A male northern cardinal feeds its mate a beetle larva in a Brandon, Mississippi, backyard. Insects, which rely on native plants, are critical food for birds, particularly during the breeding season. Photo by Paul Brown.

I didn’t appreciate just how important native plants are, however, until I began to work a story, “Urban Renewal,” published in the current issue of National Wildlife magazine. Reporting for the article, which describes various ways residents of cities and suburbs can help birds, I interviewed wildlife-gardening guru Doug Tallamy, an entomologist at the University of Delaware, and read his book, Bringing Nature Home: How You Can Sustain Wildlife with Native Plants.

Tallamy’s key message was that native plants are essential to producing the insects birds need, particularly during the breeding season. “Birds do not reproduce on berries and seeds,” he told me. “Ninety-six percent of terrestrial birds rear their young on insects.”

Carolina chickadees can feed their offspring up to 590 caterpillars a day. Photo by Patricia McCairen.

And they need a lot of caterpillars. Recently, Tallamy spent 16 days observing a Carolina chickadee nest in his Delaware backyard. He discovered that the birds fed their offspring between 300 and 590 caterpillars a day. The chickadees needed 4,800 caterpillars to rear a single clutch of chicks.

“We’re used to thinking of the plants in our yards as decorations,” Tallamy says. It’s wonderful when plants are attractive, he adds, but if they’re exotics such as gingko, crape myrtle or European privet—all unpalatable to insects—they do not pass along the sun’s energy to birds and other wildlife. “You might as well install a statue,” Tallamy says.

Learn more about choosing and cultivating native plants, then turn your yard into a Certified Wildlife Habitat ® site. This month only, Garden For Wildlife Month, NWF will plant a native tree in your honor when you certify your property.

Aspens in Grand Teton National Park. National Wildlife Photo Contest entry by William Wiley.

NWF can assist you each step of the way in organizing a tree planting event, from helping to figure out the right time to plant to advising on what native species to use, (GO NATIVE!) to helping you involve friends and community members.

I am challenging youth of all ages to make a commitment to help wildlife and our planet by organizing a service project at their school or in their community to plant trees.

Friends, family and community members can help as well. Donate today to NWF’s tree bank and help us provide trees to students to plant in their community.

We Need Trees!

Trees play a critical role in supporting so many other living things – human and wildlife alike.  Did you know…

• Trees clean the air: Trees absorb odors and pollutants and filter our air through their leaves and bark — our own built-in air purification system!
• Trees provide oxygen: Over the course of a year one acre of trees provides enough oxygen for 18 people.
• Trees save water AND help keep our water clean: Trees help to both reduce runoff and help to filter groundwater and the water in our streams. Shade from trees helps slow water evaporation so you don’t need to water your lawn as much.
• Trees provide jobs: Whether it is harvesting fruit, nuts, or other products from trees or using trees for clothing, tires and other products – trees provide jobs and help to sustain our economy.
• Trees are critical for wildlife: Trees provide many different species with food, cover and places to raise young and for some species are even their water source. Whether it is in the canopy or trunk or roots wildlife can be found both in living, dying and dead trees helping to keep our ecosystems balanced.

So take up our 2013 National Wildlife Week challenge to Branch out for Wildlife and help us plant 75,000 trees!

Photo by Lynne Lucas. 2010 National Wildlife Photo Contest entry.

Native Plants for Your Yard

Putting native plants in your yard is a great way to help wildlife and bring new life to your home. Learn some of the top native plants for your area >>

Photo of cardinal flower donated by Paul Lackey

So, take a look below to find the best native plants for your area. Then, get planting!

Midwest

A wildlife favorite: Cup plant. This plant is a perennial that has numerous large, yellow flowers. The small cup formed by the leaves holds water and attracts birds.

More plants: New England aster, wild columbine, black oak, cranberry viburnum

Northeast

A wildlife favorite: Cardinal flower. Because of its long tubular flowers, cardinal flowers attract hummingbirds, which feed on the nectar.

More plants: Eastern red cedar, blue vervein, red chokeberry, winterberry

Pacific Northwest

A wildlife favorite: Salmonberry. This shrub hosts bright pink flowers and yellow or salmon-red fruits resembling blackberries in all but color. Birds and small mammals love to feast on the sweet berries.

More plants: Douglas fir, western serviceberry, red columbine, beach strawberry

Photo of Aspens donated by Chad Martens

Rocky Mountains

A wildlife favorite: Quaking Aspen. This tree can be planted as an ornamental. Beavers, rabbits, and other mammals eat the bark, foliage and buds, and grouse and quail feed on the winter buds.

More plants: Rocky Mountain juniper, dotted blazing star, golden currant, scarlet gilia

Southeast

A wildlife favorite: Climbing aster. With its unusual rambling habit and abundance of blooms, this shrub is a good choice for gardens. It is a caterpillar food plant for the American Painted Lady butterfly and provides nectar for many species of adult butterflies.

More plants: Willow oak, American elderberry, trumpet honeysuckle, narrow leaf sunflower

Southwest

A wildlife favorite: Skunkbush sumac. One of the more widespread sumacs in the West, this shrub provides fruit that is an important source of winter food for many songbirds, as well as gamebirds and a number of small mammals.

More plants: Desert willow, teddybear cholla, desert marigold, Rocky Mountain juniper

Native plants can help provide the food, water, shelter and places to raise young that wildlife need to survive. When you provide these four essential elements, you’ll also be eligible to certify your yard as an official Certified Wildlife Habitat® site. You’ll join a community of like-minded gardeners and receive great benefits. Certify today!

Note: For the top native plants in Alaska, please visit this page. We have not provided a native plant list for Hawaii because the plant diversity changes from island to island.

Photo donated by Danny Brown

Check out what they had to say, and then use their inspiration to create your own backyard wildlife haven!

“Cover… lots of it. Not just a tree here and a shrub there, but many different ones blended like a natural setting.”

-Lynn J., Indiana

“Always have a water source, and always plant food sources. I’m just outside Chicago, but I have created a wonderful garden habitat in my small space. I try to find plants that shelter or can be a food source. As more wildlife comes to visit, my garden will morph!”

-Nancy L., Illinois

“Water in different types of containers. Some in bird baths (low and high), in glass bowls, in plastic/clay plant saucers with a rock in the middle, hanging in the trees, running across rocks… then sit back and enjoy!”

-Carol S., Georgia

Photo donated by Paul Lackey

-George M., Massachusetts

“Don’t be a neatnik; encourage a diverse habitat.”

-Dana B., Georgia

Turn your yard or garden into an official National Wildlife Federation Certified Wildlife Habitat® site and you’ll be joining over 150,000 other dedicated friends who have gone above and beyond for local wildlife.

Girl Power with the Construction of the Freedom Tower in the Backdrop.

On Saturday, June 23, 2012, thousands of amazing Girl Scouts converged at Liberty State Park for New Jersey Girl Scouts Council’s “BIG Celebration” (“Believe In Girls”).

National Wildlife Federation was the Eco-Service Project Partner for this special event, meaning we organized the service project to convert a grass field into wildlife habitat.

Everyone was in great spirits, lots of families and troops working together and the Girl Scouts got a service patch to recognize their contribution. For a great Star Ledger article about the event, click here.

Over the course of the day we transformed a 1,500 square-foot lawn into habitat for wildlife!

Here were the necessary ingredients to make the event so successful:

• 650 plants planted (600 were natives from American Beauties and 50 annuals)
• 600 cubic yards of mulch spread
• 1,500 gallons of water for plants
• 2,200 scouts and leaders
• 15 NWF Certified Wildlife Habitat owners
• 42 Verizon Employees (volunteers)
• 15 Liberty Mutual Employees (volunteers)
• 7 Liberty State Park employees
• 10 Girl Scout Employees of Northern New Jersey Council (volunteers)

Planting Trees in the Shadow of Lady Liberty

Girl Power + Shovels = New Wildlife Habitat

Digging holes, planting, watering and mulching almost what feels like right under the rising Freedom Tower and the Statute of Liberty made me proud to be American, a former New Jersey guy and NWFer. The Girl Scouts and our great partners made this special park even better.

Verizon employees also made the day special with an amazing turnout and energy. We had 42 Verizon volunteers participate in the event. It was exciting to see Verizon volunteers bring out their family to the event. All the volunteers made a real contribution to all the hard work it takes to get 650 plants in the ground.

Team Verizon Makes a Difference

Barry Sullivan and Marie Longo, both certified habitat owners for over 12 years, each gave two days of service (and took time off work) to  share their passion for wildlife and talk about their own habitats and the work NWF does with Girl Scouts and volunteers alike.

A special thanks goes out to all the volunteers, as well as my fellow NWF coworkers, who are doing a great job of getting kids outside and connected to nature.

Related Links:

• Garden for Wildlife – Learn how you can create wildlife-friendly habitat by providing food, water, cover and a place for wildlife to raise young.
• Certify your Wildlife Garden – Get your home, school, business or community designated as a Certified Wildlife Habitat.
• Volunteer with NWF – Find out how you can volunteer with NWF to help others learn about making wildlife habitat.
• Plant Trees for Wildlife – Learn how you can host a tree-planting event with your scout troop or community group.
• NWF’s Eco-Schools USA Program – See how NWF is helping inspire kids of all ages to help create sustainable schools and care for the environment.

Please consider becoming an NWF member to support these and other important activities >>

We are in the home stretch of Garden for Wildlife Month! This week, we are featuring backyard flora and fauna that are yellow–a happy and joyful color.  (Did you miss last week’s color? View the BLUE blog here.)  Does your backyard play host to any of these golden gems?

These photos were donated by past participants in the National Wildlife® Photo Contest. To enter your photos in this year’s contest, visit the contest site.

View the Special Anniversary Issue Slideshow: 50 Years of Incredible Images

Western Tanager

The red pigment in the face of the Western Tanager is rhodoxanthin, a pigment rare in birds. It is not manufactured by the bird, as are the pigments used by the other red tanagers. Instead, it must be acquired from the diet, presumably from insects that themselves acquire the pigment from plants. (Photo: Jim Brown)

Aspen

Aspen has been traditionally reputed in many countries to drive off evil spirits, hence it was often planted near dwellings. (Photo: Chad Martens)

Cape May Warbler

The average clutch size of the Cape May Warbler (six) is greater than that of other warblers. This large clutch size may allow Cape May Warbler populations to expand rapidly during outbreaks of their preferred prey, spruce budworms. (Photo: Michael Henry)

Jumping Spider

The jumping spider family contains more than 500 described genera and about 5,000 described species,making it the largest family of spiderswith about 13% of all species. (Photo: Jeffery Waldorff)

American Goldfinch

Goldfinches are among the strictest vegetarians in the bird world, selecting an entirely vegetable diet and only inadvertently swallowing an occasional insect. (Photo: Christine Adachi)

Monarch Caterpillar

A Monarch caterpillar can eat enough milkweed in one day to equal its own body weight. Just 9 to 14 days after hatching from its eggs, a caterpillar will grow to about 2 inches long. (Photo: Andrew Halverson)

Yellow Warbler

Life can be dangerous for a small bird. Yellow Warblers have occasionally been found caught in the strands of an orb weaver spider’s web. (Photo: Steven Manly)

Tiger Swallowtail

There are more than 550 species of swallowtail butterflies around the word. Altough the majority are tropical, members of the family are found on all continents except Antarctica. (Photo: Marty Bays)

Goldenrod

Goldenrod is often unfairly blamed for causing hay fever in humans. The pollen causing these allergies is mainly produced by ragweed which blooms at the same time as goldenrod but is wind-pollinated. Goldenrod pollen is too heavy and sticky to be blown far from the flowers, so is mainly pollinated by insects. (Photo: Weg Thomas)

Black-Eyed Susan

The Black-Eyed Susan has been the official flower of Maryland since 1918 when it was designated the "Floral Emblem" of Maryland by the General Assembly. (Photo: Marvin De Jong)

It’s not too late to make your yard wildlife-friendly during Garden for Wildlife Month! Create an official Certified Wildlife Habitat® site before the end of May and we’ll plant a tree in your honor!>>

Asclepias tuberosa – Butterfly weed provides nectar for butterflies and serves as homes and food sources for Monarch caterpillars.

I am often asked why native plants are becoming so popular, and why we’re reading and hearing so much about them these days. I think it’s part of a larger “green movement” that we’re experiencing in our country today. People are becoming more aware and better educated about our environment through organizations like the National Wildlife Federation.

There seems to be a sincere desire to live in such a way that our impact on the environment is lessened. Perceptions about nature and beauty are changing too. While a meadow or a woodland garden may once have been thought of as “messy,” natural landscapes are now valued for their biodiversity as well as their beauty.

Another reason that native plants are becoming so popular is that people are having real success growing natives, quite simply because they are easier to grow. They are already adapted to your soil and climate. They don’t need extra chemicals in the form of costly chemical fertilizers and pesticides to grow and thrive. And, once your new plants are established, their water needs are more in balance with what nature provides.

I enjoy working in the garden, but a little less work and a little more R&R doesn’t sound bad to me. More importantly, when my children or grandchildren play in the yard or eat food we grow there, I want to know it’s safe.

Speaking of children, who wouldn’t want theirs to discover the wonders of nature in their own back yards? Native plants provide food and shelter for the birds, butterflies and all the other creatures we cherish and delight in watching. Here is an example that everyone can identify with: the relationship between a Monarch butterfly and a milkweed plant.

Milkweed plants produce alkaloids that are toxic to many creatures. Monarch butterflies have evolved to have an immunity to the toxins and, in fact, by ingesting them are less delectable and better able to ward off bird predation. The relationship is so interconnected that Monarchs can only feed on milkweed. Please, think about it for one minute: no milkweed, no more Monarchs. That is not an unusual story in the world of plants and animals.

Asclepias tuberosa ‘Hello Yellow’ – My favorite! The golden yellow blossoms of this perennial will give you long lasting color in your sunny border.

I really want to be clear, I’m not advocating that you tear your garden apart and swear off non-native plants forever and neither is anyone at American Beauties. I’m just hoping that you’ll make a start, and begin to incorporate more native plants into your garden. Maybe you could start with some milkweed. I think you’ll be happy you did. When you buy American Beauties Native Plants a portion of the proceeds go to our partner, the National Wildlife Federation.

Peggy Anne Montgomery runs her own business as a horticultural consultant. She is proud to represent American Beauties Native Plants as their Brand Manager. As a long-standing member of the Garden Writers Association, she has written for numerous trade and popular publications such as Better Homes & Gardens, American Nurseryman and Organic Gardening. Peggy Anne has a background in native plant research, public relations with a large wholesale nursery, and she has owned her own business as a landscape designer in the Netherlands. In her free time she is an avid home gardener as well.

What is a native plant? That may sound like an easy question but it isn’t. There are almost as many different definitions as people you ask. Our environment is an extremely elaborate system, with endless inner connections between its parts and that makes it impossible to speak in generalizations. Definitions will always vary depending on the way people or groups of people want to interact with nature. However, most people begin to accept the idea that we are talking about plants that were here before the European colonization of North and South America.

I come from a nursery background. I worked with a larger, wholesale producer of plants in the Mid-west. We advertised our plants as hardy, Northern grown stock. That meant that we needed to be very careful of where our plant seed came from. Let’s use a White Oak tree as an example.

If you took an acorn from a White Oak tree in the south and an acorn from a White Oak in the far north, they would not be genetically identical. The White Oak that evolved in a cold Northern climate would be more cold tolerant and naturally differ in many other ways from the southern-grown species. Conversely, the southern acorn would likely produce a tree with more heat tolerance.

The basis of that story holds true for all plants. There will always be at least slight variations in plant populations from place to place. That is why conservationists and habitat restoration workers try hard to use local ecotypes. An ecotype is a subgroup of a species and the more closely you can match your plant material to a specific site, the better they will grow and support local wildlife. This effort to preserve not only native species but also the natural diversity within a species is commendable work indeed.

At American Beauties Native Plants, we take a slightly broader view in our definition of native plants–we include cultivars. A cultivar is a plant that has been selected and cultivated because of some unique quality, such as disease resistance, cold hardiness, height, flower form or color. Sometimes interesting varieties are found in nature and brought into cultivation making them cultivated varieties or cultivars. In my years as a research horticulturist I observed pollinators, birds and other wildlife interacting freely with cultivated plants.

The definitions can get quite complicated but it isn’t necessary to become a taxonomist to enjoy native plants. The idea behind the American Beauties Native Plants brand is to help people identify what plants are native in their area and to make it easy for them to incorporate the plants into their landscapes and attract wildlife. That’s why we partnered with National Wildlife Federation. We are proud to support them and work together to encourage Gardening for Wildlife. Gardening, after all, is about enjoying life–all life!

Peggy Anne Montgomery runs her own business as a horticultural consultant. She is proud to represent American Beauties Native Plants as their Brand Manager. As a long-standing member of the Garden Writers Association, she has written for numerous trade and popular publications such as Better Homes & Gardens, American Nurseryman and Organic Gardening. Peggy Anne has a background in native plant research, public relations with a large wholesale nursery, and she has owned her own business as a landscape designer in the Netherlands. In her free time she is an avid home gardener as well.

Not all the wildlife that can benefit from a wildlife-friendly garden are songbirds, butterflies and cute, furry mammals. Some of them are slimy, slithery and nocturnal too, and they are no less important or cool to see (although hosts Jenna Wolf and Lester Holt still might not be convinced based on their funny facial expressions).

Watch the segment below and meet some of these non-traditional species, and then submit your garden to become a Certified Wildlife Habitat!

Special thanks to partner American Beauties Native Plants for providing the gorgeous plants for the segment.