Creating and Protecting Woody Cover

Many Illinois yards and urban areas contain just a few species of non-native woody plants. For example, yards may have several yew bushes, a couple of shade trees, and nothing else. While yews may be used by house finches, cardinals, and a few other species for nesting, they provide little other wildlife value.

The best thing any homeowner can do is create diversity. Planting a variety of trees and shrubs will create a much better environment for wildlife and humans alike. Use half a dozen or more types of shrubs and at least three different tree species on a half-acre property-the more the better. And of course, even more diversity should be incorporated on a larger property. Look at the types of trees and shrubs already growing in your neighborhood or on surrounding fields, and plant complementary native species to create diversity.

Shrubs come in myriad shapes and sizes, with flowering and seeding varieties. When selecting shrubs, choose plants that provide both good cover and a food source for wildlife. Plant taller species along property borders or behind grasses and flowers, and place shorter shrubs near homes, patios, and other human-use areas. Choose at least four different fruiting varieties to provide a varied food source for wildlife across the seasons. When possible, select native shrubs. While it may seem that exotic plants can't spread from a backyard, especially a suburban one, remember that the birds eating their fruits are transient and can deposit the seed remains of their meals miles away. Some of today's worst problems with exotic plants, such as Tartarian honeysuckle, in natural areas originated from plantings in backyards.

Trees offer dual benefits of providing both wildlife habitat and home-energy savings. Tall shade trees placed strategically on the south and west sides of a home or business protect the building from summer sun and can cut air-conditioning costs by 30%. Likewise, conifers such as cedars, pines, and spruces on the north and west sides of a building provide a barrier against winter winds, cutting heating costs up to 40%. Deciduous shade trees can be planted near a building, but conifers should be planted farther away to maximize winter wind protection. A hundred feet between home and windbreak is ideal. Tall trees, both coniferous and deciduous, are good choices to define the boundaries of your property.

Table 8.1 "Landscaping With Native Illinois Trees and Shrubs" recommends shrubs and trees for wildlife plantings. Also, see details on establishing and maintaining woody cover.

Creating and Protecting Herbaceous Habitat

Grasses and broadleaf plants (forbs) play an important role in the backyard habitat plan. They add texture and color to the landscape and host a multitude of wild species, since ground-level cover is extremely important to nearly all wildlife. It is fine to designate areas of manicured lawn for human use, but be sure to also set aside spots where grasses and flowers will be allowed to grow to provide cover.

When thinking about grassy cover, consider eliminating your current lawn mix and planting a native prairie garden. Prairie grasses and flowers, many of which are warm-season plants, can provide an attractive alternative to non-native species such as bluegrass and fescue and are easy to maintain once established. Since they thrive on Illinois' hot summer weather, they won't turn brown in July and August like the non-native lawn grasses. Plant a balanced mix of grasses and forbs to provide variety. Consult chapter 3 for species selection. Consider prairie grasses and flowers that are smaller and less aggressive. For example, prairie dropseed could get the nod over big bluestem, and drooping coneflower would be a better choice than prairie dock.

Flower gardens that include non-native plants can also provide valuable cover and food
for many wildlife species. However, as with woody plants, select native species as much as possible. And if you use non-natives, select those that do not invade natural areas.

Butterfly and hummingbird gardens have gained popularity in recent years. With the correct plants and an appropriate site, such a garden often attracts ruby-throated hummingbirds as well as dozens of butterfly species. Butterfly gardens should be located in sunny, sheltered areas protected from the wind. Butterflies are most active when warmed by the sun, so basking areas such as rocks and logs should be in full sunlight for most of the day. Include a couple of periodically moistened mud puddles as a source of water and minerals.

To keep butterflies visiting your garden all season, incorporate a variety of flowers that will bloom at different times. Also, be sure to plant flowers A and grasses that will provide food for the caterpillar stage of butterflies as well as for the adults.

Table 8.2 "Butterfly Larval and Nectar Sources" details plants that attract butterflies and hummingbirds.

Creating and Protecting Aquatic Habitat

Adding some water to your backyard habitat can do wonders to attract more wildlife. Providing water can be as simple as setting up a birdbath or as involved, as designing and excavating a small pond. Retention ponds, a common feature in many suburban and commercial areas, can also provide excellent habitat if properly managed.

Birdbaths have long been popular additions to Illinois yards. The most important aspect is to regularly fill the birdbath with fresh water. Often rain will do the work for you, but during dry periods, be sure to replenish the basin. This water source is of greatest importance to wildlife during extended dry periods.

When choosing a birdbath or water device, be sure it doesn't have a slick surface, so animals can perch easily on the sides and climb out from the basin. Also make sure it has a gradually sloping bottom and isn't too deep. Place it away from areas used by pets, especially potential hiding spots or elevated perch sites for cats. Remember, too, wildlife need water throughout the year. Extended winter periods below freezing are important times to provide a water source for wildlife. Consider installing a submersible heater in the birdbath.

Creating a small pond or pool in your backyard isn't as difficult as it may sound. Many nurseries sell plastic liners for creating ponds in porous soils. They also stock aquatic plants and other materials for creating a backyard pond. If your soil holds water, you won't need a plastic liner and you can dig out your own pond. Most small ponds will need to be replenished periodically with fresh water in the months when temperatures exceed 90°F. Include lots of plants in and around your pond, and consider placing logs and rockpiles in it or nearby.

Besides providing valuable wildlife habitat, a small wetland can be an attractive addition to a home or business. And it can provide excellent educational opportunities for schools. Seriously consider adding aquatic habitat to your property.

Retention ponds have become commonplace in many suburban areas. But many are little more than sterile bowls of water. With minor modifications, they could benefit a variety of wildlife. Consider planting some shrubs and trees near these ponds. Plant a portion of the edge with aquatic plants, and establish at least half of the banks with patches of tall herbaceous vegetation that will remain unllfowed. Also consider building some rockpiles near the edge of the water.

Chapter 5 provides additional ideas on creating, improving, and managing aquatic habitats for wildlife.

Creating Winter Food Plots and Wildlife Feeding Areas

Providing food for birds has significant value for certain species, especially during prolonged periods of deep snow or sub-zero temperatures. But most birds that dine at feeders also eat a range of other natural foods. Like people, most birds need a varied diet to obtain a balance of nutrients. To provide the best possible conditions for birds, provide a mix of food plots and bird feeders containing a variety of seeds.

Most native-flower gardens provide a range of seeds eaten by birds and other wildlife. Again, the more plant species you offer, the better variety for wildlife. And don't be quick to eliminate the "weeds" like goldenrod, foxtail, and asters that might pop up in your yard or garden. These plants usually have excellent food value. Also, if you have enough space, consider planting small food plots of corn, soybeans, sunflowers, or milo to supplement your natural food plots.

Nearly every bird-feeder design imaginable can be found on the market today; choosing the best one may seem a confusing task. If you have the space and the money, install three or four different types, such as a thistle feeder, a platform feeder, and a suet feeder. Feeders don't have to be commercially constructed to be useful. Placing seed on an old tree stump or similar structure also works fine. Platforms can also be built out of scrap wood. Some species prefer to feed on the ground, so spreading a little seed there is useful.

Try to shelter any bird feeder from winter winds. When possible, locate feeders next to shrubs, deciduous trees, or evergreens. This will not only protect the feeding birds from winter winds, it will give them nearby perching sites and provide some protective overhead cover from hawks looking for a feathered meal.

Three common methods-mowing, burning, and tilling-exist for maintaining and enhancing grasslands for wildlife. Sometimes grazing can also be used. Each method can be used independently, or they may be used in combination. In addition, your grassland needs to be protected from other disturbances, and the standards for plant-species diversity, successional stage, and structural components need to be met. All of these considerations together form a practice. By heeding the collective importance of all criteria in a practice when managing your grassland, you can be assured that you're providing suitable habitat for wildlife.

Remember, complete lack of disturbance is not a healthy alternative for our state's grasslands. At least one of these practices should be used for every existing grassland, depending on the type of grassland, the management objective, and the landowner's capabilities.

With all three practices, the most important factors affecting the disturbance's impact on wildlife are timing and amount. These are discussed in detail for each practice.

Grassland Protection with Delayed Mowing

Mowing at the appropriate times can control invasion of woody plants in Grasslands but mowing favors perennial grasses. Forbs, legumes, and annual broadleafs, which all produce abundant seeds for wildlife, will decrease. Grass litter also accumulates with mowing. Mowing can be useful, but if possible it is best done in combination with burning and light tillage.

Avoid mowing any stand of grass between April 1 and August 1, the prime nesting season for most grassland birds. With cool-season grasses, mowing should also not be done between September 15 and February 15 to assure that adequate winter cover remains. If mowing is used instead of burning for managing warm-season grasses, it should be done only in early spring, from February 15 to April.

The exception to these rules is when you are establishing grassy cover, when you may have to mow to control undesirable weeds. Then mow as needed with a rotary mower, although generally not after June in native warm-season grass plantings.

Don't mow more than a third of an established stand in any one year. This will provide some undisturbed habitat for wildlife and create a mosaic of different plant heights and densities. Divide the grassland stand into units, and rotate your mowing accordingly. For example, if you have thirty acres, you could divide it into three ten acre management units, mowing each unit once every three years.

Grassland Protection with Prescribed Burning

Fire can be useful for managing cool-season grasslands and is the preferred tool for managing warm-season grasses. However, defining the specific objective for burning and planning before the burn season are both essential to a successful and safe burn. A primary benefit of burning is preventing litter build-up (thatch) in grassy cover. With warm-season cover this helps warm up and dry out the soil faster in the spring and allows the prairie species a longer growing season. These factors are important when you are trying to eliminate competing cool-season invaders that don't thrive in warm, dry conditions. In all types of grassy cover, reducing the thatch level also reduces matting and keeps growing plants more erect. Thinned-out vegetation makes it easier for smaller wildlife species to travel within the cover.

Frequent early-spring burning (March 15 to April 15) can help control woody plants. Burning at the end of this period can also help control and eliminate cool-season problem plants in warm-season grass plantings. But it will also favor the grasses and cause forbs, legumes, and annuals to decrease. Late-winter burning (January 15 to March 15) will benefit diversity in the plant stand, favoring forbs, legumes, cool-season grasses, and annuals, but it will not be as effective in controlling woody plants, except cedar and pine. Hand removal or herbicide treatment may be needed to control woody plants where spring burns are not desired.

Fall burns may be conducted in prairie stands and may be desired on sites that are usually too wet to burn in the spring. Burns done in October or early November can help control or reduce invasion of woody plants and favor forbs. However, fall burning eliminates valuable winter wildlife cover. It is also not recommended on newly established plantings located on steep slopes. Until the grassland has had time to develop its extensive root system, the site could be prone to erosion if a fall burn is conducted.

As with mowing, never burn more than a third of the established grassland acreage in anyone year. This rule is especially important with burning because of the insects that overwinter in grassland plants.

See the "Suggested Reading" resources at the end of this chapter for information on safely conducting prescribed burns.

Grassland Protection with Tillage

Tillage can be used to thin a grassland that has become too thick or to establish or promote broadleaf plant diversity in a grass stand. Light tillage (less than 25% of the tilled plot) prevents litter build-up and increases legumes and annual plants. Light tillage may not prevent woody plant invasion. Hand removal, herbicide treatment, delayed mowing, or prescribed burning may be used when woody plants need control. Heavy tillage (more than 90% of the tilled plot) controls woody plant invasion, creates bare soil areas, and will convert most cool- and warm-season grassy covers to old field cover. Any amount of tillage may open prairie stands to invasion by weeds and is not a preferred disturbance practice in prairies that already have a high plant diversity. For seedings that are only grass, however, tillage may improve plant diversity. As with mowing and burning, never till more than a third of the established grassland acreage in anyone year, and do not initiate tillage in new areas during the nesting season, between April 1 and August 1. Fall tillage is often recommended.

Grassland Protection with Light Grazing

Light grazing may be a compatible disturbance with wildlife cover, but the qualifier "light" cannot be overemphasized. Bison and elk historically grazed on Illinois' prairie Grasslands but the grazing patterns were very random and infrequent at most locations. If you plan to graze a grassland, it should preferably be done outside of the nesting season (April 1 to August 1). However, very light grazing during the nesting season may be done without serious consequences to nesting wildlife. Plant heights of at least twelve inches should be maintained at all times on grazed grasslands. Chapter 6 has recommendations for grassland used primarily for hay and pasture.

Dennis Frey

It's hard to drive by Dennis Frey's Hamilton County farm near Belle Prairie City without taking note. The ninety acres of tall grass-big bluestem and Indian grass-surrounding the family's homesite provide an oasis in the agricultural landscape. Though Dennis is a grain farmer, an early job with the soil conservation service piqued his interest in stewardship. When the district conservationist wanted to establish a prairie in the county, Dennis was on the committee. Their discussions came to mind when it was time to put acreage of his own into the Conservation Reserve Program.

While it appears the grassland was always here, it happened only with a lot of hard work. According to Dennis, the most rewarding part was his first good stand of prairie grass, which didn't appear until three years after he started planting. Dennis began small, putting in only five acres in the first year, and he had to master a different kind of farming. He learned that the prairie grasses needed a fine seed bed, and that after the seed is planted, it should be rolled. Picking the proper date to plant was also important-planting the first or second week in June led to 80% success rate.

From that first five acres the grassland on the Frey farm has grown to over ninety acres. As Dennis continued to plant; he interspersed wildlife food plots into the area, and even integrated a wetland. The wet areas became a "field of dreams" for waterfowl, attracting geese, teal, and mallards.

Once established, the grasses have been fairly easy to maintain. Different parcels are burned every year, with the whole cycle completed every four years. "When it burns, what an awesome sight," says Dennis. "The flames are twenty to thirty feet high and it sounds like a train. I can't imagine a thousand acres burning with the wind blowing. What would you do?"

Asked if he would plant his grassland again, Dennis gives a resounding yes! " While I was always interested in wildlife as a kid," he says, "these plantings have given me a greater appreciation of nature. Six coveys of Bobwhite live on the property, and the grassland provides an escape for deer as they bound across the lane to disappear into the grass. Red fox can be seen on the hills, and I even have a beaver dam. Just seeing the wildlife and being able to watch the ducks and birds close-up gives me a great feeling. I also find myself spending more time providing for and watching wildlife than I do hunting."

If he could do it over again, Dennis would plant more prairie forbs and start earlier, but overall he is happy. This is the family property where his father was born and farmed. Now it is Dennis's turn to work their special ground. By his incorporation of a native landscape into a traditional grain farm, Dennis has created a treasured place.