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Backyard HabitatSpace Considerations • Developing A Plan • Artificial Structures • Trees • Shrubs • Vines • Butterfly Larval Food Plants • Nectar Food Plants • More Information Attracting wildlife to your home can be simple and fun. All it takes is some planning and understanding of the wildlife you want to see in your backyard. Every wildlife species has habitat requirements; that is, the food, water, shelter, and space they need to survive. Let's Start With Space ConsiderationsThe size of your backyard will influence your backyard plan. What will your backyard habitat support? Butterflies? Songbirds? Rabbits? Deer? Do you also want raccoons, opossums, snakes, and lizards? Some practices for attracting desirable wildlife may attract undesirables as well. Sometimes people experience "too much of a good thing" when deer begin eating their expensive shrubbery, for example. Therefore... "Think Before You Attract!!!" Developing a Plan is Very ImportantPlanned correctly, even the smallest yard can include everything that a some wildlife need to survive. Habitat for butterflies can be provided in a space as small as a window box. Larger yards can be home for rabbits and squirrels. Frogs or fish can live in small garden ponds. Feeding and viewing backyard birds is a popular past time (link to backyard birds below). Your plan may be to attract wildlife, rather than providing everything they need, for the occasional deer, turkey, or even a black bear. Consider how you will arrange the food, water, and shelter in your yard. Arrange your plan so that wildlife can be seen from a window. Plant trees in the back of your yard. Mid-sized, thick shrubs provide wildlife with escape cover from predators, like the neighborhood cat. Build a brushpile in a discrete location, leaving a cavity in the middle. Or use your old, discarded Christmas tree to provide thick cover for wildlife. Put flower beds, feeders, and water structures closest to your window to maximize viewing opportunities. Artificial StructuresArtificial structures can be built or purchased to provide food, shelter and water for wildlife. Bat boxes, squirrel nesting boxes, and bird boxes and feeders can be placed in strategic locations your yard. An excellent resource is "Woodworking for Wildlife," a booklet of construction plans which can be ordered from the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. Water structures can be as simple as an overturned garbage can lid or as elaborate as a backyard pool. Local garden centers provide materials and information about constructing backyard pools which can attract a variety of birds, amphibians, and reptiles. Perhaps most important part of your plan is the plants in your yard. Plants provide two essential elements of wildlife habitat: food and shelter. Plants for your backyard habitat include deciduous and evergreen trees and shrubs, vines, and flowering plants. Nectar-producing plants attract butterflies and hummingbirds. Following are some of the more popular Arkansas backyard plants that wildlife use:
More InformationFor more information about backyard conservation or habitat needs of particular wildlife species, check the following websites:
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