Master Gardener Roxie Jones recommends using guidelines from the National Wildlife Federation to garden for wildlife. She was the speaker at the Jan. 23 meeting of the River Valley Garden Club.

RANCHO MURIETA, CA (MPG) - Who knew that caterpillars and or oak trees could be essential elements when transforming a yard into a wildlife habitat?

Master Gardener Roxie Jones explained both ideas when speaking to the River Valley Garden Club on Jan. 23. Her topic was gardening for wildlife: creating a wildlife habitat in your yard.

A cute birdhouse like this one doesn’t work for wildlife. Jones recommends a birdhouse like the wooden one below. 

Jones said supplying food and corridors for wildlife is especially critical in California because the area has met the requirements to become one of only two biodiversity hot spots in the nation. The first requirement is having a minimum of 1500 endemic species of vascular plants. Endemic means they don’t grow anywhere else.

“The second requirement is very sad. You have lost 70% of the primary vegetation,” she said.

That is primarily due to agriculture given that California supplies half of the agricultural products consumed in the United States, which is great. “Where do the wildlife go, where do they survive.”

Another factor is lawns. They use too much water; don’t support wildlife and cover an area three times larger than any irrigated crop in the country. As for landscaping, the primary emphasis for years has only been aesthetics. “We are bringing in plants from all the world that our wildlife knows nothing about,” she said.

Before and after photos of her yard show how she transformed it into a wildlife habitat.

Although wildlife issues are monumental, is there some way that a gardener with a small yard can help?  Showing before and after photos of her yard, Jones said yes.

The answer comes from the National Wildlife Federation. It has a checklist to confirm that a garden has all the elements necessary to be certified as a “Garden for Wildlife,” which Jones provided to the audience in a handout.

The same checklist also is a one-page summary of strategies that include options for the most challenged of gardeners such as adding a bird feeder or a bird bath or growing host plants for caterpillars. See the checklist at www.nwf.org/certifiedwildlifehabitat/.

Punctuating her talk with colorful slides, Jones covered the following points.

-Wildlife definition.  “Most people think we are talking about the birds, the bees, and the lizards, but we are also talking about the plants, insects, and all the life in the soil,” she said.

-Native plants. Jones emphasized using local native plants for 50 to 70% of the landscaping and recommended the California Native Plant Society’s plant list for the Central Valley. “They have a fabulous database of California native plants...What they need, where they grow, and what insects and wildlife they support,” she said.

-Keystone native plants. They are “must haves” for caterpillars, which, in turn, feed baby birds. They include the Hollyleaf Cherry, the Pink-Flowering Currant, and the California Wildrose. However, the oak tree is the keystone species of all keystone species.

-Food. The checklist requires three of 15 elements for a wildlife garden certification.  They could include seeds from a plant, berries, pollen, and even a squirrel feeder.

-Water. Elements to provide clean water for wildlife to drink and bath could include a birdbath, a water garden, or a stream.

-Cover. Wildlife needs at least two places to shelter from the weather and predators such as a bramble patch, ground cover, or a brush and log pile.

-Places to raise young. The garden needs at two places for wildlife to engage in courtship and then bear and raise their young. Options include mature trees, a nesting box, dead trees or snags, and host plants for caterpillars.

-Sustainable practices. The Wildlife Federation recommends practices from three categories: soil and water conservation such as using drip hoses for irrigation, controlling exotic species such as by reducing lawn areas, and organic practices such as eliminating chemical pesticides and fertilizers.

Jones ended her talk by explaining how to “bird sit,” a practice she learned from the Audubon Society. It is an outdoor meditation with a focus on birds. She showed a video of her yard with birds frolicking in her wildlife-friendly habitat to help her audience get the idea.

The garden club’s next meeting will be on Feb. 27. The topic will be “Lawn Begone.” More information about the club can be found at its website” https:/rivervalleygardenclub.net.

Baby birds eat an immense number of caterpillars.