Lawn Culture

Everyone loves a beautiful, freshly cut green lawn, well, almost everyone. More and more people are moving away from the traditional large grass covered areas, opting instead to use more trees, shrubs, and other plants, and they are “going native” with the varieties.

I suspect that this trend will continue, as water use restrictions and environmental laws begin to effect the amount of water available for lawn use, and the allowable nutrient “run off” produced by traditional lawn care. Certain lawn nutrients may eventually be severely restricted, particularly the amount of phosphorous, due to it’s negative effects on lakes, ponds and waterways. Such restrictions are inevitable unless we learn to self regulate. It is only a matter of time.

Most of our traditional lawn grasses are not native, and therefore require extra water and nutrients to thrive. While they do produce oxygen and process water fairly efficiently, the extra nutrients, pesticides, and other excesses may make them a less practical practice than in the past.

Landscape Cultures

Traditional landscapes, with their heavy use of exotic plants, are also losing favor. Most of these non native plants require more water, more fertilizer, and more insecticides than their native counterpoints.

There is also a biodiversity issue involved. Who would have ever suspected that so many of the popular landscape plants from the middle of the last century would have taken on the role of environmental terrorists? The Japanese Silk tree, commonly called Mimosa, the Chinaberry, the Chinese Tallow, and a variety of Asian privets are now more prevalent in our woodlands, than in the home lawns where they were once used as landscape plants. Thought to be safe, and non invasive at the time, they have now become a serious threat to native biodiversity throughout the lower half of the country. Which of the currently popular exotics will become problems? It is hard to know, but just because they do not appear to be invasive now, does not mean that they won’t gain a foothold later.

Why is this a problem?

When invasive species gain a foothold in our forests and waters, they tend to eliminate the native competition, much of which is needed to support native wildlife. If a native plant preferred by pollinators disappears, the pollinator may move on. This gives the non native an even stronger foothold. It also means that the insects which pollinate food crops may be gone as well.

Studies have shown that the nutrient value of most of the non native species is less than that of the native varieties, particularly for native wildlife. As these exotics take over more and more territory, the native wildlife populations sometimes get hungry, and move on. These are just a couple of the hundreds of reasons why biodiversity should be considered when devising a landscape strategy. It is not just an issue in some remote forest or jungle, it is a problem on the home front as well.

The Native Alternatives

The fact is, that our traditional ways of dealing with our outdoor habitats are responsible for a number of environmental problems such as water quality and biodiversity, and over use of pesticides. With growing awareness of these effects, many are choosing to take a different path.

Native Habitats

Native habitats, or, backyard habitats, are viable alternatives to traditional lawns and landscapes. Rather than imposing our will on the environment, we simply allow the native environment to do what it does best, with our assistance. In the long run, there is less fertilizer, water, and pesticide needed. The native varieties are acclimated to the native environments, and native soils, and are resistant to native pests. After the initial installation or modification, there is much less labor involved. It is a cheaper, easier, more environmentally friendly form of landscaping.

Invasive plants in East Texas

Backyard Habitat Help

Backyard habitats can be great for the environment, for the entertainment and education of children and adults, for the control of unwanted insect predators like mosquitoes, and for many other less tangible reasons.

Most of the work can be done by the motivated homeowner, but sometimes a little help is needed. we have many pages of information available here to help you, and we have lists of other backyard habitat help resources as well.

Beside these information resources, we also offer practical backyard habitat help for the homeowner when it is needed. We do this by offering consultation and help with identification of species, the elimination of unwanted species by the least drastic means, and we can help with design and construction when needed.

Not everyone who wants to do something good for wildlife, the environment, nature and the neighborhood, has the skills, the tools, the license, or the time to perform some of these tasks. If you find yourself in one of these situations, we will be glad to help you develop your own backyard wildlife habitat.

Our services are provided for those in the East Texas area.

Environmental Services: Exotic Vegetation Management

It’s a fact of life.

Plants move. They migrate from one area to another using a bewildering variety of locomotion methods. Sometimes they travel by hitch hiking on people or animals, sometimes by wind or water, but travel they do.

If there is an invasive plant in your area, the chances are pretty high, that you will have it on your property eventually. If you are trying to manage a habitat, like a garden, a backyard habitat, or a lake, pond or stream, or even a deer lease, you will eventually have to deal with them. The more you learn about them, and how to deal with them, the better off you will be.

When exotic plants enter an area, they may alter the environment of the area so much that things become unbalanced. This can occur when the invader takes over an area occupied by a plant that one form of wildlife uses for food or cover. When this happens, the native plant may disappear, and the animals that use them for food may disappear as well. Other plants and animals may be in some way dependent upon the animal that disappears, and consequently remove themselves as well.

This chain reaction can work its way through a local environment pretty quickly, or it may take years. More subtle forms of the same scenario, dealing with microbial and fungal activity may be at work as well. In some cases, the damage may be almost irreversible.

How can you prevent this?

Observation can be an effective means of preventing the problem. To stop any potential problem, or to eliminate it early, you have to know that the problem exists. Some exotics can stay hidden for a while, so checking the area fairly often will give the earliest detection.

Once you find something out of the ordinary, you should properly identify it, and if it is an invasive exotic, take immediate action!

Infestations, and multiple sightings may require some drastic measures to prevent the elimination of some or all of the native species, so you should know what you grow.

We offer identification of non native species and treatments designed to eliminate them. ]]> http://burnsenvironmental.com/information/2008/09/environmental-services-exotic-vegetation-management/feed/ 0 http://burnsenvironmental.com/information/2008/09/our-direct-approach-to-creating-a-backyard-habitat/ http://burnsenvironmental.com/information/2008/09/our-direct-approach-to-creating-a-backyard-habitat/#comments Wed, 03 Sep 2008 00:14:23 +0000 james http://burnsenvironmental.com/information/?p=96 There are many ways you can approach your backyard habitat project, some of them can be a little confusing. We have developed the following approach. We even created an acronym to make it easy to remember. D-I-R-E-C-T:

Decide>Identify>Remove>Encourage>Construct>Transplant

• Decide what you want to accomplish.

Is this to be a bird sanctuary, a small animal habitat, or do you simply want to attract butterflies? To some extent, by following these guidelines, you will have some of all.

• Identify what you already have.

What is already good about your landscape, and what is bad? What invasive non native plants are in the way? What will you need to do to get rid of them, and what will you use to replace them? This may cause you to want to modify what you initially wanted, as the opportunities expand. Keep in mind that you are dealing with living things, and that your project may evolve just as nature evolves.

• Remove the plants that are non native, or at least the ones that tend to be invasive.

It has been our experience, that wildlife can survive in a mixed habitat of natives and non native plant life, but that any non natives tend to throw things out of balance. Some birds will eat their fill of of non native berries or seed, and not be physically benefited. They will tend to seek out better nourishment, even if it is somewhere else. Remember, that you have limited space, so everything that grows, should benefit wildlife, or the wildlife will go.

• Encourage the plants that are native and beneficial.

There are several ways that this can be done, including a little pruning, and some of the other cultural practices that are normally used with landscape plants.

• Construct any additional structures, and water features.

You may need to provide extra cover, water, and food for the wildlife. It could be something as simple as a bird or bat house,a rock den area,a feeder for supplemental feedings, or a water feature complete with falls for the wildlife to drink from and wash in.

• Transplant any native plants needed to round out the habitat.

If you have done the things on the rest of the list, you may find that you need some other plants to help round out the native wildlife diet. Planting an extra seed bearing tree, or a few shrubs that might be the favorite food of one of your winged or furry friends, might be just the thing to encourage them to spend time at your place. Just make sure it is native.

Residential Habitat Services In East Texas