Backyard Habitats
Assisting fellow members of our community in creating backyard habitats and butterfly friendly gardens is the third essential part of our mission.
Caring for Our Habitat
We acknowledge that human activity, such as climate change and habitat destruction, has had a detrimental effect on numerous insect species resulting in population endangerment and extinction. We thoughtfully care for our habitat by following Nature’s lead, providing limited intervention only when deemed beneficial. We respect all organisms within our habitat as they all have an important role or function.
What is a backyard habitat?
A backyard habitat is an intentionally created space where plants and animals are provided a place to live and grow. The space must do all of the following:
provide food
In our habitat we use a combination of primarily native (and some non-native) plants as sources of food for a variety of insects, birds, and other small animals.
Provide Shelter
Insects, birds, and other small animals need safe places to live. Trees, shrubs, and weedy grass are home to hundreds of different species. In our habitat we mow only every 6-8 weeks. In the fall we allow leaves to remain as they are shelters for caterpillars and insects.
Sustainable
We are "lazy" or "messy" gardeners. We clean up our habitat in the late spring after most of our perennial plants have broken dormancy. This allows us to easily identify returning or missing plants as well as to allow hibernating insects to emerge from overwintering.
Habitat Stats
species
1
of caterpillars hand raised
species
1
of butterflies sighted in the habitat
species
1
of moths sighted in the habitat
species
1
+
of native and beneficial non-native plants
acres
1
of butterfly & moth habitat
© 2024 Backyard Butterflies
Made with ❤ with Elementor
Made with ❤ with Elementor
