PLEASE SUBMIT PHOTOS OF "COVER" THAT YOU HAVE CREATED IN YOUR YARD
See the official certification page
Wildlife need at least two places to find shelter from the weather and predators:
The more plants you have in your yard, the more places for critters to hide and scramble for safety.
Some people build toad houses for frogs (or chipmunks?) to hide in. A roost box can be helpful for some birds in the wintertime. Bats have a very hard time in the city, and instead of seeking shelter in your attic at night, it would be better for us and the bats to have a bat shelter provided for them.
One of the most common practices that needs to be curtailed to some extent is the raking up of all the fall leaves in your yard, and carting them away. This goes against nature on many levels. The leaves are meant to create a duff layer in a forest, and the nutrients are recycled back into the soil and the trees and plants. Just as importantly, many insects lay eggs in them to overwinter, while other critters from bugs to toads just might curl up in these leaves and try to hibernate through the winter there. Try to find room to keep your leaves in your yard, perhaps in your raingarden, in your native plantings and hedges, and around the edges of your yard. Plus, what you do need to rake up could be placed in your composter (a mini-habitat in itself, plus you can then create free "fertilizer" to return those nutrients back to your soil and plants, as nature intended).
Winter can be a tough time, and an evergreen tree can be especially helpful for birds to hide out from predators and get shelter from the weather. For a lot of critters, they dig down and hibernate underground or in the leaf litter, waiting to reemerge in the spring. A thick layer of snow is also important for some animals and plants. If our winters continue to get milder and shorter, some of our current species will whimper out here, and possibly thrive further north instead.
See the official certification page
Wildlife need at least two places to find shelter from the weather and predators:
- Wooded Area
- Bramble Patch
- Ground Cover
- Rock Pile or Wall
- Cave
- Roosting Box
- Dense Shrubs or Thicket
- Evergreens
- Brush or Log Pile
- Burrow
- Meadow or Prairie
- Water Garden or Pond
Examples from your neighbors
Coming soon!More ideas
It wouldn't be very nice to attract a bunch of threatened wildlife to your yard, only to have them gobbled up instantly by predators. Help create a balanced ecosystem by providing spots for vulnerable prey species to hide or take shelter from predators and extreme weather.The more plants you have in your yard, the more places for critters to hide and scramble for safety.
Some people build toad houses for frogs (or chipmunks?) to hide in. A roost box can be helpful for some birds in the wintertime. Bats have a very hard time in the city, and instead of seeking shelter in your attic at night, it would be better for us and the bats to have a bat shelter provided for them.
One of the most common practices that needs to be curtailed to some extent is the raking up of all the fall leaves in your yard, and carting them away. This goes against nature on many levels. The leaves are meant to create a duff layer in a forest, and the nutrients are recycled back into the soil and the trees and plants. Just as importantly, many insects lay eggs in them to overwinter, while other critters from bugs to toads just might curl up in these leaves and try to hibernate through the winter there. Try to find room to keep your leaves in your yard, perhaps in your raingarden, in your native plantings and hedges, and around the edges of your yard. Plus, what you do need to rake up could be placed in your composter (a mini-habitat in itself, plus you can then create free "fertilizer" to return those nutrients back to your soil and plants, as nature intended).
Winter can be a tough time, and an evergreen tree can be especially helpful for birds to hide out from predators and get shelter from the weather. For a lot of critters, they dig down and hibernate underground or in the leaf litter, waiting to reemerge in the spring. A thick layer of snow is also important for some animals and plants. If our winters continue to get milder and shorter, some of our current species will whimper out here, and possibly thrive further north instead.
- Trees, Shrubs, Vines, Forbs, Ponds, etc.
- Woodland: Upper Canopy, Shrub Layer, Forbs, Vines, Groundcover/Humus
- Prairie Jungle: plant densely to provide cover, prevent weeds and curtail need for mulching
- Leave the leaves - and stems too!
- Mast a compost heap for the leaves you need to rake up
- No artificial light (or at least motion sensing lights)
- Evergreen trees and shrubs for the wintertime especially
- Brush and rock piles
- Dens?
- Keep cats indoors
- Connect green spaces and wildlife corridors