addressed much at all by repellents. Many nurseries sell spiral plastic trunk protectors to help minimize this. If you put a major investment into a tree or shrub, you might go further and create a sturdy fence around it when planting. For small numbers of plantings, consider investing in a quantity of rebar and install three posts per plant, equidistant around it. Attach hardware cloth. Install in early autumn. These guards can be removed and reused once you feel the plant is tall enough or large enough to survive on its own.
More information
More information
Partners in Native Landscaping video on landscaping with deer
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