How to Protect and Restore Native Wildlife Plants

Identify wildlife species of concern in your area. These might be animals beset by invasive species that compete or prey on them, like wood ducks losing cavity-nesting habitat to European starlings. Or these species simply could be creatures made rare by development or over-hunting, like woodland caribou.

Consider these species' food preferences. While adaptable creatures often adopt food sources offered by exotic plants, the diet of other species may consist of a specific indigenous vegetation type. Either way, study the eating habits of targeted creatures -- the predilection of Northern bobolinks, for example, for wild rice; or antelope jackrabbits for mesquite.

Think about the habitat requirements of these animals as well, which may partly or wholly consist of vegetation structures. A landowner in eastern Oregon who wishes to attract the opportunistic black-billed magpie might consider planting the native shrub-tree black hawthorn, which provides critical, brambly nesting sites for magpies in open country. In the Northeast, white-tailed deer rely heavily on northern white-cedar stands for thermal cover during winter, so maintaining these conifers on your property can make it a critical habitat for the ungulates.

Plant the native plants that wildlife relies upon. Direct your planting activities in the appropriate habitat: A common elderberry, for example, that offers succulent fruit for a diverse roster of animals may fare poorly on a dry, sun-exposed hillside, favoring instead a moister spot like a wetland margin or ravine forest.

Protect these ecologically crucial native plants if you find them on your land, which can present difficulties, even if your property is already populated with the desired plants. Your conservation work may involve actively removing invasive species that might out-compete the desired natives. When trying to restore indigenous tallgrass-prairie plants in Wisconsin, for example, consider seeking advice on initiating a controlled burn regime to clear out exotic, invasive grasses and forbs.

Initiate landscape-level restoration to ensure the continued vitality of native plants. These species evolved under specific environmental conditions that may be changing due to human factors, and their propagation could require re-adopting or mimicking ecological influences. Garry oaks in western Oregon, for example, once flourished in prairies partly maintained by aboriginal burning, but they are now declining due to invasion of the lowland valleys by more shade-tolerant species like Douglas firs. Therefore, to restore a Garry oak savanna -- important to species like band-tailed pigeons and acorn woodpeckers -- consider cutting down conifer saplings and thinning oaks to pre-European spacing.