wildlife habitat Archives - Wildlife Habitat Council

Keeping Fireflies from Blinking Out for Good

I don’t know about you, but I haven’t been seeing many fireflies in the last few summers.

Growing up, we called these little guys “lightning bugs.” I remember many summer evenings watching our backyard glow with what seemed like a million blinking little lights floating in the air.

Unfortunately, firefly populations seem to be declining in recent years. Although the reasons are not certain, they appear to be affected by light pollution, which disrupts their flashing displays for mating, as well as habitat destruction and improper pesticide use.

Like many bioluminescent species, fireflies—which are actually beetles, not flies—create this seemingly magical glow with a chemical reaction. A compound called luciferan contained in their abdomen combines with oxygen, calcium and adenosine triphosphate (ATP), and this reaction produces light. Both males and females use this display to help them find a suitable mate, and each species of firefly (of which there are 2,000 worldwide) blinks this light in a specific pattern.

In addition to their spectacular nighttime displays, fireflies are also beneficial. You may be surprised to learn that the adults of most firefly species are pollinators! With diets consisting primarily of pollen and nectar, fireflies play an important role in the propagation of many flowering plants. Their larvae are equally helpful, eating invertebrate pests like snails, slugs, worms and grubs.

Fireflies tend to thrive in habitats that are warm, humid and near standing water. A favorite habitat for the larvae especially is areas with abundant rotting wood and leaf litter along the edges of ponds and waterways. They also like forest edges, meadows and marshes.

If you want to help fireflies in your neck of the woods, here are a few tips you can incorporate into your site’s habitat management:

• Reduce the use of pesticides near firefly habitat (check out NAPPC’s Pollinator Friendly Practices for helpful guidelines on responsible pesticide use near pollinator habitat)
• If you have riparian habitat or other warm, moist habitats near water, consider management practices that encourage the presence of leaf litter and woody debris.
• Provide vegetation for adult fireflies to seek shelter in during the day, such as tall grasses, low-growing flowering plants and creepers, and shrubs. Even mowing the lawn less frequently and at a higher height can benefit fireflies, as they often rest in lawns on or near the ground.
• Plant flowering plants with bloom times throughout the growing season to make sure adult fireflies have enough nectar and pollen to feed on.
• Wherever possible, turn building lights down or off to reduce light pollution. (This will also help migrating birds, who can become confused by and collide with buildings that are lit up at night.)

If you’d like help with managing for fireflies as part of your corporate conservation program, contact WHC’s Strategy and Planning team at strategyandplanning@wildlifehc.org.

Joining Forces with USFWS to Save Monarch Butterflies in the Southeast

in WHC Blog

By now you’ve likely heard that monarch butterfly populations have drastically and rapidly declined over the past several years. While approximately 1 billion of these butterflies completed their annual migration in 1996, only 30 million did so in 2014. As a result, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) is currently reviewing the species for listing under the Endangered Species Act throughout its range in the U.S.

Building upon a long-standing partnership and the recently-established USFWS Region 4 priority to protect monarchs, the USFWS reached out to Wildlife Habitat Council (WHC) in September 2014 to focus on increasing the amount of quality monarch habitat on corporate lands in the southeast U.S. The 2-year joint initiative concluded in September 2016.

To achieve the goals of the initiative, WHC coordinated with companies in the southeastern states to restore monarch habitat and educate the community about monarch conservation. The 16 participating companies created monarch habitat by planting milkweed, native warm-season grasses, and other pollinator-friendly vegetation. These plantings typically took the form of pollinator gardens or wildflower meadows. WHC also encouraged site teams to educate communities about monarchs and other pollinator species and their needs. At the culmination of the joint initiative in September 2016, the participating companies had completed 29 projects, which combined provide nearly 100 acres of quality monarch habitat.

As part of these efforts, WHC helped foster partnerships between participating companies and local organizations, who lent their expertise or hands-on assistance to help complete monarch habitat projects. WHC also succeeded in connecting a number of sites with their local USFWS field offices, whose staff were all tremendously willing to help when asked.

An additional outcome of the initiative was an event held at Research Triangle Park (RTC), a large multi-company business park in North Carolina where several WHC members are located. WHC staff joined the USFWS, Research Triangle Foundation, and several other exhibitors during National Pollinator Week 2016 for a monarch and pollinator exhibition designed to spread awareness among RTC employees about monarch conservation and the joint initiative. The event also provided opportunities for employees to connect with about 20 potential partners for restoring monarch habitat at their company’s facility. WHC is grateful to the USFWS, whose staff was instrumental and invaluable in bringing together so many local partners and helping making the event successful.

Although the joint initiative has ended and the USFWS has refocused its monarch conservation efforts in the Midwest, companies still have the opportunity to contribute to monarch conservation. You can find information about monarchs in the resources found in the WHC Knowledge Center, or contact the WHC Strategy and Planning team for one-on-one guidance on creating and monitoring monarch butterfly habitat at your site.

Habitat Design that Invites Exploration

in WHC Blog

One of the best ways to spread awareness of and interest in biodiversity conservation is to provide opportunities for people to enjoy wildlife and their habitats. While unstructured, even “messy” habitats have their place, a nice-looking habitat will create a much more inviting environment that employees and visitors will want to spend time in.

The main thing to keep in mind is to make the project look intentional and inviting to exploration. Here’s a few ideas to get you started:

Make it more colorful by using a diversity of native plant species with colorful flowers and attractive foliage.

Make it highly visible. If you are able to choose the location for your project, put it somewhere folks will easily see, such as placing your pollinator garden near a building entrance. This visual reminder will entice people to visit the habitat.

Use plantings and maintain vegetation to create attractive lines and shapes. Install or maintain vegetation in such a way as to create soft, rounded corners and curving lines, instead of hard, straight edges with corners.

Plant seeds or plugs in “drifts” composed of one or two species or maintained mowed borders around the edges of plantings to create a more attractive, intentional look to large planting projects like meadows or prairie restorations.

Make it accessible to users of all abilities. It’s easy to feel like accessibility is a burden, so instead, look at it as an opportunity to allow more folks to enjoy and learn about biodiversity. Ensure that both able-bodied and differently-abled people can get to your habitat and can use it without difficulty once they get there. Look to ADA guidelines or talk to a local disability advocacy group for ideas on improving accessibility in realistic ways, like adding braille to signage for visually-impaired users or providing a level trail with railings for mobility-impaired users.

Add structures that encourage folks to pause and enjoy the scenery, such as benches, wildlife observation decks, or friendly signage with information about what they’re seeing nearby.

Add a trail or boardwalk to make it easy for folks to get to your habitat, or to enjoy a walk through the habitat once they get there.

If your team is feeling particularly creative, you might even consider adding artistic features that celebrate habitat while also enhancing it, like these artful rainwater design projects created by a team at Penn State University or a pollinator garden shaped like a butterfly.

6 Tricks for Better Species Identification

in WHC Blog

Learning how to identify plants and animals–especially when you’re first starting out with a conservation project—can be seem pretty daunting at first. Once you get the hang of it, though, I promise it gets much easier! Here’s a list of six tricks I use all the time when I’m trying to identify wildlife in the field.

First, get yourself some handy identification tools.

There are so many species, how could one possibly learn what they all look like? Answer – you don’t. Instead, you learn how to use tools like field guides that will help you figure out which species you’re looking at. Field guides are generally designed to be small enough to carry around while also providing an identification tips for a group of species like birds. There are also numerous apps for your smartphone that can supplement or replace field guides, like Audubon’s bird guide app and LeafSnap.

Take photos!

Take photos of the animals and plants you see, especially if you aren’t sure what species it is. You can then examine the photo in detail and zoom in on your computer’s monitor, and take as much time as you need to compare it to books and online guides. You can also submit photos to a variety of experts online who can help with difficult identifications, such as BugGuide.net or a local naturalist.

Get expert help in the field.

In addition to getting help with identifying species you photographed, it can also be advantageous to have one or more experts with you in the field while you are monitoring your project. They can give you hands-on training in implementing a monitoring technique for your project as well as with in-the-field identification.

Learn how to “break it down” into manageable parts.

One of the best ways to keep from feeling overwhelmed by everything going on with the way a species looks or sounds is learning how to “break down” each plant or animal into a bunch of manageable “parts” that will help you identify it. So if you’re trying to figure out which bird you’re seeing, you can break down the visual observation into things like relative size, bill length, bill shape, tail shape, colors on various parts of the body, and distinctive markings. Animal songs and calls can be similarly broken down into things like pitch, rhythm, melody and harmonics, complexity, tone, timbre, and mnemonic association.

Use all of your senses to observe plants and animals.

The most common way to identify plants and animals is by sight, of course but your other senses can help you too. Many animals sing, call, or make other noises, and with some practice it can be easy to distinguish many of the common bird songs, frog and mammal calls, and such. Some species have a distinctive smell, such the lemony odor released by lemon beebalm when its leaves are crushed, or that very distinctively noxious odor when a skunk sprays to protect itself. Touch and taste can also be useful for helping identify certain plants, such as rough tree bark or minty-tasting leaves (taste should be used with lots of caution, however, as many wild plants can be poisonous!)

Consider your location.

Remember, species occur within specific ranges and habitat types. The species you might find when you’re out on your company’s land will therefore depend a great deal on where you are in the world and what habitat you’re looking at. You wouldn’t find a tropical marsh bird in a temperate desert, now would you?

I hope these tricks give you the confidence you need to go out there and try your hand at species ID!

Caribou Who?

in WHC Blog

With the winter holidays fast approaching, I thought it would be fun to write about caribou, which most people know by their other name—reindeer.

Source: USFWS

Reindeer live in the northern latitudes of North America, Europe, and Asia. They are divided into several subspecies, based upon habitat (woodland or tundra) and location.

Reindeer are pretty unique, for several reasons. For starters, they are the only species of mammal that can see ultraviolet light. How cool is that? It helps reindeer to better see things like white fur (like Arctic wolves) in the glowing white of the Arctic region that they might otherwise miss.

Their eating habits also make them pretty distinctive. They are the only large mammal able to eat lichen because of specialized gut flora that helps them metabolize it.

Reindeer moss is a type of lichen and is a favorite food for reindeer. Source: Wacker Chemical Corporation

Their reliance on lichen as a winter food source means they require plenty of undisturbed, lichen rich habitat, but unfortunately, climate change and other factors are causing this critical habitat to disappear all too quickly.

In most subspecies of reindeer, box sexes grow antlers, which is unique among deer. They also have the largest antlers relative to body size of all deer species. They can measure up to 51 inches long and 33 pounds! Male reindeer shed their antlers at the end of the mating season in early December, while females retain theirs throughout the winter until they give birth in the spring.

That’s right, folks – if the many depictions of Santa’s antlered reindeer are correct, that means Santa’s reindeer are all females. (I suppose it’s a good thing they all have gender-neutral names! Well, except for poor Rudolph.)

Observations of reindeer actually flying have yet to occur, though.

If you’d like to see reindeer in action, check out the Reindeer Cam at the Como Park Zoo & Observatory.

The Soil is Alive!

in WHC Blog

This is the second in a series of blog posts about soil.

The eastern mole (Scalopus aquaticus) is just one of many species that lives in the soil ecosystem. Source: National Science Foundation.

We often think of soil as nothing more than “the dirt beneath your feet,” but soil is much more complex than that. There’s a whole other world of living creatures beneath our feet!

Soils provide habitat for a rich, dynamic ecosystem for organisms ranging from microscopic bacteria and protozoa, to fungi and plant roots, to insects, worms, mites, and other invertebrates, and even subterranean vertebrates like moles.

Most soil organisms live in the top few inches of soil, where oxygen and nutrients are most readily available, though a few microorganisms (like anaerobic bacteria) occur at lower depths.

The soil nitrogen cycle is just one example of how soil organisms affect the availability of nutrients for plants.

Soil is more than just a home for these organisms, however. Many of these organisms can benefit the plant community growing above it by improving the availability of nutrients and organic compounds. Symbiotic bacteria known as Rhizobia, for example, can “fix” nitrogen from the air and convert it to a form that plants can use, in exchange for essential minerals and sugars supplied by roots of leguminous plants. Soil organisms that decompose organic matter also break down complex organic molecules into nutrients that plants can use.

Soil organisms affect plant growth in other ways. Tunneling creatures like moles and worms move the soil around, which aerates it, improves drainages, and creates easier routes for root growth. Some microorganisms can stimulate plant growth by releasing special hormones.

Sometimes soil organisms can negatively impact the plant ecosystem above. For example, subterranean herbivores like voles and white grubs can impact plant growth by feeding on roots, and soil pathogens like wilt-causing fungi can harm or kill plants. Fortunately these species are kept in check by other creatures higher on the food chain.

So the next time you plant your garden, you can thank all those soil organisms for helping your plants grow!

Providing Homes for Burrowing Owls

in WHC Blog

WHC member Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. recently partnered up with WHC’s Tucson office and the Arizona-based raptor rescue organization Wild at Heart to construct artificial burrows for rescued burrowing owls at Freeport’s Safford Operations facility. Freeport produced a video about this project and gave us permission to share it. You can watch the video to see the volunteers in action and find out more about this fantastic project.

If you live out in the western parts of the U.S., you may recognize the burrowing owl (Athene cunicularia). Unlike most owls, they are diurnal (active during the day) and nest in underground burrows. However, they don’t dig their own burrows, relying instead on the burrows dug by other animals like prairie dogs. They can often be seen standing or perching near the burrow entrance, ever on the lookout for predators like coyotes and larger raptors. (As wildlife photographer Mac Stone described this behavior, they are “so completely neurotic it’s comical.”)

A common strategy for helping burrowing owls on both public and private lands has been the installation of artificial burrows, such as the burrows installed at the Safford Operations. This project is particularly useful in areas where burrowing small mammals are not desirable.

If you have an interest in installing artificial burrows at your facility, please contact your WHC Regional Biologist.

Connecting to Enhance WHC Certification

in From the President

In early February, the Wildlife Habitat Council (WHC) convened an impressive group of stakeholders to kick-start the design phase of an enhanced certification program that, when launched, will incorporate contemporary conservation and education initiatives to ensure and incentivize the best conservation projects and education programs across WHC’s membership.

This meeting was attended by representatives from federal agencies including Interior, Agriculture, State, Education, Defense and EPA. Non-profit partners Pollinator Partnership, Defenders of Wildlife, The Conservation Fund, The Nature Conservancy, and Monarch Watch also participated. Representing the WHC corporate membership were employees from ExxonMobil, Waste Management, Bridgestone, BP, and others.

A number of themes emerged from this meeting but every breakout group circled back to the theme of “connections” and the challenges and opportunities for making them happen. It seems that the unique nature of the conservation and education projects developed and delivered by the members of WHC offers many chances to connect. Here are some of the unique opportunities discussed at the meeting:

Connecting across boundaries: The desire to transcend boundaries—to work “across the fence”—surfaced throughout the day. In the US, that means connecting conservation work being conducted on private land with that being done on public lands, whether held by the state or federal government. On the global level, many WHC members have operations outside the borders of a single country and can use their global operations to impact wildlife and environmental health across these borders. WHC member PPG Industries’ work connecting monarch habitat on two of its properties in Mexico and Pennsylvania is a prime example of using projects in different countries to benefit a single species and connect education efforts in support of a species that is in serious decline across its range.

Connecting to Corporate STEM goals: Many of WHC’s members invest in STEM education to create the scientifically literate workforce necessary for their future operations. These investments support the work of large efforts advancing STEM on the national stage. Through their work with WHC, members can use their lands to promote STEM education by providing hands-on, relevant STEM opportunities to learners of all ages. For example, Waste Management’s El Sobrante Landfill and Wildlife Preserve in California provides an opportunity for children to learn the science of landfill operations and management of wildlife including rare and recovering species.

The Wildlife Habitat Council (WHC) convened an impressive group of stakeholders to kick-start the design phase of an enhanced certification program.

Connecting within industry sectors: When the National Ready Mixed Concrete Association (NRMCA) wanted to connect its members with a common approach to biodiversity projects, it partnered with WHC to develop a biodiversity toolkit. This toolkit provides operators of ready mixed concrete production facilities with examples of projects that enhance biodiversity with little or no impact on operations. The toolkit gives the operator guidance on starting a project and working towards certification. By creating a common starting point for facilities across the country, and beyond, WHC creates connections within this industry sector.

Through these connections, and many more, WHC believes that its members’ efforts amount to an outcome that is greater than the sum of its parts.

Building on this stakeholder meeting, we will continue, over the next 12 months, to explore these connections further. We plan to take the conversation across the country and beyond and, with our government and NGO partners define, formalize and internalize these connections, translate them into actions and projects that any corporate member can implement on their property for high quality conservation and education outcomes.

For information, contact Margaret.

Wildlife in Winter: Catching Prey Under the Snow

in WHC Blog

Last week I wrote about how some animals like voles, mice, and shrews utilize subnivean habitats as a way to stay warm and avoid being seen by predators while they forage.

An ermine in the snow. Photo courtesy of the National Park Service.

Of course, predators need to eat too. And while the snow allows the rodents to stay out of sight, there are several predators such that have developed other ways of finding their prey. For example, weasels (especially ermines) will dig down through the snow to look for rodents and their subnivean tunnels. Sometimes they will even take over the tunnels and make them their own after they’ve preyed upon its original inhabitants.

There are also several predators such as owls, foxes, and coyotes with such excellent hearing that they actually listen carefully for squeaks and sounds of movement under the snow before ambushing their prey. Red foxes, for example, can hear very low-frequency sounds, enabling them to hear rodents scampering beneath several feet of snow. Scientists also believe that foxes tune in to the Earth’s magnetic field to hunt: as a fox follows the sound of its prey beneath the snow, it’s searching for the “sweet spot” where the angle of the sound matches the planet’s magnetic field.

Foxes can be especially fun to watch as they jump high and then dive headfirst into the snow to catch rodents. The clip below, from The Discovery Channel’s North America series, is an entertaining example of this behavior.

Have you ever seen predators hunting for prey under the snow? We’d love to hear your stories in the comments below.

Wildlife in Winter: Finding Cover Under the Snow

in WHC Blog

A deer mouse emerges from under the snow. Photo courtesy of the National Park Service.

Here in the Mid-Atlantic region, we’ve been experiencing snowfall on almost a weekly basis for the last month or so. And while all this snow causes school shutdowns and traffic headaches for us, some of the local small mammals, like voles, mice, and shrews, do very well by staying beneath the snow.

This type of habitat is called subnivean habitat, a word derived from the Latin words sub (beneath) and nives (snow).

Voles, mice, and shrews dig tunnels under the snow, which allow them to travel safely between burrows and food sources without being seen by predators. Snow also provides excellent insulation against below-freezing ambient air temperatures, creating a microclimate near the ground with a temperature closer to 32°F (0°C). The subnivean tunnels only become visible once the snow melts and the tunnels collapse.

There are some great educational activities out there that you can use to teach students about how small mammals and other wildlife use snow. A great one I found is a game called Subnivean Critter Tag, which requires little more than freshly-fallen snow and some imagination.

Have you found any great conservation education activities for the snow? Please share them in the comments below!

Don’t Lose It, Reuse It: Innovative Ways to Use Waste to Create Wildlife Habitat

in On Demand Webinars

View the webinar

Many businesses have created innovative and fascinating ways to reuse waste, closing the loop on materials sourced throughout their supply chain. This is especially true in the world of conservation, where companies are now reusing supplies once destined for landfills to create wildlife habitat and solve specific environmental issues. Join General Motors’ Global Manager of Waste Reduction as he details how GM has successfully turned battery box covers into bat and bird boxes. You’ll also hear from Martin Ecosystems’ President, who will discuss how recycled materials can be used to create turtle basking islands or floating marshlands.

You’ll learn:

Successful ways companies have used waste to create habitat
Key rules for reuse of materials
About the importance of product development and testing before its reuse

Presenters:

John Bradburn, Global Manager of Waste Reduction, General Motors
Nicole Waguespack, President, Martin Ecosystems

View the webinar

Tag Archive for: wildlife habitat

Keeping Fireflies from Blinking Out for Good

Joining Forces with USFWS to Save Monarch Butterflies in the Southeast

Habitat Design that Invites Exploration

Read more WHC blogs.

6 Tricks for Better Species Identification

Read more WHC blogs.

Caribou Who?

Read more WHC blogs.

The Soil is Alive!

Read more WHC blogs.

Providing Homes for Burrowing Owls

Read more WHC blogs.

Connecting to Enhance WHC Certification

Read more WHC blogs.

Wildlife in Winter: Catching Prey Under the Snow

Read more WHC blogs.

Wildlife in Winter: Finding Cover Under the Snow

Read more WHC blogs.

Tag Archive for: wildlife habitat

Don’t Lose It, Reuse It: Innovative Ways to Use Waste to Create Wildlife Habitat

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Tag Archive for: wildlife habitat

Tag Archive for: wildlife habitat

About

Work With WHC

Learn More

Member

UN Global Compact Business for Nature

Official ally

World Benchmarking Alliance

UN Global Compact
Business for Nature