Garden for Nebraska Wildlife

 

Create a Garden for Wildlife

Create a space for wildlife by providing Food, Water, Cover, Places to Raise Young and using Sustainable Practices. With these simple elements, anyone can attract birds, butterflies, and other wildlife to their backyard. Choose the right plants, add some water, manage with care and wildlife should find their way to your backyard habitat.

Start with native plants

They are already adapted to Nebraska’s climate and temperature, and the native wildlife here are already adapted to them. Remember that Nebraska’s rainfall and climate vary considerably from west to east, so choose native plants that are native to your part of Nebraska.

In the eastern part of the state, tallgrass prairie grasses like big bluestem, eastern grama grass, Indiangrass, switchgrass, and tall dropseed work well with flowers like compass plant, goldenrod, Joe-pye weed, prairie blazing star, and purple prairie clover.

The mixed grass prairie region in central Nebraska is a great place for grasses like little bluestem, porcupine grass, prairie sandreed, sand bluestem, sand muhly, sideoats grama, and flowers like asters, bush morning-glory, lemon scurfpea, puccoons, purple prairie coneflower and sunflowers.

In the shortgrass prairie region in western Nebraska, try blue grama, buffalo grass, June grass, needle-and-thread grass, and western wheatgrass, combined with penstemon, prairie smoke, prairie phlox, soapweed (yucca), and cactus.

Be sure to include various types of milkweed to help Monarchs and other butterflies.

Shrubs like silver buffaloberry, juneberry, currant, red-twig dogwood, and cotoneaster will provide cover, and many shrubs will also produce berries and fruits. Black walnut, pawpaw, hickory, and bur oak are native to eastern Nebraska and grow well in the rest of the state in wetter areas along streams and lakes. Rocky Mountain juniper and ponderosa pine are native to western Nebraska.

Provide Water & Food

Water for your habitat can be as simple as a bowl or dog dish, or as elaborate as a pond or waterfall. Ground-hugging critters will appreciate water at ground level, while a raised bird bath with help birds avoid neighborhood cats. A heated water source in the winter will help birds keep their feathers clean, which helps insulate them from the cold.

If you select a diverse mix of native plants, you should provide nectar, seeds, fruits and other food for wildlife. Bird and critter feeders can provide supplemental food, especially in the winter, and can give you endless hours of pleasure.

Use Sustainable Practices

As you manage your yard and habitat area, remember that pesticides and herbicides are poison and can kill or sicken butterflies, bees, and other wildlife. Diversity is strength, in both your habitat area and your yard.

Certify

Once your habitat is established, join the ranks of Certified Wildlife Habitats® through the National Wildlife Federation.

CERTIFY YOUR HABITAT

Create a Garden for Wildlife

Create a space for wildlife by providing Food, Water, Cover, Places to Raise Young and using Sustainable Practices. With these simple elements, anyone can attract birds, butterflies, and other wildlife to their backyard. Choose the right plants, add some water, manage with care and wildlife should find their way to your backyard habitat.

Start with native plants

They are already adapted to Nebraska’s climate and temperature, and the native wildlife here are already adapted to them. Remember that Nebraska’s rainfall and climate vary considerably from west to east, so choose native plants that are native to your part of Nebraska.

In the eastern part of the state, tallgrass prairie grasses like big bluestem, eastern grama grass, Indiangrass, switchgrass, and tall dropseed work well with flowers like compass plant, goldenrod, Joe-pye weed, prairie blazing star, and purple prairie clover.

The mixed grass prairie region in central Nebraska is a great place for grasses like little bluestem, porcupine grass, prairie sandreed, sand bluestem, sand muhly, sideoats grama, and flowers like asters, bush morning-glory, lemon scurfpea, puccoons, purple prairie coneflower and sunflowers.

In the shortgrass prairie region in western Nebraska, try blue grama, buffalo grass, June grass, needle-and-thread grass, and western wheatgrass, comb vined with penstemon, prairie smoke, prairie phlox, soapweed (yucca), and cactus.

Be sure to includearious types of milkweed to help Monarchs and other butterflies.

Shrubs like silver buffaloberry, juneberry, currant, red-twig dogwood, and cotoneaster will provide cover, and many shrubs will also produce berries and fruits. Black walnut, pawpaw, hickory, and bur oak are native to eastern Nebraska and grow well in the rest of the state in wetter areas along streams and lakes. Rocky Mountain juniper and ponderosa pine are native to western Nebraska.

Provide Water & Food

Water for your habitat can be as simple as a bowl or dog dish, or as elaborate as a pond or waterfall. Ground-hugging critters will appreciate water at ground level, while a raised bird bath with help birds avoid neighborhood cats. A heated water source in the winter will help birds keep their feathers clean, which helps insulate them from the cold.

If you select a diverse mix of native plants, you should provide nectar, seeds, fruits and other food for wildlife. Bird and critter feeders can provide supplemental food, especially in the winter, and can give you endless hours of pleasure.

Use Sustainable Practices

As you manage your yard and habitat area, remember that pesticides and herbicides are poison and can kill or sicken butterflies, bees, and other wildlife. Diversity is strength, in both your habitat area and your yard.

Certify

Once your habitat is established, join the ranks of Certified Wildlife Habitats® through the National Wildlife Federation.

CERTIFY YOUR HABITAT

Gardens for Monarchs & Pollinators

Monarch butterflies are one of nature’s most amazing stories.

These tiny, beautiful creatures fly several thousand miles from the Great Plains and the eastern USA to spend the winter in a small forest in the mountains of Central Mexico. In the spring they make their way back north, over several generations, spreading out across the continent.

Monarchs lay their eggs on milkweeds — and only milkweeds — including 17 milkweed species known to be native to Nebraska. When hatched, the caterpillars eat the milkweed leaves, which contain cardenolides, a toxic steroid compound that is absorbed into the caterpillar body and makes them toxic and bad-tasting to birds, mice and other predators. When monarchs transform into butterflies, the toxin remains in their body, providing protection against predators.

Monarch butterflies, like native bees, honey bees, and many other pollinators, rely on nectar-rich flowers for their nutrition. Sadly, their reliance on milkweeds and wildflowers has left Monarchs vulnerable. Loss of milkweeds, loss of native prairie, increasingly effective pesticides and other challenges have reduced the monarch butterfly population by about 90% in just the past 20 years. Many other pollinators are in sharp decline as well.

Nebraska Wildlife Federation is working to restore monarch and pollinator habitat on the landscape, by encouraging the planting of milkweeds and nectar-rich native plants on the landscape. With support from the Nebraska Environmental Trust, we are hosting free workshops to teach people how to make a place for wildlife in their own backyard. Our schoolyard habitat workshops show educators how to establish pollinator gardens and use them as outdoor classrooms.

We are also working to establish monarch and pollinator demonstration gardens to show people how to make a place for monarchs and other pollinators in their own backyard or neighborhood.

Regional Nectar Plant List for Monarchs

Gardens for Monarchs & Pollinators

Monarch butterflies are one of nature’s most amazing stories.

These tiny, beautiful creatures fly several thousand miles from the Great Plains and the eastern USA to spend the winter in a small forest in the mountains of Central Mexico. In the spring they make their way back north, over several generations, spreading out across the continent.

Monarchs lay their eggs on milkweeds — and only milkweeds — including 17 milkweed species known to be native to Nebraska. When hatched, the caterpillars eat the milkweed leaves, which contain cardenolides, a toxic steroid compound that is absorbed into the caterpillar body and makes them toxic and bad-tasting to birds, mice and other predators. When monarchs transform into butterflies, the toxin remains in their body, providing protection against predators.

Monarch butterflies, like native bees, honey bees, and many other pollinators, rely on nectar-rich flowers for their nutrition. Sadly, their reliance on milkweeds and wildflowers has left Monarchs vulnerable. Loss of milkweeds, loss of native prairie, increasingly effective pesticides and other challenges have reduced the monarch butterfly population by about 90% in just the past 20 years. Many other pollinators are in sharp decline as well.

Nebraska Wildlife Federation is working to restore monarch and pollinator habitat on the landscape, by encouraging the planting of milkweeds and nectar-rich native plants on the landscape. With support from the Nebraska Environmental Trust, we are hosting free workshops to teach people how to make a place for wildlife in their own backyard. Our schoolyard habitat workshops show educators how to establish pollinator gardens and use them as outdoor classrooms.

We are also working to establish monarch and pollinator demonstration gardens to show people how to make a place for monarchs and other pollinators in their own backyard or neighborhood.

Regional Nectar Plant List for Monarchs

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