4 Ways to Recycle Your Christmas Tree for Wildlife

 

1/2/2014 // By Danielle Brigida

 

Each year, about 25-30 million real Christmas trees are sold in the United States, mostly from a selection of about 16 species of tree that we commonly call a “Christmas Tree.” They are decorated with lights and ornaments, become backdrops for annual family photos, and serve as a traditional umbrella for gifts to loved ones. Ultimately, the day comes when they need to be disposed of. What’s often overlooked though, is that these trees can benefit your local wildlife, the soil in your yard, or even nearby restoration projects.

Here are some easy ways for you to help wildlife or enrich your local area with your trees after you’ve enjoyed them (and removed all the ornaments) this holiday season.

1. Create a brush pile with your tree as the base

A brush pile often consists of leaves, logs, and twigs so an old Christmas tree can make a great base. This is the easiest thing you can do with your tree if you have a yard. It directly benefits the wildlife in your backyard during winter months because brush piles and dead trees offer food and needed protection from the chill. We have suggestions for how to make a brush pile and we understand that not all communities allow for them.

2. Use it in the garden

There are a number of ways you can use your recycled Christmas tree to enrich your soil by composting it or using the pine needles and boughs to cover your garden bed. Chop the trunk and branches and break your tree down, this will allow you to add some nice insulation to your garden.

NWF Staffer Mollie Simon insulated her garden and made a decorative wreath with her family’s tree.

3. Decorate your tree for wildlife

If you love to watch birds or want a fun project, you can decorate your tree with edible ornaments or popcorn strings so that you feed wildlife like birds and squirrels. This is a enjoyable activity to do with kids or the young at heart (me) and can help wildlife at a time when food is scarce. Most of the recipes call for peanut butter, fresh fruit (like grapes, berries, or apples), suet and bird seed.

These crafts all make edible ornaments for wildlife:

·          Heart-shaped ornaments for the birds

·          Pine cone bird feeder

·          Suet ornaments

For more on decorating trees for wildlife:

·          Edible Wildlife Tree – USFWS

·          Edible Christmas Tree for Wildlife – NWTF and metroparent

4. Donate your tree to a local restoration project

Watch this video about how Christmas trees are used in Louisiana to rebuild wetlands.

There are all sorts of great local projects that take in Christmas trees and use them for restoration projects. At National Wildlife Federation, we have talked about using Christmas trees to help prevent wetland loss in Louisiana. Other projects have helped provide fish habitat, restore dunes, and even provide electricity or mulch for cities. If your county does have a tree disposal program, do a little digging to make sure you like where your tree ends up! You can also check out these additional ideas on how to recycle your tree.

What plans do you have for your Christmas tree?

If you used a real tree this year, let us know what you’re doing with it in the comment section below, or share a link to any places you know of that use Christmas tree donations to help wildlife or the environment. If you have a living or artificial tree, don’t miss out on the fun—ask a friend who has a real tree what plans they have.

http://blog.nwf.org/2014/01/recycleyourtreeforwildlife/

 

 

 

 

Saving butterflies: Caterpillars are lowly no longer

In between laying eggs, the black swallowtail goes for the nectar-rich pentas blossoms. Handout TNS

 

By Norman Winter

Tribune News Service

 

At almost every seminar I give, I ask the audience by a show of hands if they are caterpillar friendly. I am delighted to say I sense a real change within the gardening public. The caterpillar, once perhaps considered the enemy of the garden, has now become the recognized reward, and woe to the lizard or bird that picks one off.

Last year I started to realize how important caterpillars had become to the public. I received a phone call from a lady who was in tears. She had Monarch caterpillars, but all of her milkweed had been devoured. She asked almost hysterically if she could bring the caterpillars to us since we had so many milkweeds. At least I thought we had many.

The Giant Swallowtail emerges from the chrysalis. Handout TNS

She showed up with a box containing 100 caterpillars. I slowly walked through the garden. A little milkweed plant got one caterpillar while larger plants were gifted with two or three. It took no time before I had few leaves as well.

This year we had our own similar episode. Despite having several large fennel and a few parsley plants, it seems the “Fertile Myrtle” of Black Swallowtails produced enough eggs and caterpillars to create panic among the staff. The stress led to them to buy more plants in an effort to try to feed all of the hungry mouths.

Our own real test of being caterpillar friendly caught us all by surprise. It involved Improved Meyer Lemon trees in glazed containers outside our new Andrews Visitor and Education Center.

Black swallowtail caterpillars devour fennel. Handout TNS

A couple of things make this caterpillar-friendly test a little more of a challenge.

We got our start as a USDA Plant Introduction Station in 1919. All over the garden are trees, shrubs and bamboo that Frank Meyer, the hero of plant exploration, found and brought back to the country. He is the one who discovered the aforementioned lemon named in his honor. That was just one issue in our true test of being caterpillar friendly.

The second test: These two containers are right at the entrance where every visitor enters the garden. What would they think to see missing leaves or caterpillars, which would no doubt just be worms to many of them?

Our test began beautifully as a giant swallowtail made her visit to the lemons. She would lay an egg or two then drop down to get nectar from some red pentas. Then she would return for a little more egg laying. We saw the eggs, the resulting caterpillars and, in what seemed like such a short amount of time, chrysalis. Every day we would look.

Then the call came over the radio: Norman, you better get over here. As you might have-guessed, a beautiful swallowtail had emerged, a process called enclosure in the lepidoptera world.

All the staff and a few visitors stood in awe as we experienced nature at one of its finest moments. While we were watching, I couldn’t help but think we too had just passed the caterpillar test.

Are you caterpillar friendly? You will have many more butterflies if you are.

Norman Winter is director of the Coastal Georgia Botanical Gardens at the Historic Bamboo Farm, University of Georgia Cooperative Extension, and author of “Tough-as-Nails Flowers for the South.”

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/living/home-garden/article45282549.html#storylink=cpy

 

 

 

 

 

Landscaping to Attract Birds in South Florida

While we have a large population of native birds that always need food, fall and spring are critical times to provide food for migrating birds.  Adding a few native shrubs and trees to your landscape can be very beneficial to our wildlife population.  -- Gene

 

FLORIDA HORTICULTURE DEPARTMENT OF ORNAMENTAL HORTICULTURE FACT SHEET

Florida Cooperative Extension Service Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences University of Florida, Gainesville John T. Woeste, Dean for Extension

 

Landscaping to Attract Birds in South Florida

By Timothy K. Broschat and Stephen D. Verkade

Associate Professor - Tropical Ornamentals, and Associate Professor - Ornamental Horticulture, Fort Lauderdale Research and Education Center, IFAS, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida.

 

One benefit of Florida living is the enjoyment of plants and wildlife in the landscape through most of the year. By proper plant selection, you can enhance your landscape to attract, feed, and shelter birds for year-round enjoyment. When selecting plants to incorporate into the landscape, keep in mind the need for birds to obtain shelter from inclement weather and from predators. A number of plant species can also attract birds by providing fruits as a source of food. Flowers of some species attract insects, which are in turn eaten by other types of birds. Migratory birds are particularly abundant along the coastal ridges in southern Florida. These birds can be attracted to landscapes by use of plants that provide seeds, fruits or insects during the fall and spring migrations. These food sources can be complemented by one or more bird feeders which must provide high quality seed with regularity. A good bird feeder should be conveniently located for viewing and large enough to hold food for at least 2-3 days, protect the seed from rain, and minimize seed spillage. Many bird guidebooks provide information on the bird species attracted by various seed types. Keep in mind that many of south Florida’s songbirds are migrants or winter residents, and will thus require food or cover during the fall, winter, and spring months only.

 

Landscape Principles to Attract Birds

 

Solid design concepts are important in any landscape project, and references on design principles are listed in this fact sheet under the heading of ‘Recommended References’. The following are additional considerations to remember when landscaping to attract birds.

 

· Provide shelter to entice birds into your yard and to protect them from the elements or predators.

 

· Select a variety of plants which offer a consistent supply of food over an extended period of time.

 

· Select plants that flower or fruit during the spring migrations and attract insects. Insects, in turn, attract insectivorous birds. In some areas in southern Florida, the flowering gumbo-limbo (Bursera simaruba) attracts  large numbers of warblers in their spring breeding plumage as they migrate northward.

 

· Design plantings which offer enough food to meet the needs of the birds.

 

· Provide a source of water for drinking and bathing. Moving water in a gently sloping basin or trough is particularly attractive to birds.

 

These criteria can be met by careful planning during the design phase of the landscape project. Select a variety of plants to extend the fruiting period for a year-round supply of food. Group plants together to create habitats attractive to birds. Be sure to include enough plants of each species to provide food in a volume great enough for the dietary needs of the birds attracted to your yard. The following listing is designed to assist you in selecting plants which have attributes particularly attractive to birds.

 

Table 1. Listing of plants for south Florida which attract birds; noting origin, plant type, plant part of value, season, and birds attracted.

 

Scientific Name	Common Name	Origin	Plant Type	Value	Season	Birds Attracted
Ardisia escallonioides	Marlberry	native	shrub	fruit	fall; winter	Fruit-eating birds
Asclepias curassavica	Scarlet Milkweed	exotic	shrubby perennial	flowers	year-round	Hummingbirds
Bauhinia blakeana	Hong Kong Orchid	exotic	tree	flowers	winter; spring	Hummingbirds, Orioles, Warblers
Bursera simaruba	Gumbo Limbo	native	tree	fruit	summer	Mockingbirds, Vireos
Calliandra haematacephala	Powderpuff	exotic	shrub	flowers	winter	Hummingbirds
Callicarpa americana	Beautyberry	native	shrub	fruit	fall; winter	Mockingbirds, Cardinals, Catbirds, Thrashers
Calyptranthes pallens	Spicewood	native	shrub	fruit	fall	Fruit-eating birds
Cestrum spp.	Day and night-flowering jasmine	exotic	shrub	fruit	spring; fall	Mockingbirds, Blue Jays, Cardinals, Woodpeckers
Chrysobalanus icaco	Cocoplum	native	shrub	fruit	summer	Fruit-eating birds
Coccoloba diversifolia	Pigeon Plum	native	tree	fruit	fall; winter	Mockingbirds, Catbirds, Robins, Woodpeckers
Coccoloba uvifera	Seagrape	native	shrub; tree	fruit	year-round	Fruit-eating birds
Coccothrinax spp.	Silver palms	native	tree	fruit	summer	Mockingbirds, Blue Jays
Colubrina arborescens	Coffee colubrina	native	tree	flowers	spring	Warblers, Gnatcatchers, Vireos, Flycatchers
Dipholis salicifolia	Willow bustic	native	tree	fruit	summer	Fruit-eating birds
Eriobotrya japonica	Loquat	exotic	tree	fruit	winter	Mockingbirds, Cardinals, Woodpeckers
Eugenia uniflora	Surinam Cherry	exotic	shrub	fruit	spring	Mockingbirds, Waxwings, Orioles
Ficus spp.	Figs	native; exotic	tree	fruit; cover	year-round	Mockingbirds, Catbirds, BlueJays, Waxwings, Woodpeckers, Parrots
Forestiera segregata	Florida Privet	native	shrub	flowers	spring	Warblers, Vireos
Guapira discolor	Blolly	native	shrub; tree	fruit	summer	Fruit-eating birds
Hamelia patens	Firebush	native	shrub	flowers	year-round	Hummingbirds
Ilex cassine	Dahoon Holly	native	tree	fruit	fall; winter	Cardinals, Mockingbirds, Waxwings
Juniperus silicicola	Southern Red Cedar	native	shrub; tree	fruit; cover	fall; winter	Tree Swallows, Waxwings, Mockingbirds, Flickers, Sapsuckers
Justicia brandegeana	Shrimp Plant	exotic	shrub	flowers	year-round	Hummingbirds, Orioles, Buntings
Lysiloma spp.	Wild Tamarind	native	tree	flowers	spring; summer	Warblers, Flycatchers, Gnatcatchers
Malpighia glabra	Barbados Cherry	exotic	shrub	fruit	year-round	Fruit-eating birds
Malaviscus arboreus	Turk's Cap	exotic	shrub	flowers	year-round	Hummingbirds, Painted Buntings
Morus rubra	Red Mulberry	native	tree	fruit	spring	Woodpeckers, Kingbirds, Blue Jays, Mockingbirds, and other Fruit-eating birds
Murraya paniculata	Orange-jasmine	exotic	shrub	fruit	summer; fall	Mockingbirds, Cardinals
Myrica cerifera	Wax myrtle	native	shrub	fruit	fall; winter	Warblers, Vireos, Tree Swallows, Cardinals, Mockingbirds, Catbirds
Myrsine guianensis	Florida Myrsine	native	shrub	fruit	fall; winter	Fruit-eating birds
Parthenocissus cinquefolia	Virginia Creeper	native	vine	fruit	summer; fall	Mockingbirds, Robins, Thrashers, Woodpeckers, Greta-crested Flycatchers
Persea americana	Avocado	exotic	tree	fruit	summer; fall	Woodpeckers, Blue Jays, Orioles
Psychotria nervosa	Wild Coffee	native	shrub	fruit	summer; fall	Cardinals, BlueJays
Ptychosperma elegans	Solitaire Palm	exotic	tree	fruit	year-round	Mockingbirds, Blue Jays
Pyracantha coccinea	Firethorn	exotic	shrub	fruit	winter	Mockingbirds, Catbirds, Blue Jays, Waxwings, Woodpeckers
Quercus laurifolia	Laurel Oak	native	tree	fruit	fall; winter	Woodpeckers, Blue Jays, Warblers, Vireos
Quercus virginiana	Live Oak	native	tree	fruit	fall; winter	Woodpeckers, Blue Jays, Warblers, Vireos
Roystonea regia	Royal Palm	native	tree	fruit	fall; winter	Mockingbirds, Robins, Blue Jays
Sabal palmetto	Cabbage Palm	native	tree	fruit	fall; winter	Blackbirds, Blue Jays, Mockingbirds, Robins
Sambucus canadensis	Elderberry	native	shrub	fruit	summer; fall	Fruit-eating birds
Simarouba glauca	Paradise Tree	native	tree	fruit	spring	Fruit-eating birds
Sophora tomentosa	Necklace Pod	native	shrub	flowers	winter; spring	Hummingbirds, Warblers, Vireos
Tecomaria capensis	Cape Honeysuckle	exotic	vine	flowers	year-round	Hummingbirds, Catbirds, Orioles
Tetrazygia bicolor	Florida Tetrazygia	native	shrub	fruit	spring	Mockingbirds and other Fruit-eating birds
Thrinax spp.	Thatch Palms	native	tree	fruit	fall	Mockingbirds, Jays, and other Fruit-eating birds
Trema micrantha	Florida Trema	native	shrub	fruit	summer	Fruit-eating birds

 

http://www.floridaplants.com/landscape/birds.htm