June 30, 2010 issue - NYS Dept. of Environmental Conservation

June 30, 2010

Wildlife Gardens
Family Fun
Upcoming DEC Events
- Long Island
- Hudson Valley - Stony Kill Farm Environmental Education Center
- Capital District - Five Rivers Environmental Education Center and Albany Pine Bush Discovery Center
- Adirondacks - Adirondack Park Agency Visitors Interpretive Centers at Newcomb and Paul Smiths
- Central New York - Rogers Environmental Education Center
- Western New York - Reinstein Woods Environmental Education Center

Wildlife Gardens

A wildlife garden is a habitat that is home to a variety of wildlife, such as birds, mammals, insects, reptiles and amphibians. You don't need a lot of space to create a wildlife garden, just a few key elements that each of these creatures needs. It is best to use native plants in your wildlife garden-their blooms and fruits are part of the natural diet of animals, insects and birds. Native plants are also much easier to maintain. A wildlife garden doesn't just contain plants and flowers either. You can have a pond or a birdbath to welcome birds, frogs, newts, butterflies and dragonflies; nest boxes for birds, bees and bats, and dead trees or logs to provide shelter. Best of all, a wildlife garden doesn't require a lot of maintenance, nor does it need chemicals because it is a natural habitat. Watching wildlife come to eat, drink, nest and hide can be fun and relaxing too.

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Family Fun

Certify Your Wildlife Garden

The National Wildlife Federation has a Certified Wildlife Habitat program for people who create a wildlife garden. To be certified, your garden needs the following elements:
-Food sources such as native plants, seeds, fruits, nuts, berries or nectar
-Water sources such as a water garden, birdbath, pond or stream
-Places for cover, including birdhouses, thickets or rock piles so that animals and birds can seek shelter from predators, people and weather
-Places to raise young, such as dense shrubs, nesting boxes or vegetation
-"Green" gardening features, including mulch, compost, a rain garden or chemical-free fertilizer

Habitat Study

Younger children will enjoy a habitat hunt to search for diverse plant life that many creatures depend on for food and shelter. Write the following on separate index cards, making several of each: Leaf Shape, Color, Texture and Size. Using the cards, find an example of different kinds of plants. For example, on a leaf shape card you could write "smooth edges" or "yellow" on a color card. Look around the plant for signs of animals. These could include holes in leaves, eggs on the underside of a leaf, insects resting on leaves or the pollen or nectar in a flower, a hole in the ground, a path made by animals or a bird's nest. Write your findings on the cards to see which creatures prefer which plants. If you see a spider on a tall yellow flower with smooth leaves, you would write "spider" on each of the cards that describes the plant.

Read Conservationist for Kids for more information and activities!