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Help
out the wildlife in your yard -- make a brush pile! |
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Create
excellent cover for reptiles, amphibians, insects, and other critters.
Brush piles,
rock piles or stone walls make excellent places for many amphibians, small
reptiles, and other wildlife species to hide, find food, and even raise their
young.
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What you can
do:
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Leave fallen logs on the ground, letting them
decay naturally.
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Leave some leaf litter on the ground or in your
planting beds.
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Build a permanent brush pile, rock pile, and/or
log pile in the shade.
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Building a
wildlife brush shelter is quick, easy, involves little to no cost and is lots of
fun. The concept is simple: build a sturdy structure out of logs and branches
that provides shelter while still allowing enough spaces for animals to move
around. Your goal is to provide a fortress of crevices and interlocking branches
to provide hiding places for dozens of animal species.
Start
by building a strong base with about a half dozen large logs, six to ten feet
long and four to six inches in diameter. Stack and criss-cross them in a manner
that's sturdy and provides a variety of runways and spaces. (Imagine an animal
the size of a rabbit being able to navigate through your structure). Then simply
start adding large branches criss-crossed in a slightly tighter mesh than the
logs. Continue adding more branches of a gradually smaller diameter and a
denser, more compact weave. Your end product will be an dome-like structure. The
dimensions of an average brush shelter are approximately ten feet across and
five feet high. However, if you're dealing with limited space, a shelter half
that size made with smaller brush will still attract a variety of critters.
Someone with a larger property may want several shelters twice that size.
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Tips
for Creating Brush Shelters
| Some communities do not allow brush shelters,
and some neighbors might not understand their value. Check your local codes
and notify your neighbors if the brush pile will be highly visible.
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| Place your
shelter on the edge between two habitats - these "ecotones" house
the most wildlife.
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| Make sure at least half of your shelter receives
direct sunlight - many animals love to bask.
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| Use stone piles in your shelter as part of the
base to create hiding places and along the edges to serve as basking sites.
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| Plant native flowering/fruiting vines to sprawl
over the shelter to attract hummingbirds and songbirds.
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| Weave evergreen branches into the roof of your
shelter in the winter to provide cover from snow/ice storms.
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| Add old pipes to your shelter's base to serve as
tunnels for rodents, reptiles and amphibians.
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(Brush
pile information & instructions courtesy of National Wildlife Foundation
website)
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