Backyard Meadows and Forest Buffers: Important Wildlife Habitat
What it is:
Meadows and buffer zones use native grasses and herbacous wildflowers to create wildlife habitat, support pollinators, improve soil health and water filtration. Forest buffers create a transition zone from forest to yard that helps wildlife thrive.
Why it matters:
Supports biodiversity
Reduces erosion
Provides natural stormwater filtration
How we do it:
We plant diverse native seed mixes and manage meadows to maintain a cycle of regeneration to actively create wildlife habitat. Meadows are some of the most susceptible sites to rapid invasive takeovers and should be carefully planned and executed by experienced professionals.
Did you know?
Herbaceous meadows house and feed some of PA’s rarest species.
We don’t really have perpetual prairie biomes in PA except in a few quirky, small locations.
What we do have are herbaceous meadows created by disturbance. This disturbance in nature would typically have been fire and wind related. Today, it’s often human intervention because we surpress fire.
As a result of the fleeting nature and natural scarcity of herbaceous meadows, the species that inhabit them are fighting an uphill battle by nature.
A small smapling of these species includes:
Pollinators & Insects
Monarch Butterfly (Danaus plexippus) – A migratory species whose populations are in decline due to habitat loss; relies on milkweed species in meadows.
Rusty Patched Bumblebee (Bombus affinis) – A federally endangered pollinator that needs diverse native flowers for survival.
Yellow-banded Bumblebee (Bombus terricola) – A declining species that depends on floral diversity in native meadows.
Frosted Elfin (Callophrys irus) – A rare butterfly that relies on wild blue lupine and other meadow plants.
Birds
Eastern Meadowlark (Sturnella magna) – A grassland bird in decline due to habitat loss, dependent on open meadow habitats.
Bobolink (Dolichonyx oryzivorus) – A species that nests in native grass meadows, suffering from the conversion of meadows to agriculture.
Short-eared Owl (Asio flammeus) – A state-endangered raptor that depends on open grasslands and meadows for hunting.
Henslow’s Sparrow (Ammodramus henslowii) – A rare grassland sparrow that requires undisturbed meadows with tall grasses.
Reptiles & Amphibians
Eastern Massasauga (Sistrurus catenatus) – A federally threatened rattlesnake that relies on wet meadows for part of its habitat.
Spotted Turtle (Clemmys guttata) – A species of special concern, often found in wet meadows and bogs.
Mammals
Northern Long-eared Bat (Myotis septentrionalis) – A federally threatened bat species that forages over meadows for insects.
Allegheny Woodrat (Neotoma magister) – A rare species in Pennsylvania that may use meadows near forested areas as part of its range.
Appalachain Cottontail (Sylvilagus obscurus) - A mountain rabbit, a related subspecies of the generic cottontail.
Derivatives, styles, and similar concepts. We point these out to help relate to terms that can be unclear, ambiguous, and overlapping in our field.
Wildflower Meadow, Prairie Restoration, Edge Feathering, Riparian Buffer, Wildlife Garden, Wildlife Habitat, Wild Landscaping, Natural Landscaping.