• Home Page
  Chester County Trees Home Page

Trees For Wildlife

The presence of wildlife can make a backyard or woodlot a special place for your family. As urban and suburban development displaces many birds and animals from their natural habitat, it becomes increasingly important for landowners to provide mini-sanctuaries for wild birds and other wildlife. You can help provide habitat that will attract birds and wildlife to your home.

Provide cover: Birds and small animals need concealed places for nesting and hiding, protected from the eyes of predators. Good natural habitat features variety -- in plant species, in slopes and terrain, in plant height, and in transition between plant communities. In a backyard setting, such places can be provided by...

• Planting conifers (evergreens), preferably in a group.
• Growing hedges with low branches.
• Planting ground cover instead of lawn in several areas.
• Planting shrubs and plants with overhanging branches.
• Using prickly or thorny plants in a few areas.
• Build sloping, rock-faced mounds where birds can probe for food in rock crevices or forage on the sheltered slopes.

• Summer fruit is provided by cherries, dogwoods, plums, and apricots.
• Seeds are provided by ashes, birches, firs, hemlocks, maples, spruces, and sweet gums.
• Nuts and acorns are provided by butternuts, black walnuts, chestnuts, hazels, hickories, oaks, and pecans.
• Fall and winter fruit are provided by apples, crabapples, dogwoods, hackberries, hawthorns, and mountain ashes. These are especially important to help wildlife through the worst part of the year and to save early arriving summer birds that get caught in late season snowstorms.