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Hey y’all it's me, Ted, talking about helping wildlife in your backyard. A group of volunteers visited Harmony Wildlife last week to plant & seed native plants in a forest clearing on our property. I’m still on cloud nine, and I thought you might want to know why this project matters.
Plants are the backbone of healthy terrestrial ecosystems, especially in places like Tennessee where wildlife has evolved alongside plants for thousands of years. Native plants provide the necessary food, shelter, and nesting resources for birds, insects, and other animals. Plus, many pollinators are highly specialized and rely on specific plants to survive.
When native plants are displaced by non-native ornamentals, these relationships are disrupted and it hurts our ecosystem. Three of our most important natives are milkweeds, oaks, and goldenrod.
Milkweeds
Milkweeds
Milkweeds are essential for monarch butterflies: they are the only host plants for their caterpillars. Milkweed seeds also feed many bird species, especially American goldfinches who also use the fluffy milkweed silk to line their nests.
Oaks
Oaks
Oak trees support hundreds of species of insects, making them a buffet table for birds. And, more than 100 vertebrate species rely on acorns. Think: squirrels, black bears, white-tailed deer, foxes, raccoons…
Goldenrods
Goldenrods
Some people consider goldenrod weeds, but their yellow flowers provide vital late-season nectar for pollinators preparing for winter or migration. Goldenrod seems to pop up everywhere so you may not even need to plant it! Just let it be, and watch it flower in late summer.
By planting natives we can create a backyard habitat oasis for wildlife trying to survive in an ever-shrinking ecosystem.
Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.
Ted
What if each American landowner made it a goal to convert half of his or her lawn to productive native plant communities? Even moderate success could collectively restore some semblance of ecosystem function to more than twenty million acres of what is now ecological wasteland. How big is twenty million acres? It’s bigger than the combined areas of the Everglades, Yellowstone, Yosemite, Grand Teton, Canyonlands, Mount Rainier, North Cascades, Badlands, Olympic, Sequoia, Grand Canyon, Denali, and the Great Smoky Mountains National Parks.
― Douglas W. Tallamy, Nature's Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation that Starts in Your Yard
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