Birds & Trees

LANDSCAPING TO ATTRACT BIRDS

Among the fondest and most memorable moments of childhood are the discoveries of songbirds nesting in the backyard. The distinctive, mud-lined nests of robins and their beautiful blue eggs captivate people of all ages. Likewise, the nesting activities of house wrens, cardinals, chickadees, and other common birds can stimulate a lifelong interest in nature.

As people learn to enjoy the beauty of birdlife around their home, they may wish to improve the "habitat" in their yard so that more birds will visit their property. You can attract birds by placing bird feeders, nest boxes, and bird baths in your yard, and by planting a variety of trees, shrubs, and flowers. These can provide good nesting sites, winter shelter, places to hide from predators, and natural food supplies that are available year-round.

BENEFITS OF LANDSCAPING FOR BIRDS

At least ten benefits can be derived from landscaping to attract birds to your yard:

Increased Wildlife Populations - You can probably double the number of bird species using your property with a good landscaping plan.

Energy Conservation - By carefully arranging your conifer and hardwood trees, you can lower winter heating and summer cooling bills for your house.

Soil Conservation - Certain landscape plants can prevent soil erosion.

Natural Beauty - A good landscaping plan will contribute to a beautiful, natural setting around your home that is pleasing to people as well as birds.

Wildlife Photography - Wildlife photography is a wonderful hobby for people of all ages.

Birdwatching - A fun hobby is to keep a list of all the birds seen in your yard or from your yard. Some people have counted over 190 species of birds in their yard!

Natural Insect Control - Birds such as tree swallows, house wrens, brown thrashers, and orioles eat a variety of insects.

Food Production - Some plants that attract wildlife are also appealing to people. Cherries, chokecherries, strawberries, and crabapples can be shared by people and wildlife.

Property Value - A good landscaping plan can greatly increase the value of your property by adding natural beauty and an abundance of wildlife.

Habitat for Kids - Some of the best wildlife habitats are the best "habitats" for young people to discover the wonders of nature. A backyard habitat can stimulate young people to develop a lifelong interest in wildlife and conservation

HOW TO GET STARTED

Think of this project as "landscaping for birds." Your goal will be to plant an assortment of trees, shrubs, and flowers that will attract birds. If you plan carefully it can be inexpensive and fun for the whole family.

The best way to get started is to follow these guidelines:

Set Your Priorities - Decide what types of birds you wish to attract, then build your plan around the needs of those species. Talk to friends and neighbors to find out what kinds of birds frequent your area. Attend a local bird club meeting and talk to local birdwatchers about how they have attracted birds to their yards.

Use Native Plants When Possible - Check with the botany department of a nearby college or university or with your Natural Heritage Program for lists of trees, shrubs, and wildflowers native to your area. Use this list as a starting point for your landscape plan. These plants are naturally adapted to the climate of your area and are a good long-term investment. Many native plants are beautiful for landscaping purposes and are excellent for birds. If you include non-native plant species in your plan, be sure they are not considered "invasive pests" by plant experts.

Draw a Map of Your Property - Draw a map of your property to scale using graph paper. Identify buildings, sidewalks, powerlines, buried cables, fences, septic tank fields, trees, shrubs, and patios. Consider how your plan relates to your neighbor's property (will the tree you plant shade out the neighbor's vegetable garden?) Identify and map sunny or shady sites, low or wet sites, sandy sites, and native plants that will be left in place. Also identify special views that you wish to enhance--areas for pets, benches, picnics, storage, playing, sledding, vegetable gardens, and paths.

Get Your Soil Tested - Get your soil tested by your local garden center, university, or soil conservation service. Find out what kinds of soil you have, and then find out if your soils have nutrient or organic deficiencies that can be corrected by fertilization or addition of compost. The soils you have will help determine the plants which can be included in your landscaping plan.

Review the Seven Plant Habitat Components - Review the seven plant components that were described previously. Which components are already present? Which ones are missing? Remember that you are trying to provide food and cover through all four seasons. Develop a list of plants that you think will provide the missing habitat components.

Confer With Resource Experts - Review this plant list with landscaping resource experts who can match your ideas with your soil types, soil drainage, and the plants available through state or private nurseries. People at the nearby arboretum may be able to help with your selections. At an arboretum you can also see what many plants look like.

Develop Your Planting Plan - Sketch on your map the plants you wish to add. Trees should be drawn to a scale that represents three-fourths of their mature width and shrubs at their full mature width. This will help you calculate how many trees and shrubs you need. There is a tendency to include so many trees that eventually your yard will be mostly shaded. Be sure to leave open sunny sites where flowers and shrubs can thrive. Decide how much money you can spend and the time span of your project. Don't try to do too much at once. Perhaps you should try a five year development plan.

Implement Your Plan - Finally, go to it! Begin your plantings and be sure to include your family so they can all feel they are helping wildlife. Document your plantings on paper and by photographs. Try taking pictures of your yard from the same spots every year to document the growth of your plants.

Maintain Your Plan - Keep your new trees, shrubs, and flowers adequately watered, and keep your planting areas weed-free by use of landscaping film and wood chips or shredded bark mulch. This avoids the use of herbicides for weed control. If problems develop with your plants, consult a local nursery or garden center. And Finally... Most of all, take the time to enjoy the wildlife that will eventually respond to your efforts at landscaping for birds.

THE BENEFITS OF TREES

Trees provide a multitude of benefits. Unfortunately, much of the general public is not well informed on this topic. By increasing awareness of the benefits relating to trees, we can all utilize current scientific evidence to help resolve many challenging issues and improve the livability of our cities. Proper tree care and sound forest management programs are crucial to the health, longevity, and sustainability of our urban forests. The care of trees is a wise investment in our future. A listing of the benefits, in no particular order, would include at least the following:

1. Air Temperature and Energy Consumption - Trees cool air temperature and help to offset the "heat island" effect of hardscapes by providing shade and by transpiration (the release of water vapor into the air). By properly selecting and planting trees, yearly energy savings can exceed 40%. Three mature shade trees placed strategically around a house can cut air conditioning bills by 10% to 50%.

A single large tree can release up to 400 gallons of water into the atmosphere each day. Water from roots is drawn up to the leaves where it evaporates. The conversion from water to gas absorbs huge amounts of heat, cooling hot city air.

Dallas area neighborhoods with mature trees can be up to 11 degrees cooler than neighborhoods without trees. A one-degree rise in temperature equals a 2% increase in peak electricity consumption. o One simulation found that planting 500,000 trees in the Tucson area would lower the "heat island" effect by 3 degrees and lower overall cooling costs by up to 25%.

Cities are 5 to 9 degrees warmer than rural areas and 3% to 8% of summer electric use goes to compensate for this urban "heat island" effect.

The National Arbor Day Foundation calculates that 100 million additional mature trees in U.S. cities would reduce the "heat island" effect and save $2 billion annually.

2. Air Quality - Trees produce oxygen and store carbon dioxide (just the opposite of humans), which helps to clean and restore our air. The American Forests organization's studies foresee the value of the urban forest to U.S. cities to be $10 billion by storing carbon dioxide, cleaning particulate matter, and generating oxygen for urban spaces.

One acre of trees produces enough oxygen for 18 people every day.

One acre of trees absorbs the carbon dioxide produced by driving an automobile 26,000 miles.

A fully-grown Sycamore tree can transform 26 pounds of carbon dioxide into life-giving oxygen every year.

Large trees remove 60 to 70 times more pollutants than small trees. Only a small portion of the Dallas area tree population exceeds 24 inches in diameter.

For every ton of wood an urban forest grows, it removes 1.47 tons of carbon dioxide and replaces it with 1.07 tons of oxygen.

A typical tree removes 25 to 45 pounds of carbon from the air each year.

A study of Atlanta's urban forest showed that intense urban development and subsequent removal of large urban forest areas increased the "heat island" effect. This raised the levels of isoprene emissions, increasing the natural formation of harmful ozone.

An EPA study in Chicago showed that the 23.2% of canopy cover in the Lincoln Park neighborhood adjacent to downtown annually filters 43.9 tons of particulate matter, 14 tons of carbon dioxide, and 12.4 tons of nitrogen oxides, giving the urban forest an estimated pollution abatement value of $625,000 per year.

3. Water/Soil - Planting trees along streams, wetlands, and lakes, helps control storm water runoff, removes soil sediment, reduces flood damage, and increases water quality, by reducing the pollution of the water runoff by as much as 80%.

Healthy, vegetated stream buffer zones reduce the total suspended solids phosphorus, nitrogen and heavy metal transfer between urban areas and streams by 55% to 99%.

Numerous studies show that trees along streams increase fish populations.

The urban forest reduces erosion. One square mile of forestland produces 50 tons of erosion sediment. In contrast, farmland produces 1,000 to 50,000 tons, and land prepared for construction produces 25,000 to 50,000 tons of sediment per year.

Tree canopy, in one study, reduced surface runoff from a one-inch rain over a 12 hour period by 17%.

In natural watersheds with trees and vegetation, 5% to 15% of stream flow is delivered as surface storm water runoff. In highly developed areas, over 50% of stream flow is delivered as surface storm water runoff. 4. Animal Habitat

Trees attract wildlife to an area by supporting habitat and creating biodiversity. o Trees provide food and shelter for wildlife.

5. Economics, Health, and Psychological and Social Behavior - Trees offer unlimited climbing challenges and good physical activity opportunities such as tree swings and tree houses.

Numerous trees and plants have proven useful in phytoremediation or removal of toxic materials from soils.

Trees can become living witnesses to our history and evidence of our cultures. Without a cultural history, people are rootless. Preserving historical trees offers lingering evidence to remind people of what they once were, who they are, what they are, and where they are. Trees feed our sense of history and purpose.

Studies across the nation show that residential home prices increase from 3% to 20% due to the presence of trees, depending on the type of trees, scarcity of treed lots, and the maturity of existing trees.

One widely reported study showed that viewing trees through a window during surgery recovery cut the average recovery time by almost one whole day compared to patients with a view of a blank wall.

People turn to the urban forest, preserved by humans as parks, wilderness, or wildlife refuges, for something they cannot get in a built environment. The quality of human life depends on an ecologically sustainable and aesthetically pleasing physical environment. The surge of interest in conserving open spaces from people motivated by ecological and aesthetic concerns is growing.

Trees curtail health care costs by facilitating positive emotional, intellectual, and social experiences.

Environmental stress may involve psychological emotions such as frustration, anger, fear and coping responses; plus associated physiological responses that use energy and contribute to fatigue. Many who live or commute in urban or blighted areas experience environmental stress. Trees in urban setting have a restorative effect that releases the tensions of modern life. Evidence demonstrating the therapeutic value of natural settings has emerged in physiological and psychological studies. The cost of environmental stress in terms of work-days lost and medical care is likely to be substantially greater than the cost of providing and maintaining trees, parks, and urban forestry programs.

Trees are a source of food for humans, i.e. Pecans, Walnuts, Almonds, etc. On a large scale, trees require less fertilizer and keep the soil healthier than most crops.

6. Aesthetics - Trees can screen objectionable views, offer privacy, reduce glare and light reflection, offer a sound barrier (acoustical control), and help guide wind direction and speed.

Trees offer aesthetic functions such as creating a background, framing a view, complementing architecture, and bringing natural elements into urban surroundings.