Date: 11/9/24 7:36 am From: Susan Schneider <susanschneider7...> Subject: Re: [birders] Native plants, caterpillars, and birds
Hear, hear, Rick and Briana! Tallamy's book *Nature's Best Hope* is a
classic. For the severe insect declines that are having such an impact on
birds, I can recommend Oliver Milman's *The Insect Crisis *and Dave
Goulson's *Silent Earth*. Both books came out in 2022. I've planted
natives for years, and you can easily see the difference.
Environmentally,
Susan
On Sat, Nov 9, 2024 at 10:24 AM Briana <designsbybriana...> wrote:
> 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!
>
>
>
> Briana Fisher
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
> 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
>>
>> --
>> Birders is a service of the Great Lakes Commission. Visit us at
>> www.glc.org
>> ---
>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
>> "Birders" group.
>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an
>> email to birders+<unsubscribe...>
>> To view this discussion visit
>> https://groups.google.com/a/great-lakes.net/d/msgid/birders/<IA0PR12MB8256F4CFA299CDE7C36B16DEAB5E2...> >> <https://groups.google.com/a/great-lakes.net/d/msgid/birders/<IA0PR12MB8256F4CFA299CDE7C36B16DEAB5E2...>?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> >> .
>>
> --
> Birders is a service of the Great Lakes Commission. Visit us at
> www.glc.org
> ---
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
> "Birders" group.
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an
> email to birders+<unsubscribe...>
> To view this discussion visit
> https://groups.google.com/a/great-lakes.net/d/msgid/birders/CAN98bW4hwvxZzRa4Tj0NmP5PNf%3DfznMnqOWK%3DRt-N3u%<3DFp3fYw...> > <https://groups.google.com/a/great-lakes.net/d/msgid/birders/CAN98bW4hwvxZzRa4Tj0NmP5PNf%3DfznMnqOWK%3DRt-N3u%<3DFp3fYw...>?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > .
>
--
Susan M. Schneider, PhD
Western Michigan University
Climate activist, behavioral psychologist, and award-winning author of *The
Science of Consequences* - now available in Spanish
http://www.scienceofconsequences.com - includes my annotated list of 50
climate book recommendations.
We need "rapid, deep and in most cases immediate greenhouse gas emission
reductions" - 2023 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change, calling for a 43% cut by 2030, compared to 2019. Please do what
you can. A liveable future depends on us.
