Gardens for Wildlife

Web Sites

• Audubon at Home
  Create healthy habitats in your backyards and other spaces by planting native species, removing invasive plants, reducing pesticide use, conserving water, protecting water quality, and keeping birds safe.
  • Guide to Gardening for Life in Southeastern Pennsylvania
• Birds and Blooms
  This is the website of the birds and gardening magazine. They have a list of the 50 most wanted birds with information, photo, and a recording of its song for each bird.
• Brooklyn Botanic Garden: Gardening for Wildlife
  Chapters from their books on creating natural gardens.
• Butterflies and Moths of North America
  Each record contains photographs, which county it occurs in, reference, life history, caterpillar hosts and adult food, range and habitat.
• Butterfly Gardening
  A University of Minnesota Extension Service book by Vera Krichik. You can read it online or order it. Included is an extensive list of plants that attract moths and butterflies.
• Enature: Gardening
  This site offers articles on how to create a wildlife habitat in your own backyard and further information on the species you plant and the animals you attract.
• How to Make Butterfly Gardens
  By Stephanie Bailey, Extension Specialist, at the University of Kentucky, College of Agriculture, Department of Entomology
• National Bird-Feeding Society
  Frequently asked questions, and advice on bringing a variety of birds to your garden by providing a variety of food sources.
• North American Butterfly Association: Butterfly Garden and Habitat Program
  All you need to know!
  • Basics of Butterfly Gardening
  • Butterfly Gardening Plants of North America
• National Wildlife Federation: Garden for Wildlife
  Create a garden at home or at school that is friendly to native wildlife.
• Resources on Pollinators
  The National Academies Division on Earth & Life Studies includes information on pollinator-friendly plants for your garden.
• USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service: Backyard Conservation
  Ten conservation practices have been scaled down for homeowners and city residents to use in their yards. Tip sheets offer "how to" steps and helpful hints.
• Fine Gardening: Hummingbird Favorites
  An article about what types of perennials to plant to attract hummingbirds.
• Wildlife Habitat Council
  The Wildlife Habitat Council (WHC) is a nonprofit, nonlobbying 501(c)(3) group of corporations, conservation organizations, and individuals dedicated to protecting and enhancing wildlife habitat. Created in 1988, WHC helps large landowners, particularly corporations, manage their unused lands in an ecologically sensitive manner for the benefit of wildlife.

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Pittsburgh Region

• Allegheny Front: Chuck Welsh the Intrepid Naturalist
  Radio snippets interviewing Chuck Welsh, a naturalist from Allegheny College who talks about frogs, toads, and salamanders, sparrows, mosquitoes, and poison ivy, mushrooms, walnuts, woodpeckers, and insects...
• Allegheny Front: Paul Wiegman, Naturalist
  These radio snippets deal primarily with botanical features of our Western Pennsylvania woodlands.
• The Bee Hunter: Types of Bees
  Jim Abraham removes unwanted bees and wasps but also has information about identifying the various insects.
• Critter Control Pittsburgh
  And if you just happen to have encouraged a critter that you don't want to take up residence under your porch -- like a skunk -- there are professionals to help you relocate it. Read more in this May 31, 2009 article from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
• Tribune Review: Local 'growers' give winged beauties a fighting chance
  June Bernard is one of several Western Pennsylvanians who rear monarch butterflies at home, giving them a fighting chance at survival when 6,000 acres of wild habitat is lost each day due to development.

Pennsylvania

• Audubon Pennsylvania
  You can order their publication The Audubon Guide to Gardening for Life in Southeastern Pennsylvania (2005).
• Mid-Atlantic Apiculture
  The MAAREC* Web site from Penn State University. One of the best beekeeping sites in the world, packed with meaningful information for beekeepers worldwide. Includes Starting Beekeeping with information on beekeeping in the urban/suburban setting.
• Penn State Natural Resources Extension: Pennsylvania Wildlife
  A great selection of 16 brochures in .pdf format about attracting Pennsylvania wildlife to your garden, including
  • Gardening for Butterflies
  • Attracting Hummingbirds
  • Landscaping for Wildlife: Trees, Shrubs and Vines
  • Water for Wildlife: Bird Baths and Backyard Ponds
  • Neighborly Natural Landscaping: Creating Natural Environments in Residential Areas

Nearby States

• West Virginia: Landscaping for Wildlife
  This website from the West Virginia Department of Natural Resources includes a downloadable booklet in .pdf format (requires Adobe Acroba Reader) on the West Virginia Wild Yards Program. It will provide you with information on setting up a wildlife-friendly backyard habitat.
• West Virginia University Extension Services: Wildlife
  Publications about keeping birds, bats, and butterflies in your garden and deer out.