Welcome to the Wildlife Garden was originally published in the BFEC Newsletter, Vol. 11/No. 3, Summer 2007.
The Wildlife Garden at the Brown Family Environmental Center (BFEC) was established in 1996 through the efforts of Kenyon students and community members. If you’ve never visited or haven’t done so lately, imagine nearly an acre of garden beds with wandering stone-lined paths. Two small ponds feature goldfish, frogs, flowering lily pads and tinkling waterfalls. A recently completed “cobb” shed stores garden equipment and showcases energy efficient, recycled materials with walls made of mud and straw. And of course, the plants: over 100 species have been planted or retained for their wildlife benefits. You may be accustomed to hearing us refer to it as a “butterfly” garden, but we’ve changed the name to reflect the fact that a multitude of animals use the garden for sustenance and survival. A visitor is likely to see many butterflies, in addition to other in-sects, birds, frogs and mammals. In this article, we focus on two groups that present interesting stories and conservation needs: butterflies and bees.
Many of the BFEC garden’s features were originally designed to attract butterflies. A list on page three summarizes many elements that distinguish a wildlife garden from more thematic and manicured gardens, such as Japanese or English Gardens. In general, a wildlife garden looks wilder! It will often emphasizes species of plants native to the local area, since they tend to be richer in nectar than highly selected, horticultural varieties (though especially valuable non-native species have been included in the BFEC garden.)
Some butterflies, such as the well-known monarch, have also coevolved with the chemical defenses of native plants. Monarch caterpillars feed only on milkweed, which make them distasteful to birds. Butterflies can vary widely in their eating habits. Some prefer specific plants for feeding while others are less picky. Most lay eggs, however, very specifically on a single plant species that will serve as food for the caterpillars that will emerge. Some of these host plants have inconspicuous flowers and would not be found in a traditional garden. For example, many skipper caterpillars eat grasses, and larvae of Milbert’s Tortoiseshell butterflies (which is spectacularly colored as an adult) feed on the leaves of nettle.
Caterpillars will eat voraciously for one to four weeks, and then metamorphose into a cocoon. Several weeks later, an adult butterfly will emerge. The time of year and frequency of this cycle can vary widely, which means that not all butterflies will be on display all summer. Some species raise one brood per year with adult butterflies active for only a few weeks, while others raise several broods and are visible in the gardens more often. Because native bees and butterflies come in many sizes and are reproductively active at different times of year, wildlife gardens are best with a large variety of species to provide a range of flower sizes and flowering times. When you visit the wildlife garden with the intent of observing butterflies, keep in mind that temperature and sunshine also affect their activity. Their bodies must reach a temperature of 85 degrees to fly. On cool mornings, you may notice butterflies basking on strategically placed boulders that receive early morning sun to help them warm up. Seasonal color variations, color patterns and the angle a butterfly holds its wing are all strategies used to collect heat.
If you are considering creating a wildlife garden of your own, you will need to consider using pesticides sparingly, which kill both desirable and undesirable plant-eaters. Since the goal of a wildlife garden is to feed all stages of desirable wildlife, we have to be content with some chewed leaves in our garden! All of this creates special challenges to wildlife gardeners, who must plan carefully and be able to identify many kinds of plants and their usefulness to native pollinators.
A bee will visit a flower for energy and to feed it’s young. The insect is collecting pollen or nectar as food, but this process also can help the plant by moving pollen from one flower to another — this is the pollination process that often is required for plants to produce seeds. Although wind can move pollen for some plants (and also aggravate human allergies) about three quarters of all flowering plants depend on animals for reproduction.
Pollination can be provided by many kinds of animals. The common honeybee is well known, but is only one of hundreds of species of bees in Ohio. In fact, the honeybee was introduced to North America by European settlers, and along with changes in habitats, it depressed populations of many native species of bees (some to extinction). Other kinds of animals that pollinate local plants are butterflies and skippers, moths, wasps, flies, beetles and hummingbirds.
Nationwide, pollinators are declining in abundance. Recently, national news media reported precipitous losses of honeybee colonies caused by a mysterious desertion of colonies by workers. Scientists still cannot answer the question of why this occurs. Colony desertion, however, is just the most recent of many challenges to honeybees and honeybees are just one of many kinds of pollinators in decline.
The National Academies published a report on the status of pollinators in North America in 2006. In it, scientists conclude that honeybees and native pollinators are crucial for agriculture and for maintaining natural ecosystems, and that better conservation and monitoring is needed.
One response to honeybee decline is to support native insects so they are able to provide those pollination services. To do so we must address critical stages in their life cycle. These stages might be nesting sites for native bees or specialized food plants for caterpillars. The BFEC wildlife garden is designed to provide food plants for larvae and for adults, a source of water, and complex habitats for nesting.
Promoting natural pollinators requires extensive conservation of habitats. At the BFEC we ensure that pollinators have access to prairie, farm field edges, forest, and wetland habitats as well as to our wildlife gardens.
For individuals with smaller areas to manage, however, each wildlife garden contributes to a larger community of resources for our native pollinators. In addition to contributing to a larger conservation effort, you will find pollinator watching to be a rewarding activity. There is a lot more to pollinators than honey-bees!