important to migrants. Finding neighbors who are willing to
join your conservation community has been made easy by
social media. Apps like Nextdoor or Yardmap enable you to
connect and coordinate with others in your neighborhood
more easily than ever before.
Build a conservation hardscape
There are many things we can do to reduce the carnage we
humans regularly inflict on local wildlife that have nothing to
do with gardening. For example, each year millions of toads,
frogs, voles, and other small creatures become trapped in
our window wells where they slowly starve to death. Cheap
window well covers can reduce these needless deaths to
zero. Put motion sensors on your security lights so they only
light up when the bad man comes. Security lights that blaze
all night are ecological traps that kill thousands of moths,
increase your carbon footprint, and do not improve security
over lights with motion sensors. Set your mower height no
lower than 3 inches (4 inches is even better). Not only will
you have healthier, greener grass that requires less watering,
but there is a good chance you will be able to mow right
over your box turtles without killing them. And try not to
mow in the evening. As dusk approaches, many nocturnal
species leave their hiding places and are vulnerable to being
pulverized by your mowing. Install a bubbler; small water
features with gentle gurgling sounds don’t take much space
but are irresistible to both migrating and resident birds (www.
youtube.com/watch?v=x7K3hHAdgls). Rather than one large
bee hotel, build several small ones with only four or five holes
each. Then disperse these smaller units throughout your yard.
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