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/

 

 

 

 

12 Wins for Wildlife YOU Made Possible in 2015

12/11/2015 // By Collin O'Mara

 

Looking back at 2015, I’m incredibly proud of wins we achieved together for America’s wildlife.

With friends of wildlife like you by our side, we helped restore more wild bison to the Great Plains, launched rescue efforts for our dwindling monarch butterflies, and certified thousands of new acres of wildlife habitat in cities, schools and places of worship throughout the country.

The truth is, none of this is easy. The challenges facing wildlife are many. Water pollution and droughts, massive habitat loss and fragmentation, and climate change are driving record numbers of species toward extinction.

But you and I don’t protect wildlife because it’s easy. Together we stand up for our cherished wildlife and wild landscapes because it’s right.

All you do for wildlife is making a difference. Feel proud of these wins for wildlife. You made them happen.

Win #1

WILD BISON: A Prairie Homecoming Decades in the Making

Photo by National Wildlife Photo Contest entrant Panagiotis Laskararkis.

Thanks to supporters like you, 2015 was another great year for work with partners and affiliates in restoring wild bison to their historic native habitat on western lands.

Earlier this year, over 60 genetically pure Yellowstone bison were restored to open lands in Nebraska. These restorations add to the 195 wild bison transferred over the past few years in Montana to Fort Peck Indian Reservation, and 34 more bison brought to Fort Belknap Reservation.

More wild bison
Wildlife Library: Bison
Crane Trust Welcomes Bison Home

 

WIN #2

DOLPHINS: Winning the Gulf Restoration Funding They Need and Deserve

Photo by Alison Henry, NEFSC/NOAA.

Five years and two months after the devastating Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster, the Justice Department and the five Gulf states announced the ground-shaking news that they had reached an $18.7 billion settlement with BP to help restore the Gulf.

And habitat restoration can’t come fast enough for some bottlenose dolphins in the Gulf, a species severely stressed by and still struggling with the effects of the spill.

This would have NEVER happened without relentless pressure from friends of wildlife like you.

As you read this, scientists and advocates are working on the ground in all the Gulf states to ensure BP’s fines are spent on projects that will benefit Gulf wildlife.

More dolphins:
BP Settlement Reached
Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Caused Dolphin Deaths

 

WIN #3

MOOSE: New Hope for Wildlife with New Energy Plan

Photo by National Wildlife Photo Contest entrant Richard Seeley.

Massive and majestic, moose require cool climates to thrive, and are being devastated by the warmer temperatures and exploding pest populations caused by global climate change, such as winter ticks.

In August, President Obama released the final Clean Power Plan, the first ever rules designed to reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, which emit 40 percent of the nation’s carbon emissions.

It’s a game-changing step secured after years of advocacy by wildlife and environmental advocates.

More Moose
Wildlife Library:  Moose
Climate Crisis Deepens for America’s Moose

 

WIN #4

MONARCH BUTTERFLIES: Habitat Restoration Efforts Move Gains Steam

Photo by Laura Tangley/NWF.

Working to reverse the dramatic decline of monarch butterflies, your support helped us partner with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and our affiliates to plant and help protect milkweed in areas along the monarch’s migratory route.

Even mayors are getting in on the action with the National Wildlife Federation’s Mayor’s Monarch Pledge. St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay launched the Mayors’ Monarch Pledge, a national campaign to engage mayors and local leaders to take specific actions in their communities to help save monarchs.

Great job from our entire community of friends who care about the beautiful monarch butterfly.

More Monarch Butterfly
Saving Monarchs
Wildlife Library: Monarch Butterfly

 

WIN #5

MOUNTAIN LION: Plans for World’s Largest Wildlife Bridge Moves Forward

Photo by National Park Service.

In August, another California mountain lion died trying to cross a busy freeway. P32’s tragic end, and the untimely deaths of 12 other mountain lions like him are why the National Wildlife Federation is leading the charge for a safe wildlife crossing in the hills outside Los Angeles.

More than 44,000 National Wildlife Federation friends of wildlife spoke out in support of the project and in September, the state of California unveiled plans for a 165-foot wide bridge that would span all ten lanes of Highway 101 in Agoura Hills.

When built, it will be the biggest wildlife crossing in the world!

More Mountain Lion
Wildlife Library: Mountain Lions
Proposed Crossing is Progress for California’s Cougars

 

WIN #6

RIVER OTTER: Historic Day for Protecting Wetland and Stream Habitat

Photo by Kenny Bahr, USFWS Midwest.

River otters make their homes near waterways and are extremely sensitive to water pollution.

So, after many years of advocacy work to get policies needed to protect these waters, we were thrilled to stand with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy as she signed the new Clean Water Rule, which restored protections for more than two million miles of streams and millions of acres of wetlands.

Steadfast support for clean water from friends of wildlife made the difference in the long, uphill battle to get these protections over the finish line!

More River Otter
Wildlife Library: North American River Otter
Presidents View: Working Hard for Clean Water

 

WIN #7

BLUE CRAB: Plan Approved to Take Pollutants Out of Chesapeake Bay Waters

Photo by Brian Henderson/Flickr.

Cleaner water is coming for blue crabs. In July, a federal court of appeals upheld the historic cleanup plan for the Chesapeake Bay. The National Wildlife Federation, with the backing of people like you, has supported the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in this lawsuit since it was filed in 2011.

The plan aims to cut nutrient and sediment pollution entering our waters by 2025. These forms of pollution cause dead zones and algal blooms that are toxic to wildlife.

More Blue Crab
Wildlife Library: Blue Crab
Healthier Waters for Chesapeake Blue Crab

 

WIN #8

MOUNTAIN GOAT: Wilderness Areas Receive Federal Protection

Photo by National Wildlife Photo Contest entrant Jesse Lee Varnado.

Three cheers for safeguarding habitat for wildlife like mountain goats and bobcats…thousands of acres of their wilderness habitat is protected!

In February, President Obama named Colorado’s stunning 22,000 acres of Browns Canyon America’s newest national monument, a designation that affords forever protection.

And in August, the president signed “The Sawtooth National Recreation Area and Jerry Peak Wilderness Additions Act,” permanently safeguarding 275,665 acres of wildlife-rich areas in central Idaho.

The designations were the result of decades of advocacy by wildlife, recreation and conservation advocates.

More Mountain Goat
Life on the Edge
275,000 More Acres Safeguarded for Wildlife and Our Outdoor Heritage

 

WIN #9

HUMMINGBIRDS: Thousands of Acres of NEW Wildlife Habitat

Photo by National Wildlife Photo Contest entrant Leah Serna.

Backyard birds, along with our native bees, need some serious habitat help. This year, cities, schools, families and businesses stepped up in a big way to help by gardening for wildlife, restoring and adding thousands of new acres of healthy habitat for birds and many more species of wildlife.

Certified Wildlife Habitats grew by by almost 10,000 this year! When families and businesses become certified, they restore habitat by providing food, water, cover and a place for wildlife – like hummingbirds – to raise their young.

318 more schools – from preschools to universities – joined our Schoolyard Habitat program this year. That means thousands of kids gained a connection to nature and wildlife. Schools in the program do everything from creating planter boxes and gardens, to restoring native prairie, to creating wetlands!

And nearly 20 cities and communities, including Houston, TX, and Missoula, MT,  joined our Community Wildlife Habitat Program — municipalities that are committed to greening in a way that’s wildlife friendly.

More Hummingbird
Video Diary: One Tiny Hummingbird Family
Wildlife Library: Ruby-Throated Hummingbird

 

WIN #10

GRIZZLY BEAR: Surpassing 1 Million Acres of Safe Habitat near Yellowstone

Photo by National Wildlife Photo Contest entrant Sandy Sisti.

As Yellowstone National Park grizzly bears wander outside park boundaries to adjoining public lands where livestock graze, they are at increased risk due to conflicts and disease from domestic livestock. But a new high-water mark was set this past year in providing conflict-free habitat for wildlife like grizzlies that are part of the amazing Yellowstone ecosystem.

In January, through our Adopt-a-Wildlife Acre program supported by people like you, the 22,000-acre Upper Gros Ventre cattle allotment, located south of Yellowstone near Jackson, Wyoming, was turned into a safe haven for grizzlies and gray wolves. This was done by compensating ranchers for removing their livestock from leased federal lands like Gros Ventre.

In a little over a decade, this wildly successful program has secured over 1 million acres of safe habitat for wildlife on public lands.

More Grizzly Bear
Wildlife Library:  Grizzly Bear
National Wildlife Federation’s Wildlife Conflict Resolution Program

 

WIN #11

TREES FOR WILDLIFE: Native Trees Planted, Longleaf Pine Forests Get a Boost

Photo by National Wildlife Photo Contest entrant Lisa Culp.

Trees are essential habitat for many wildlife species ranging from birds, insects, mammals, reptiles and amphibians. They provide food, water, cover and places to raise young.

Thanks to friends of wildlife, the National Wildlife Federation supports community and education groups to plant thousands of native trees each year to help restore habitat for wildlife. In 2015, almost 30,000 native trees were planted!

And good news for our efforts to restore the incredibly beautiful longleaf pine forests which at one time widely ranged across the Southeast: the USDA allocated Farm Bill funds in January to protect and restore dwindling forests and wildlife habitats throughout the region.

More Native Trees
Ten Favorite Trees for Wildlife
Trees and Wildlife

 

WIN #12

CARIBOU: Keystone XL Pipeline Denied! Huge Threat Removed From Boreal Forest Habitat

Photo by National Wildlife Photo Contest entrant Tony Attanasio.

Millions spoke up against long odds to demand a better future for wildlife, and on November 6th, President Obama rejected the ill-conceived Keystone XL pipeline.

It was a monumental victory for wildlife like caribou, a species that has suffered immensely from the devastating extraction of tar sands oil. By stopping the pipeline, wildlife advocates like you prevented the accelerated destruction of caribou’s ancient and irreplaceable boreal forest habitat.

More Caribou
Reindeer or Caribou?

http://blog.nwf.org/2015/12/12-wins-for-wildlife-you-made-possible-in-2015/

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

How to attract butterflies and other pollinators

New campaign encourages the planting of pollinator-friendly landscapes

Endangered Monarch butterflies are symbol of pollinators’ struggle

Every pot of flowers or flowering herbs helps

 

A swallowtail butterfly visits joe-pye weed. Butterflies, bees, beetles, moths and other insects are critical pollinators, and flower gardens of all sizes will attract them. Marty Ross

 

By Marty Ross

Universal UClick

Butterflies are a wonderful part of a healthy garden. They — and innumerable other insects that pollinate plants — are also ecologically and economically vital, but they are on the decline.

Gardeners can help offset the loss by planting flowers that sustain butterflies and other pollinators. A garden designed with pollinators in mind is as beautiful as any other, and perhaps even more so.

Bumblebees are pollinators, too. These bees are visiting bee balm plants in the Butterfly Habitat Garden. James Gagliardi Smithsonian Gardens

 

Butterflies, moths, bees, beetles, hummingbirds and even bats all are pollinators. Their health and welfare are critical to a healthy and diverse ecosystem, and to the production of one in every three bites of food we take, according to the National Pollinator Garden Network.

The organization has launched an ambitious campaign, the Million Pollinator Garden Challenge, to encourage the planting of pollinator-friendly landscapes to invigorate pollinator populations. The goal is to register one million pollinator gardens, large and small, old and new, across the country.

“If you have four acres, that would be wonderful,” says Matthew Shepherd, communications director for the Xerces Society, the wildlife conservation and protection organization. “But if you have an urban plot, a community garden, or a spot on the balcony of your 10th-floor condo, you can plant flowers,” he says. “You can do that anywhere.”

Monarch butterflies are perhaps all pollinators’ most widely recognized ambassador, and they are among the most endangered. Millions of acres of the natural habitat of this flashy orange-and-black butterfly have been lost to development and to the use of agricultural herbicides. The Monarch Watch program encourages gardeners to plant milkweed, the leaves of these plants are the only food monarch caterpillars eat; the program is among the 25 partners in the Million Pollinator Garden Challenge.

Perhaps the most prominent pollinator garden in the world is the Butterfly Habitat Garden at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History on the Mall in Washington, D.C. The garden was established in 1995, and next year, it will have a new name: the Pollinator Garden.

“A lot of people are fearful or just don’t like insect activity,” says James Gagliardi, lead horticulturist with Smithsonian Gardens. “But it’s very positive. Flowers and fruits are not going to be around without these pollinators.”

A gardener’s role in all this is easy: Plant flowers.

Native plants rub shoulders with non-natives in the Butterfly Habitat Garden. Gagliardi grows native perennials such as goldenrod, which blooms in the fall, and mountain mint, which has silvery leaves and tiny pink flowers, and attracts an abundance of pollinators. He also grows bright annuals, among them zinnias, which are a magnet for butterflies, and Mexican sunflower, a tall plant covered with bright orange flowers — and pollinators — in late summer and fall.

Big sweeps of colorful flowers blooming through the summer are important, but the most effective and successful pollinator gardens have blooms throughout the season. Trees, shrubs and vines also fit into the picture.

“Just by planting one tree, you can really make a difference,” says Peggy Anne Montgomery of American Beauties Native Plants, another partner in the Million Pollinator Garden Challenge. A mighty oak would be great, she says, but so are many small trees.

Montgomery relies as much as possible on native plants, with which North American pollinators are likely to have well-established ecological relationships. She recommends long-blooming native perennial coneflowers, phlox and ironweed. Include butterfly milkweed and ornamental grasses in your pollinator garden, too, she says, creating layered plantings that look rich and full, help hold each other up through summer wind and rain, and provide shelter for insects during the winter.

Annual flowers grown from seed are every gardener’s gateway plants to a colorful and easy pollinator-friendly garden, says Renee Shepherd, owner of the seed company Renee’s Garden. Annual sunflowers, cosmos, zinnias, cleome and alyssum all attract butterflies and other pollinators. Herbs should be part of the mix, she says: Plant plenty of them, let them bloom and see how many pollinators they attract. Shepherd likes cilantro, arugula, basil and chives both for their taste and because they attract so many pollinators. She practices succession planting, so she always has fresh herbs for the kitchen and blooming herbs outside for the pollinators.

Of course, pollinators find their way to vegetable gardens, too. Beans, squash, tomatoes and cucumbers all attract pollinators, but you’ll have more pollinators — and more impressive harvests — in a vegetable garden that includes flowers.

Above all, a pollinator garden is no place for pesticides. “We don’t use them” in the Butterfly Habitat Garden, Gagliardi says. “Our garden is very healthy and very balanced, too.” Visitors might notice holes in the leaves of a few plants, or they may discover curious striped caterpillars on the fennel or dill, “but if you want butterflies, you have to have food sources, and there are going to be holes in the leaves,” Gagliardi says. Instead of fretting over insect damage, get to know the insects. In a pollinator garden, you’ll have plenty to discover. Together with the flowers, these pretty pollinators put on quite a show.

 

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/living/home-garden/article35531742.html#storylink=cpy