Wildlife Viewing - With Your Child - A Gift that Keeps Giving

drawing of family With Your Child

Wildlife Brush Piles: A Gift that Keeps Giving

If you buy a cut Christmas tree, don't send it to the landfill - use it to build a backyard brush pile with your child. A well-built pile of old tree limbs and logs can attract some of your favorite animals, since wild creatures, like us, need resting places and shelter from the sun, rain, cold and predators.

Start by laying four, six-foot-long logs parallel to one another about a foot apart on the ground. Top with a second layer of logs laid perpendicular to the first. This base will keep tunnels open under the pile for traveling and hiding.

Next, cover the base with brush, piling smaller and smaller limbs until you have a heap about 4 to 6 feet in height and diameter. You can continue to add sticks and leaves to the top, as the pile rots at the bottom. As the pile decays insects will provide a food source for birds and animals higher on the food chain. Long after the holiday season is over, you'll enjoy watching the rabbits, salamanders, raccoons, birds and even foxes that may settle in.

If you'd like to attract hummingbirds or butterflies while adding living color to your brush pile, plant native flowering vines such as coral honeysuckle, passion cross vine or confederate jasmine next to the pile.