Hard to believe, but trees can actually provide more habitats for wildlife dead than when they are alive. Standing dead and dying trees, called “snags” or “wildlife trees,” are important for wildlife in both natural and landscaped settings, occurring as a result of disease, lightning, fire, animal damage, too much shade, drought, root competition, as well as old age.
Birds, small mammals, and other wildlife use snags for nests, nurseries, storage areas, foraging, roosting, and perching. Live trees with snag-like features, such as hollow trunks, excavated cavities, and dead branches can provide similar wildlife value. Snags occurring along streams and shorelines eventually may fall into the water, adding important woody debris to aquatic habitat. Dead branches are often used as perches; snags that lack limbs are often more decayed and, may have more and larger cavities for shelter and nesting. Snags enhance local natural areas by attracting wildlife species that may not otherwise be found there.
All trees of all sizes are potential snags. Unfortunately, many wildlife trees are cut down without much thought to their wildlife value or of the potential management options that can safely prolong the existence of the tree. Wildlife trees offer a one-stop, natural habitat feature. In short, snags “live on” as excellent wildlife trees for all to enjoy!
For more information about wildlife that use snags as well as how to create a snag in your backyard habitat, please see Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife's website: http://wdfw.wa.gov/living/snags/
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Monday, February 7, 2011
Spring Backyard Habitat classes at Woodland Park Zoo!
At this series of five classes, you'll learn from experts from Seattle Audubon, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Washington Native Plant Society and Woodland Park Zoo about how to attract birds and other wildlife to your backyard, select and care for native plants, recognize and remove invasive plants species, coexist peacefully with the wildlife you attract, conserve water, manage your backyard without the use of chemical herbicides and pesticides, place feeders and bird houses, and get your yard certified as a Backyard Habitat. Classes are designed to build on each other as a series, but may also be taken separately.
Introduction to Backyard Habitat: Site Analysis and Design
Wednesday, March 2nd from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m.
Join Allen Howard, Woodland Park Zoo horticulture staff, to learn the basic principles of creating habitat for wildlife, with a focus on planning, site analysis, and design.
Spring Plants and Planting
Sunday, March 13th from 1:00-3:00 p.m.
Join David Selk, Woodland Park Zoo horticulturist, to discover how different plants in your garden can provide for the basic needs of wildlife. The class includes a plant walk around zoo grounds focusing on aesthetic and size considerations, as well as proper planting techniques.
Butterflies and Bees
Thursday, March 31st from 7:00-9:00 p.m.
Join Woodland Park Zoo entomologist Erin Sullivan and horticulturist David Selk to discover how to attract and care for local butterflies and bees. You’ll learn about the importance of these backyard pollinators as well as the threats they face and what you can do to help, including insect-friendly gardening practices.
Attracting Birds to Your Yard
Tuesday, April 12th from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m.
Join Neil Zimmerman, Seattle Audubon Outreach Chair and Master Birder, to learn how to attract and care for birds in your yard through plant selection, placement and maintenance of bird feeders and nestboxes, and use of water features.
Water Features for Wildlife
Tuesday, April 26th from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m.
Clean, fresh water is a crucial part of any habitat. Join Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife Senior Research Scientist Marc Hayes and Wildlife Biologist Chris Anderson in learning about the variety of ways you can provide water for urban wildlife in your own backyard. You'll see examples of different types of water features, such as ponds, birdbaths and fountains. You'll also learn about the natural history of local amphibians and how to provide habitat for these sensitive animals.
Cost: $25 per person / $100 for the five-part series if you register before 6:00 pm on Wednesday, February 23.
To register, go to http://www.zoo.org/backyardworkshop. Registration closes one week before each class. If there is still space available after registration closes, drop-in registrations will be accepted the night of class. Drop-in classes are $30 each. To inquire about space availability, contact the Individual Registration Specialist at 206.548.2424 or individual.registration@zoo.org.
Introduction to Backyard Habitat: Site Analysis and Design
Wednesday, March 2nd from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m.
Join Allen Howard, Woodland Park Zoo horticulture staff, to learn the basic principles of creating habitat for wildlife, with a focus on planning, site analysis, and design.
Spring Plants and Planting
Sunday, March 13th from 1:00-3:00 p.m.
Join David Selk, Woodland Park Zoo horticulturist, to discover how different plants in your garden can provide for the basic needs of wildlife. The class includes a plant walk around zoo grounds focusing on aesthetic and size considerations, as well as proper planting techniques.
Butterflies and Bees
Thursday, March 31st from 7:00-9:00 p.m.
Join Woodland Park Zoo entomologist Erin Sullivan and horticulturist David Selk to discover how to attract and care for local butterflies and bees. You’ll learn about the importance of these backyard pollinators as well as the threats they face and what you can do to help, including insect-friendly gardening practices.
Attracting Birds to Your Yard
Tuesday, April 12th from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m.
Join Neil Zimmerman, Seattle Audubon Outreach Chair and Master Birder, to learn how to attract and care for birds in your yard through plant selection, placement and maintenance of bird feeders and nestboxes, and use of water features.
Water Features for Wildlife
Tuesday, April 26th from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m.
Clean, fresh water is a crucial part of any habitat. Join Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife Senior Research Scientist Marc Hayes and Wildlife Biologist Chris Anderson in learning about the variety of ways you can provide water for urban wildlife in your own backyard. You'll see examples of different types of water features, such as ponds, birdbaths and fountains. You'll also learn about the natural history of local amphibians and how to provide habitat for these sensitive animals.
Cost: $25 per person / $100 for the five-part series if you register before 6:00 pm on Wednesday, February 23.
To register, go to http://www.zoo.org/backyardworkshop. Registration closes one week before each class. If there is still space available after registration closes, drop-in registrations will be accepted the night of class. Drop-in classes are $30 each. To inquire about space availability, contact the Individual Registration Specialist at 206.548.2424 or individual.registration@zoo.org.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Douglas Tallamy: Gardeners as Land Stewards
Wednesday, February 23, 2011 | 7:30 – 9pm
Location: Downstairs at Town Hall; enter on Seneca Street.
Planting native trees, plants, and shrubs in this crowded world carries both a moral and an ecological responsibility we cannot ignore. With 33,000 species imperiled in the U.S., gardeners and landscapers have never been so empowered to help save biodiversity—and the need has never been so great. Celebrity naturalist David Mizejewski introduces Entomology and Wildlife Ecology Professor Douglas Tallamy, author of Bringing Nature Home, who discusses how native plants sustain wildlife in our gardens. Presented by the National Wildlife Federation.
Tickets are $5 at www.brownpapertickets.com or 800/838-3006, and at the door beginning at 6:30 pm.
Location: Downstairs at Town Hall; enter on Seneca Street.
Planting native trees, plants, and shrubs in this crowded world carries both a moral and an ecological responsibility we cannot ignore. With 33,000 species imperiled in the U.S., gardeners and landscapers have never been so empowered to help save biodiversity—and the need has never been so great. Celebrity naturalist David Mizejewski introduces Entomology and Wildlife Ecology Professor Douglas Tallamy, author of Bringing Nature Home, who discusses how native plants sustain wildlife in our gardens. Presented by the National Wildlife Federation.
Tickets are $5 at www.brownpapertickets.com or 800/838-3006, and at the door beginning at 6:30 pm.
Monday, January 24, 2011
Two new Backyard Habitat-related resources!
ATTRACTING NATIVE POLLINATORS
The Xerces Society will turn 40 this year! We'll be celebrating our official birthday later in the year, but we can't think of a much better way to start such a significant year than with the release of an important new book, Attracting Native Pollinators: Protecting North America's Bees and Butterflies.
The work of bees and other pollinators is something that touches us all through the food we eat, the clothes we wear, and the landscapes we enjoy. Attracting Native Pollinators offers a window onto the fascinating lives of these insects and provides detailed information about how you can care for these vital animals wherever you live. Whether you are an urban gardener, a suburban park manager, a working farmer, or caring for a nature reserve Attracting Native Pollinators has something for you.
The book has already garnered high praise:
"Attracting Native Pollinators belongs on the bookshelf of everyone who values the future of the natural world."
- Douglas W. Tallamy, researcher and author
of Bringing Nature Home
"Precise, elegant and thoughtful, the recommendations offered by the Xerces Society will become essential to advancing a healthy and diverse food production system."
- Gary Nabhan, author of The Forgotten
Pollinators and Renewing America's Food
Traditions
More than 380 pages long, Attracting Native Pollinators is illustrated throughout with hundreds of color photographs and dozens of custom-drawn illustrations. It is published by Storey Publishing of North Adams, Mass. and coauthored by four Xerces staff (Eric Mader, Matthew Shepherd, Mace Vaughan, and Scott Hoffman Black) with Gretchen LeBuhn, a botanist at San Francisco State University and director of The Great Sunflower Project.
Pre-order your book from our website by January 31st to get a discount - www.xerces.org.
THE CONSCIENTIOUS GARDENER: CULTIVATING A GARDEN ETHIC by Sarah Reichard
Join UW Botanic Gardens and the Northwest Horticultural Society for a celebration of Sarah Reichard’s new book, The Conscientious Gardener: Cultivating a Garden Ethic. Sarah will share the latest best practices for gardening with an environmental ethic, including pest control, water conservation, mulching, and invasive species.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
6:45 pm Reception and Book-Signing; 7:30 pm Lecture
NHS Hall, Center for Urban Horticulture, Seattle
Tickets are $15
For more information, visit http://www.northwesthort.org/special.html
Sarah Reichard is the founder and director of the Washington Rare Plant Care and Conservation and faculty at the University of Washington.
*Proceeds and book sales from the event will benefit Rare Care.
The Xerces Society will turn 40 this year! We'll be celebrating our official birthday later in the year, but we can't think of a much better way to start such a significant year than with the release of an important new book, Attracting Native Pollinators: Protecting North America's Bees and Butterflies.
The work of bees and other pollinators is something that touches us all through the food we eat, the clothes we wear, and the landscapes we enjoy. Attracting Native Pollinators offers a window onto the fascinating lives of these insects and provides detailed information about how you can care for these vital animals wherever you live. Whether you are an urban gardener, a suburban park manager, a working farmer, or caring for a nature reserve Attracting Native Pollinators has something for you.
The book has already garnered high praise:
"Attracting Native Pollinators belongs on the bookshelf of everyone who values the future of the natural world."
- Douglas W. Tallamy, researcher and author
of Bringing Nature Home
"Precise, elegant and thoughtful, the recommendations offered by the Xerces Society will become essential to advancing a healthy and diverse food production system."
- Gary Nabhan, author of The Forgotten
Pollinators and Renewing America's Food
Traditions
More than 380 pages long, Attracting Native Pollinators is illustrated throughout with hundreds of color photographs and dozens of custom-drawn illustrations. It is published by Storey Publishing of North Adams, Mass. and coauthored by four Xerces staff (Eric Mader, Matthew Shepherd, Mace Vaughan, and Scott Hoffman Black) with Gretchen LeBuhn, a botanist at San Francisco State University and director of The Great Sunflower Project.
Pre-order your book from our website by January 31st to get a discount - www.xerces.org.
THE CONSCIENTIOUS GARDENER: CULTIVATING A GARDEN ETHIC by Sarah Reichard
Join UW Botanic Gardens and the Northwest Horticultural Society for a celebration of Sarah Reichard’s new book, The Conscientious Gardener: Cultivating a Garden Ethic. Sarah will share the latest best practices for gardening with an environmental ethic, including pest control, water conservation, mulching, and invasive species.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
6:45 pm Reception and Book-Signing; 7:30 pm Lecture
NHS Hall, Center for Urban Horticulture, Seattle
Tickets are $15
For more information, visit http://www.northwesthort.org/special.html
Sarah Reichard is the founder and director of the Washington Rare Plant Care and Conservation and faculty at the University of Washington.
*Proceeds and book sales from the event will benefit Rare Care.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
"10,000 by 2010" goal met in 25th year of WDFW Backyard Wildlife Sanctuary program!
The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) Backyard Wildlife Sanctuary program celebrated its 25th anniversary year by more than making a "10,000 by 2010" campaign goal. By the end of 2010, an official total of 11,454 properties across the state were enrolled as Backyard Wildlife Sanctuaries. With the program's emphasis on urban and suburban properties where habitat development and restoration is most needed, 89 percent of those properties (10,238) are in western Washington, where more of the state's cities and towns lie in the Puget Sound area from Bellingham to Vancouver. The other 11 percent (1,216) are in eastern Washington, mostly in the state's second largest metropolitan area -- Spokane - with some in the Tri-Cities, Yakima and Wenatchee areas.
The "10,000 by 2010" campaign began in the summer of 2009, when the statewide total of properties enrolled was 8,507. The 10,000 mark was reached in April 2010 with enrollment of a property in Olympia. The Backyard Wildlife Sanctuary program began in 1985 in WDFW's North Puget Sound Region, based in Mill Creek, north of Seattle. It quickly expanded to the Spokane-based Eastern Region for statewide promotion of the program's basic idea - wildlife stewardship begins at home, even and especially in urban settings. With over 35,000 acres of wildlife habitat converted to housing and other development each year in Washington, the program is designed to help offset that loss by encouraging backyard landscaping to provide food and cover for wildlife.
Over the years the program has increased emphasis on development and maintenance of year-round habitat, preferably using low-maintenance, low-water-use native plants. Information on supplemental feeding of birds has increasingly focused on keeping feeders clean to avoid spreading disease among birds and locating feeders to minimize problems with predation by domestic cats and wild predators and birds flying into nearby windows. The program not only enhances the urban environment for the benefit of wildlife, but it also helps increase opportunities for people to enjoy and learn about wildlife by providing information about best practices for attracting watchable wildlife to your home. The latest (2006) U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service survey of wildlife associated recreation showed that 2.3 million Washington residents, or about 40 percent of the state's population, actively watch wildlife. Most of those - 1.9 million or 83 percent - watch wildlife "around home" (defined as within a mile of home.) About 1.5 million feed wildlife and about 360,000 maintain natural areas or plantings for wildlife.
If you're currently one of the many thousands of Washington Backyard Wildlife Sanctuary managers, thank you for all you do to help wildlife on your property. We encourage you to talk to your neighbors about similarly helping wildlife on their property because the bigger the contiguous blocks of habitat, the better for wildlife and wildlife watching. If you're not in the Backyard Wildlife Sanctuary program, you can certify your yard with Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife, National Wildlife Federation and Northwest Zoo & Aquarium Alliance by downloading the
Habitat Certification Application
The "10,000 by 2010" campaign began in the summer of 2009, when the statewide total of properties enrolled was 8,507. The 10,000 mark was reached in April 2010 with enrollment of a property in Olympia. The Backyard Wildlife Sanctuary program began in 1985 in WDFW's North Puget Sound Region, based in Mill Creek, north of Seattle. It quickly expanded to the Spokane-based Eastern Region for statewide promotion of the program's basic idea - wildlife stewardship begins at home, even and especially in urban settings. With over 35,000 acres of wildlife habitat converted to housing and other development each year in Washington, the program is designed to help offset that loss by encouraging backyard landscaping to provide food and cover for wildlife.
Over the years the program has increased emphasis on development and maintenance of year-round habitat, preferably using low-maintenance, low-water-use native plants. Information on supplemental feeding of birds has increasingly focused on keeping feeders clean to avoid spreading disease among birds and locating feeders to minimize problems with predation by domestic cats and wild predators and birds flying into nearby windows. The program not only enhances the urban environment for the benefit of wildlife, but it also helps increase opportunities for people to enjoy and learn about wildlife by providing information about best practices for attracting watchable wildlife to your home. The latest (2006) U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service survey of wildlife associated recreation showed that 2.3 million Washington residents, or about 40 percent of the state's population, actively watch wildlife. Most of those - 1.9 million or 83 percent - watch wildlife "around home" (defined as within a mile of home.) About 1.5 million feed wildlife and about 360,000 maintain natural areas or plantings for wildlife.
If you're currently one of the many thousands of Washington Backyard Wildlife Sanctuary managers, thank you for all you do to help wildlife on your property. We encourage you to talk to your neighbors about similarly helping wildlife on their property because the bigger the contiguous blocks of habitat, the better for wildlife and wildlife watching. If you're not in the Backyard Wildlife Sanctuary program, you can certify your yard with Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife, National Wildlife Federation and Northwest Zoo & Aquarium Alliance by downloading the
Habitat Certification Application
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Free Schoolyard Habitats Webinar!
Are you ready to create a Schoolyard Habitat, but not sure how to start? National Wildlife Federation is offering the free webinar Designing Your Schoolyard Habitat Project on February 3rd at 1:00 p.m. PST.
The webinar will cover the special design and project planning considerations for installing a habitat on school grounds and utilizing a habitat for teaching. For more information and to sign up for the webinar, go to www.nwf.org/schoolyardevents.
The webinar will cover the special design and project planning considerations for installing a habitat on school grounds and utilizing a habitat for teaching. For more information and to sign up for the webinar, go to www.nwf.org/schoolyardevents.
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
October 16th: National Wildlife Federation's Hike and Seek at Seward Park!
Experience a fantastic Fall adventure with your friends and family! National Wildlife Federation’s Hike & Seek is a brand new, exciting one-day event. A cross between a nature hike and a scavenger hunt, Hike & Seek brings families and friends together for fresh air and fun. It doesn’t matter if you’ve hiked for years or have no experience at all – adventurers of all ages are welcome.
The Seattle event will be held on Saturday, October 16 at 9 am at Seward Park, a 300-acre nature preserve and education center. Seward Park features acres of beautiful old growth forest that is home to eagles' nests, a 2.4 mile bike and walking path, a native plant garden, miles of hiking trails, and more.
Step off from base camp after loads of activities for all ages and hiking tips for participants. Using your map and mission guidebook, we invite you to create your own interactive nature experience. Along the way, kids will learn about trees, water, plants, animals and birds at the fact-filled, interesting, interactive lessons on the great outdoors at Stop & Learn stations staffed by naturalists.
Hike & Seek is just days away! Please help us spread the word by registering at www.hikeandseek.org or sending this information to your friends and families to join the fun in Seattle!
The Seattle event will be held on Saturday, October 16 at 9 am at Seward Park, a 300-acre nature preserve and education center. Seward Park features acres of beautiful old growth forest that is home to eagles' nests, a 2.4 mile bike and walking path, a native plant garden, miles of hiking trails, and more.
Step off from base camp after loads of activities for all ages and hiking tips for participants. Using your map and mission guidebook, we invite you to create your own interactive nature experience. Along the way, kids will learn about trees, water, plants, animals and birds at the fact-filled, interesting, interactive lessons on the great outdoors at Stop & Learn stations staffed by naturalists.
Hike & Seek is just days away! Please help us spread the word by registering at www.hikeandseek.org or sending this information to your friends and families to join the fun in Seattle!
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