Wonders of Nature

Remember your backyard is nature: It's
easy to think that "nature" is somewhere far away like
Yellowstone National Park, or the Amazon rainforest, but
to the wildlife in your neighborhood..... your yard is their
home. You can make your yard more "friendly" to the
critters that live there in a number of ways. 1) Use
pesticides only when absolutely necessary. 2) Set up a
bird house or two. 3) Feed the birds and squirrels. 4) Plant
native plants for the birds and butterflies to feed on. 5)
Give plant eating insects a break....they rarely harm much,
plus they are food for all sorts of other animals AND they
are pretty too!

Keep your cat inside: Even old over weight cats
still hunt. Our domesticated cats kill millions of wild
animals a year. A great benefit to this is that your cat
won't get hit by a car or annoy the neighbors.

Think before you order: Cod and grouper are
delicious..... but becoming very rare. Shrimp are good too,
but wild shrimp are caught by dragging huge weighted
nets along the ocean bottom which destroys miles and
miles of habitat. These nets also catch countless other
animals which die and are just tossed back into the ocean.

Common animals count too: Squirrels, blue
jays and sea gulls are wonderful animals. Don't be afraid
to help them if they need it. If you find a sick or injured
animal, a quick call to a wildlife rehabilitator can save a
life.
Be prepared to slow down if a squirrel is near the road.
Saving one squirrel may not seem like a huge deed, but it
IS a huge deed to that one squirrel.