Getting Started
The type of wildlife you will be able to attract and provide habitat for will vary dependent upon where your property is located and how large a piece of land you own. For example, you would not expect to attract a pileated woodpecker in an urban environment, but you might attract a northern cardinal.

If you are in an urban environment, focus on attracting songbirds and insects such as butterflies. A homeowner in a suburban area might focus on small mammals like rabbits along with songbirds and insects. A rural homeowner has the opportunity to attract the widest variety of wildlife including a range of mammals, songbirds, and insects.

Regardless of where you are, set reasonable expectations and remember that everything takes time. Don’t get discouraged if your wildflower plantings don’t produce a rush of color their first year or you don’t see that monarch butterfly right away. Eventually the plants will establish themselves and the animals will come.

Identify Habitat Components
Wildlife is similar to humans – they require water, food, cover for protection, and space to raise their young. If these habitat components are not present, animals will not inhabit an area. The traditional landscape is a sterile desert for wildlife. Mowed lawn continually cut before it reaches maturity, a few flowering plants, and lone trees (often non-native and ornamental), provide little value to wildlife. While your property may not be large enough to provide food, water, cover and space, you can assess your property and the neighborhood around you and determine what components are present.

Once you have identified what habitat components are present in your neighborhood, look at your property and determine what resources are present. If there are any missing habitat elements in your area, is it possible to provide that component on your property? Will providing this component meet your goal for the land or should you look at providing another habitat asset?

Inventory Wildlife and Plant Species
While determining what habitat components are present, you can begin to identify what wildlife species are present. Identifying what species of plants and animals are present prior to implementing a program will help you to focus your efforts. Information on what plants are present on your property can help you identify exotics that you will want to remove or native plants that you will want to preserve. An inventory will also give you something to compare against as your enhancement efforts progress.  It will enable you to demonstrate that your program has been successful. 

To help with identifying songbirds, insects and small mammals, WHC recommends using a field guide such as Peterson’s Field Guides, Audubon Society Field Guides, etc. Field guides will not only help you to identify wildlife species, but the book will also tell you a little about the animal's habitat requirements. 

Wildlife inventories should be conducted on a seasonal basis to ensure that you identify the full range of species utilizing your property and what time of year they are present. Once this information is collected, determine whether the animal is present during the entire year or only during a part of the year. Animals present year round are called residents, while those that are present during a part of the year are termed temporary or migratory. Information on when different animals are present will help you to determine when food resources should be available and help you to select plants to provide. 

Develop a Plan
A wildlife enhancement or management plan is an essential document. A management plan will document what you want to do and outline step-by-step what you will do and when. The first step in developing a management plan is to determine your goals for the property. Obviously, one goal is to manage your land for wildlife in general while another may be to enhance the aesthetics of your property while providing habitat for specific wildlife, such as songbirds and butterflies. Goals are your own ideas and desires and will be whatever you wish. 

To achieve your goals you should develop prescriptions. Prescriptions are more specific than goals but will help you to achieve your overall goal. For example, if your goal is to improve the aesthetics of your landscape, a prescription may be to provide a hummingbird/butterfly, or pollinator, habitat garden. After developing prescriptions, you will outline the steps that you will take. Steps for a hummingbird/butterfly habitat may include planting trees and flowers for food and roosting resources, and providing a sand filled birdbath as a puddling area where butterflies can drink. Once you have a plan then you are ready to begin implementing the steps to achieve your overall goals and to begin enjoying your wildlife habitat.

Other Considerations When Enhancing Your Backyard
Now that you are familiar with some of the wildlife and plants in and around your property and have a plan showing how you will proceed, you are ready to implement your first changes to your land. The first step in changing your landscape is to determine the ecological characteristics of your property. 

Soil type, hydrology, vegetation, and climate are some of the characteristics that will influence what you can plant. Fortunately, information on the ecological characteristics of most land in the U.S. has been collected by the Natural Resource Conservation Service and is available free of charge by calling your local office and requesting a soil map. The NRCS soil maps will show what type of soils are present, have information on climate, and even contain some information on native plants and crops that would grow in different soil types. With this information in hand and your management plan, the native plant nursery you visit will be better able to help you select what to plant to achieve your goals and what plants will grow most successfully on your property. 

Backyard Conservation partner