Date: 11/9/24 7:24 am From: Briana <designsbybriana...> Subject: Re: [birders] Native plants, caterpillars, and birds
The Nature of Oaks is an amazing book everyone should read. It isn’t to
scare people but to state the facts and spur people to make a difference,
even if they have a small lot.
We have a large property and we are ripping out the invasives every fall
and winter (we have invasive honeysuckle, autumn olive, multi flora rose
and buckthorn) and planting natives. Many of the invasive shrubs produce a
chemical that prevents other things from growing around it. When we remove
them we are noticing a large increase of native plants growing in its place
like native dogwoods and trees.
Did you also know that invasive shrubs that produce berries are mostly all
sugar and no protein. Our native trees and bushes that produce berries are
full of protein and what migrants need for that long flight.
The biggest takeaway from this book is that there is a list of keystone
species. These species support the largest amount of bugs, therefore
supporting the largest amount of wildlife. You can google keystone species
and find the best ones near you.
https://homegrownnationalpark.org/keystone-trees-and-shrubs/
I use PictureThis app to identify trees, shrubs and plants. I do pay $30 a
year but there is also iNaturalist and seek which is free. Those apps have
taught me what to look for.
This book was super interesting. He has other similar books like this that
you also may enjoy!
On Sat, Nov 9, 2024 at 9:29 AM Neubig, Richard <rneubig...> wrote:
> All,
>
>
>
> My wife is reading Doug Tallamy’s new book on Oaks. He cites some
> particularly scary data. I know I’m preaching to the choir but we should
> all be planting natives and get our friends to do so also.
>
>
>
> First in a study (2018) on how non-natives have replaced natives in
> hedgerows (think honeysuckle), the data are striking. “novel (non-native)
> hedgerows had 68% fewer caterpillar species, 91% fewer caterpillars, and
> 96% less caterpillar biomass than native hedgerows.”
>
>
>
> Also, in yards with different extents of non-native shrubs and other
> plants, the viability of bird survival was strikingly related to the
> fraction of native shrubs – presumably due to the very low food insect mass
> on non-natives. If a yard had *less than 70% natives*, Carolina
> Chickadees had much smaller brood sizes and couldn’t even maintain
> replacement levels of breeding.
>
>
>
> This shows how even modest replacement of native plants by non-natives can
> have a major impact.
>
>
>
> Scary!
>
> Rick
>
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