Many of us like the idea of creating safe places for wildlife to live, and with patience and persistence, our gardens can become those places. With a combination of adding a few elements here and there, and leaving a few elements here and there, we can provide habitat for all sorts of creatures.
Animals, like humans, have a few needs that must be met. Unfortunately, urban and suburban development has decimated the spots where these basic requirements—food, water, shelter—were once abundant. Wild animals have been consistently pushed further and further afield, crowded into new spaces while being crowded out of others.
For those of us who want to help, one thing we can do is go out of our way to provide some of the basics in our yards and gardens, sharing as best we can with the wildlife that is native to where we live. It’s not so difficult.
First things first, sometimes providing habitat for animals is as simple as not destroying the existing habitat of animals. In the grand scheme of things, that would be using the spaces we’ve already damaged instead of buying homes in new developments, thus creating demand for more expansion.
In our yards, this could be as simple as investigating things before we act. Are any animals living in that pile of leaves gathered in the corner of the backyard? Before we rake it up and take it all away, is there something foraging through and living in what has fallen? Sometimes we can help by just leaving stuff.
Lead Image Source : Marjolein Hameleers/Shutterstock.
What you can do
Support ‘Fighting for Wildlife’ by donating as little as $1 – It only takes a minute. Thank you.
Fighting for Wildlife supports approved wildlife conservation organizations, which spend at least 80 percent of the money they raise on actual fieldwork, rather than administration and fundraising. When making a donation you can designate for which type of initiative it should be used – wildlife, oceans, forests or climate.
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