It's For the Birds

Bringing Nature Home

The Clearwater Conservancy is sponsoring a presentation by University of Delaware professor Dr. Doug Tallamy.  Dr. Tallamy is the author of a relatively new book entitled "Bringing Nature Home."  The presentation is entitled “It’s for the Birds” and will take place at the Centre County Convention and Visitors Bureau on November 20 in State College, PA.  Tallamy will discuss what we can do to give birds what they need from our landscapes and explore the consequences of failing to do so.  This presentation is worth seeing.  Dr. Tallamy presents some intriguing information that will open your eyes to a whole new way of looking at our landscapes.

Dr. Doug Tallamy

“It’s for the Birds”
Many bird populations in the U.S. are in steep decline, in part because our gardens and managed landscapes occupy more space than natural areas and we have not designed them with birds in mind. To do that we can no longer view plants only as ornaments but must consider all of their roles when selecting them for our landscapes. Tallamy will discuss what birds need from our landscapes to breed successfully, the important roles native plants play in maintaining food webs vital to birds, emphasize the benefits of designing landscapes with these roles in mind, and explore the consequences of failing to do so. Landscaping in this crowded world carries both moral and ecological responsibilities that we can no longer ignore.

A book signing and sale will follow Doug's talk.

The cost is only $15 or $10 for students.  Pre-registration is required online only at www.clearwaterconservancy.org

Below is a story about the author that appeared in the New York Times in March 2008 by Anne Raver.

To Feed the Birds First Feed the Bugs
DOUG TALLAMY and his wife, Cindy, built their house seven years ago in the middle of 10 acres of former hayfields. But they don’t sit inside much. Most of their spare time is spent cutting Oriental bittersweet and Japanese honeysuckle out of cherry and oak trees. They saw down thickets of autumn olive and multiflora rose and paint the cut stems with an herbicide that goes down into the roots and kills them.

The land was so thick with multiflora rose that they couldn’t walk, so Mr. Tallamy cut paths with hand loppers. They work with handsaws, not a chain saw. And they paint on the herbicide, rather than spraying it, because they don’t want to damage the treasures below: under those thorny rose bushes might be seedlings of black oak, Florida dogwood, black gum or arrowwood viburnum, which, if protected from deer, could flourish in the cleared space.

To read the rest of the story click here.