On the QT | The Official Newsletter of GWA June-July 2016 | Page 21

P H O T O C O U R T E S Y N A N C Y TAY L O R R O B S O N

regal fritillary, and 700 species of moths. It’s
a very visual and sensual experience.”

Bees foraging on purple coneflower (Echinacea spp.)

“If we all planted for wildlife in our
backyards, we would be creating wildlife
corridors,” says Robyn Efron, certified
horticulturist and master naturalist at
Adkins Arboretum, Ridgely, Maryland.
“But if you’re going to do it, do it so it truly
helps.” For example, Adkins’s monarch butterfly waystation offers native goldenrods
(Solidago spp.) and asters (Symphyotricum
spp.)—both late season nectar sources.
It also has a large planting of perennial
swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata), one
of the monarchs’ primary host plants.
MISCONCEPTIONS
The movement to create wildlife-friendly
gardens faces challenges such as preconceived notions that wildlife gardens are by
nature untidy. This has led some housing
developments and homeowners associations to establish covenants restricting
perceived untidiness, while at the same
time supporting the use of invasive plants,
such as Bradford pears (Pyrus calleryana)
and barberries (Berberis spp.). Yet, well-designed, wildlife-friendly spaces can be
visually striking, as well as ecologically rich.
“Beauty of all kinds is part of the equation,” says Gregg Tepper, director of horticulture at the evolving 37-acre, Delaware
Botanic Garden at Pepper Creek in Dagsboro. “We’ll be focusing on the beauty of
the plantings. People will come to see the
beautiful flowers and textures, but beauty is
also the ability to support life.”
The ability to support life is something
that, consciously or unconsciously, human
beings crave. The High Line in lower Manhattan, once an empty concrete-and-steel
railway trestle slated for demolition, is now

a 1.45-mile green space filled with native
plants, which support an increasing diversity of birds, insects, pollinators and visiting
humans. Not coincidentally, it has also
positively impacted local housing prices.
Many people make an effort to support
wildlife by maintaining bird feeders or
installing bumblebee houses, but these
are human-dependent and species-specific stopgaps. It would be more effective
for homeowners to consider planting for
wildlife—a broader, more self-perpetuating
approach that also has a “build-it-and-theywill-come” effect.
“When I first came, it was a very quiet
place,” says Alyssa Nyberg, nursery manager and outreach coordinator at Kankakee
Sands’ Efroymson Restoration project in
Indiana. “You might hear crickets and one
or two frogs. But now it’s very noisy. We
have 240 different birds, over 70 species of
butterflies, including the state-endangered

MORE THAN FLYING FAUNA
“In urban areas, it’s easier to help our flying wildlife—birds and pollinators,” notes
Patrick Fitzgerald, NWF senior director of
community wildlife. “Hard surface barriers,
fences, walls can be a problem for non-flying wildlife.”
Not surprisingly, people are usually much
more open to planting for ‘flying wildlife’ than some of the non-flying species,
especially since proximity to some of the
larger predators offers challenges. P22, a
mountain lion in LA’s Griffith Park (who has
his own Facebook page!), recently ate a
pet koala bear. Another California woman
lost one of her backyard goats to a mountain lion, but doesn’t blame the territory-squeezed animal. “She’s one of our best
volunteers,” says Pratt-Bergstrom. “She
was sad of course, but says it was her fault
for not protecting the goats sufficiently.”
Ultimately, we need to know much more
than we do about the part each species
plays in the environmental tapestry that
sustains us all. The National Geographic
documentary, How Wolves Change Rivers,
offers rich food for thought.
“We’re not putting aside any more
national parks but we can create parks by
linking these supportive areas together—
and a lot of people are willing,” Pratt-Bergstrom says. “I’m envisioning that we’re
starting with neighborhood corridors and
then citywide and then, who knows?”
GWA member Nancy Taylor Robson lives on the
rural Eastern Shore of Maryland, where wildlife
both enhances and challenges gardening, as well
as other aspects of life.

RESOURCES:
How Wolves Change Rivers https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysa5OBhXz-Q
Suggested reading:
Louv, Richard. Last Child in the Wood. Algonquin Press
Louv, Richard. The Nature Principle. Algonquin Press
Mizejewski, David. Attracting Birds, Butterflies and Other Backyard Wildlife. National
Wildlife Federation
Pratt-Bergstrom, Beth. When Mountain Lions are Neighbors. Heyday Books
Stolzenburg, William. Where the Wild Things Were. Bloomsbury
Summers, Carolyn. Designing Gardens with Flora of the American East. Rutgers University Press
Tallamy, Douglas W. Bringing Nature Home. Timber Press
Wilcove, David S. No Way Home. Island Press
Zimmerman, Catherine. Urban and Suburban Meadows. Matrix Media Press

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