Understanding and creating backyard habitat

1. Understanding and Creating
Wildlife Habitat
C E L I A V U O C O L O
S U S T A I N A B L E H A B I T A T P R O G R A M A S S I S T A N T
P I E D M O N T E N V I R O N M E N T A L C O U N C I L

2. “For the first time in its history, gardening has taken
on a role that transcends the needs of the gardener.
Gardeners have become important players in the
management of our nation’s wildlife. It is now within
the power of individual gardeners to do something
that we all dream of doing: to make a difference.”
~Douglas Tallamy, Bringing Nature Home

3. Today’s Outcome

4. Piedmont Environmental Council
Protecting Open Space in the Piedmont
• Land Conservation
• Conservation Easements
• Land Use
• Transportation solutions
• Community Planning
• Energy
• Promoting Rural Economies and Ag
•Buy Fresh Buy Local guide
• Restoring Wildlife Habitat….
9 County region: Fauquier, Albemarle, Clarke, Loudoun,
Orange, Madison, Greene, Rappahannock, Culpeper

5. Sustainable Habitat Program
Site Visits* Outreach* Land Management* Watershed Projects* Conservation Partnering*

7. View your property as a whole.

8. And then take a look at what’s around you.

9. Corridors

10. Prioritizing Projects
Pick an area of your property that:
 needs the most help
 You feel inspired to change
Or….
 Invasive Plant Infestations
 Transitional Areas
 Areas of high ecological value
 Reconnecting Habitat (grasslands, forest, corridors)

11. Food

13. Year round cover and food sources

14. Food

15. Artificial supplements vs. Natural Forage

16. Artificial Supplements vs. Natural Forage

17. Larval Host Plants

18. Seeds and Berries

19. Providing Food Sources Year round
 Example: the Black-capped Chickadee
 Winter diet: 50% insect, 50% seed/berries
 Summer diet: 80% insect (particularly caterpillars)
 One pair brings 390-570 caterpillars per day to their young.
This is typical of many species:
 60%-80% of a Hummingbird’s
diet is insects!
 25% of a Red Fox’s diet is insects!

21. Cover
 Protection
 Weather
 Predation
 Nesting Sites
 Ground Nesters
 Cavity Nesters

22. Native evergreens:
• Provide rear-round cover for birds
• Native conifers serve as host plants

24. Other types of cover

25. Other types of cover

26. Nest Structures
 Cavity Nesters:
Certain songbird species, woodpeckers, squirrels,
owls, blue orchard mason bees, leaf cutter bees,
insects.
 Ground nesters:
Bumble bees, some turtles, a few songbirds
(directly on the ground), snakes, some small
mammals, other native bees, insects.

27. Artificial Nesting Sites vs. Natural Structures

28. Snags

29. Ground Nesters

30. Aquatic Habitats
 The key is vegetative cover.
Amphibian life zone

31. Layers

34. Applying the Concepts:
Landscaping for Pollinators

36. Honeybees vs. Native bees
 Honey bees:
 Not native to U.S.
 Suffering from CCD
 Colonial
 Hives easily managed and transported
 Some competition for floral resources with other
bee species
 Heavily relied upon for crop pollination

37. Honeybees vs. Native bees
 Native bees
 4000 different species (variety of sizes,
pollination techniques, floral preferences, life
cycles)
 Honeybees are transmitting mites and disease to
bumble bees
 Some are more efficient crop pollinators than
honeybees!
 Most are solitary
Nest in ground or tube-like structures

38. Bumble Bees
 Generalist foragers
 Only truly social native bee, but colony is seasonal.
 Ground nesters
 “Buzz Pollination” required by some crops (tomatoes, peppers,
cranberries)
 Can handle cooler temps:
 Some of the earliest & latest bees: February- November!
 Forage earlier and later in the day than honeybees
 Bumblebees on average visit twice as many flowers per minute as
compared to honeybees.

39. Some plants rely on bumble bees for pollination
bumble bee pollinating bottle gentian

40. Mason Bees & Leaf Cutter Bees
 Osmia spp. and Megachile spp.
 Solitary bees- nest in tubes, reeds, dead branches
 Osmia spp. are orchard pollinators. Osmia lignaria is the
only native bee managed for in agriculture.
 Emerge in early spring, coincides with flowering peach and
apple trees AND eastern native trees.
 Research has shown that Osmia is more efficient at
pollination than honeybees!

41. Pollinators are a big deal!
 70% of all flowering plant species on the planet rely
on pollinators to reproduce
 30% of foods and beverages are the direct result of
insect pollination.
 In 2010, insect pollination contributed $29 billion to
farm income in the U.S.

42. Pollinator Habitat Needs
 FOOD
 Early Spring, Spring- Summer, Late Fall
 Natives vs. Traditional Garden Plants
 Clustering 3 or more of the same plant together
 Blue, white, yellow flowers- but some have UV patterns!!
 Selecting pollinator powerhouse plants (not just perennials!)

43. Pollinator Habitat Needs
 COVER
 NESTING SITES
 Ground nesting bees vs. Cavity nesting bees
 Observe where the bees go!
 Native bee houses (southerly exposure)
 Beetles, ants, flies (leaf piles, bush piles, compost)
 Leave dead stems standing!
 SHRUBBY EDGES & HEDGEROWS
 Valuable pollinator habitat!

44. Questions?
Celia Vuocolo
Sustainable Habitat Program Assistant
Piedmont Environmental Council
cvuocolo@pecva.org
540-347-2334