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Go Wild!Bringing Birds and Wildlife to Woodlands, Farmlands and Big Backyards
Washington Conservation District and other Clean Water Partners are working with sportsmen groups and local non-profits and like Audubon Minnesota to help you bring birds and other wildlife into your backyard. Improving backyard habitat can be as simple as adding native trees, shrubs and flowers to existing woodlands and gardens. Native plants provide additional food for birds and wildlife, and also attract larval insects that songbirds eat. Bur oak and white oak are excellent choices, as well as smaller trees like serviceberry, redosier dogwood and nannyberry. Even perennial wildflowers like aster, wild strawberry and goldenrod provide food for birds, in addition to attracting butterflies with their colorful blooms.
As well as providing habitat, native trees, shrubs and flowers also help to keep local lakes clean. These plants capture large quantities of rain and melting snow before it causes erosion or runoff pollution. Their deep roots also help to stabilize crumbling stream banks and lakeshores, as well as breaking up compacted soil in residential yards. The Conservation District offers a low-cost tree sale each spring. Bundles bundles of bare-root saplings are just $32.50 for 25 trees. New this year, there are also bird packets for $50, which include five each of bur oak, white oak, black cherry, white pine, nannyberry and wild plum. To find native plants that will grow well in your yard, as well as garden designs and partner nurseries and landscaping companies, visit www.BlueThumb.org. Visit the Clean Water Partners page to learn about grants for planting projects in your area.
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