A simple brush pile can give boost to wildlife


LITTLE ROCK - If you are doing some winter cleaning up around your place, give a little thought to making a brush pile.

If feasible, make several brush piles, and you'll have rapid rewards in the form of songbirds and other wildlife making use of the debris in your backyard or in a corner of your rural property.

With a bit of creativeness, the brush pile can be a yard or garden feature, fronted or ringed, perhaps, with a planting of flowers.

Fred Ward of Mountain View retired from years of directing the Acres for Wildlife program for the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, and he's an advocate of brush piles for encouraging and benefiting wildlife.

Ward said, "Brush piles have many uses. You'll want them out of the way for your regular yard maintenance or for work on the farm or in the pasture. One suggestion is to put the brush pile near your yard borders or fencerows or close to woods. This will be an extra benefit to wildlife in that it'll give access to other food and cover."

Even at a residence in town, a small brush pile in a corner of the yard will attract birds without being a nuisance or an eyesore.

A few square feet in the corner of the yard or flowerbed can work well. Pile up some brush, and you've got a brush pile. A little planning, though, can make it more efficient and productive.

Ward suggests anchoring the brush pile around a stump or log. If these aren’t available, lay two or three bigger pieces on the ground then work the limbs, sticks and twigs around and on top of these. This way, there will be some space down low for small creatures to move around and hide.

The pile can even be made a feature of the flowerbed or yard. Plant some favorites around the pile. A few petunias, nasturtiums, hostas in the shade or whatever you choose will add eye appeal.

If you have more space available, like along a fence, Ward said clover, rye or winter wheat can be planted now. Later, millet or lespedeza can be planted. Sunflowers are a possibility too. Birds love them. Seeds can be dropped in the pile itself as well as around it.

Ward said even a damaged tree or shrub can be useful as a living brush pile.

If a tree is pushed over but still alive, give some thought to anchoring or staking it to keep the green top close to the ground then perhaps adding some debris around it. The tree will produce for some time to come both food and shelter for wildlife and birds.

If you have rural acreage, the opportunities for brush piles increase significantly. Make several. Use fence corners. Rabbits and quail will be beneficiaries along with all sorts of songbirds.

Raking up a small amount of leaves for the brush pile can add to its versatility. Bugs grow in decaying leaves. Birds feed on the bugs. Some grass clippings on the ground, along with the leaves, may bring red worms and nightcrawlers.

Eventually, in one, two or three years probably, your brush pile will decay. This is good, Ward said. It adds a bit of nutrition to the site. If you have cedar debris in your brush pile, this may last much longer.

Chances are strong you’ll see quick results when birds of many varieties start using the brush pile, along with rabbits.

Source: http://www.agfc.com/

I have a good size brushpile about 50 yards from my house and it has been home to many different things. I had a red fox family living in there, rabbits, all birds, cats, oppossums, you name it it has probably been in there.....

My dad recently cut down a large tree in his yard and piled all the smaller branches in the field behind his house. When I was over there about week ago there were all kinds of birds hoping in and out of the branches.

More proof this is a great way to help wildlife.

We trimed a few shrubs and bushes around the house over the past week my wife gathered up the limbs and piled them by the curb because the city periodically comes by and picks them up. She made the pile two days ago. It's a small pile only about 2-3 feet tall and maybe a 5 foot circle and it is visible from my office window. They very day she put it there ids were already jumping in and out of it. Today I noticed a white-throated sparrow coming and going I went to check it out and it's already got a nest in there.

This leaves a delema though the brush haulers will be here this week to take the pile away.

I'll try and get some pictures.

You can see a picture of the brush pile we made and the nest that was built there so quickly at the following link

http://www.southeasternoutdoors.com/wildlife/birds/white-throated-sparrow.html