Backyard Habitats: Getting Back to Nature

To a dragonfly, the typical Los Angeles gardener is as much of a menace as an empty-bellied toad.

By keeping their yards groomed and sleek, gardeners denude their property of water, food and shelter --resources necessary to dragonfly survival. But there’s a movement of rebel gardeners afoot. They are making backyards safe not only for dragonflies, but butterflies, birds, lizards, possums and other creatures as well.

Katherine Brosman, for instance, has turned her Mar Vista backyard into a veritable wildlife Hilton by installing two fish ponds and by planting trees and shrubs that supply cover and food in the form of fruit, seeds and nectar. Out of regard for her backyard visitors, Brosman, 66, also eschews the use of insecticides. “And some of my flowers show it,” she lamented, fingering a bug-eaten azalea.

Brosman’s is one of about 4,500 mini-wildernesses in the United States that are certified as backyard habitats by the National Wildlife Federation in Washington. In its free brochures, the federation teaches potential wildlife gardeners how to get started. There’s also a planning kit that sells for $16.95 plus $2.50 for shipping and handling. (The National Wildlife Federation is at 1412 16th St. N.W., Washington, D.C.)

The federation’s stance is that because wildlife has been forced out of its natural haunts by development, humans have a responsibility to restore some of those lost homes by sharing their own habitats with displaced creatures.

“It’s not a program geared toward any particular endangered species--there aren’t too many endangered species that appear in backyards,” said Antoinette Pepin, coordinator of the backyard habitat program. “The tiny little bits of habitat (created by the program) can’t take the place of National Parks and wildlife refuges, but maintaining a habitat can educate people about what all wildlife needs--a place to live.”

Wildlife gardeners lay off the pruning shears so that bushes can fill out, providing living quarters for birds, rabbits and other creatures. They let dead leaves and grass pile up so that the ground approximates a natural woodland floor.

The effect, to some eyes, is just plain weedy.

Sneaked in to Mow Yard

There have been several cases in the Midwest and East where habitat owners have clashed with neighbors who believe yards are to be tamed, not set wild. At least two such disputes have resulted in lawsuits. In a suburb of Buffalo, N.Y., frustrated neighbors sneaked in to mow the offending wildlife gardener’s yard of chicory, black-eyed Susans and other wildflowers when the courts did not intervene fast enough to suit them.

Southern California backyard habitat keepers interviewed for this story reported no such problems. Some of them appease the neighbors with an orderly front yard--it’s only in back that they let the oleanders run amok. David DuVal said his neighbors enjoy seeing what native creatures dash through their own yards en route to DuVal’s backyard habitat in Whittier.

And Chris Gorman said her neighbors in Tustin find her family’s backyard habitat so novel that she gets many requests for tours.

There are undoubtedly plenty of wildlife-loving gardeners who have created backyard habitats without consulting the National Wildlife Federation. As the best-known champion of the method, though, the organization has become a clearinghouse for information about gardening for wildlife.

Craig Tufts, director of the organization’s non-game/urban wildlife program, writes a monthly column “The Backyard Naturalist,” which appears in newspapers around the country, addressing topics such as the emotions associated with spotting your first backyard mole, and getting acquainted with isopods, or pill bugs. Tufts also appears occasionally on the PBS-TV series “Victory Garden” to talk about backyard habitats.

The federation’s monthly publication, National Wildlife, keeps readers informed of developments in urban habitats:

--A homeowners group made up of 42 families in Waco., Tex., turned their yards into a single backyard habitat, home to broad-winged hawks, armadillos and 25 species of butterflies.

--A Milwaukee couple planted 300 shrubs and trees, as well as 35 species of wildflowers and native plants in a quarter-acre backyard, proving that lots of space is not needed to start a habitat.

--Eleven employees of the National Starch and Chemical Co. in Buffalo, N.Y., converted four acres adjacent to their plant into a habitat. Other non-home habitats appear at factories, elementary schools, nursing homes, a San Francisco firehouse and an Ohio computer library. An Oklahoma prison has expressed interest in starting a habitat.

Applications Required

Tufts explained that interested gardeners must first submit an application explaining how they intend to provide food, water and shelter for the creatures who visit their yard. The plan is reviewed by a naturalist.

If the yard meets the qualifications, it is assigned a number and a certificate that states the aims of the program--to establish “a worldwide network of mini-refuges where, because of the owner’s conscientious planning, landscaping and gardening, wildlife may find quality habitat.”

The first thing to go, in many habitat conversions, is the lawn. The Gormans’ yard was nothing but five orange trees in an endless lawn when they purchased it 22 years ago. Now it looks more like a forest than a grass-carpeted suburban backyard.

DuVal, a 45-year-old computer specialist with the Los Angeles Unified School District, said that not only are lawns a nuisance to mow, but they don’t provide animals much food or protection from predators and the elements.

DuVal planted much of his family’s 2 1/2-acre backyard with native trees and shrubs. The plants fulfilled the food and shelter requirements; a goldfish pond and waterfall provide water.

DuVal said he spends a couple of hours a week maintaining the habitat “and more than a couple of hours enjoying it.” There are hammocks and benches throughout the property. Sometimes family members lunch at a pond-side table where they can also keep track of the animals that come and go.

Taking a Spider Inventory

They’ve counted close to 80 bird species, a dozen types of butterflies, as well as skunks, raccoons, opossums, coyotes and various rodents. DuVal’s 15-year-old son, Chris, is currently completing a spider inventory.

Urban and suburban wildernesses do not maintain themselves. Chris Gorman said a good deal of work is involved in maintaining a balance so that the bushes, flowers and trees are dense, but not overgrown.

“It’s definitely not the kind of place I’d turn over to a gardener,” Gorman said. She confided that she doesn’t even trust her husband with the hedge clippers for fear he’ll revert to an archaic idea of what a yard should be like and chop down some important habitat.

Like many habitat keepers, Gorman is motivated by knowledge that the growth of cities has banished small animals from their natural homes. Does she believe that backyard habitats can begin to reverse that process? “I think if enough people do it, it could help,” she said.