To the Planters of Trees

With the "Save Shuswap Songbirds" project profiling the plight of songbirds, I have been thinking about habitat lately.

In May we purchased two birdhouses for cavity nesting birds like swallows and bluebirds, and have been enjoying watching tree swallows who chose to nest in one of them. The bird houses were built through the Songbird Project, in the Shuswap Makerspace, with a design based on best practices for bird houses.

The houses have hatches on the sides, so the nest can be cleaned out at the end of nesting season. Houses which aren't cleaned out allow parasites and viruses to overwinter. The houses also have grooves on the inside for the fledgling birds to climb up to the hole. Di Wittner, a biologist and local naturalist, says that many of the birdhouses sold in department stores are "death traps".

One of the Makerspace Birdhouses installed at Peter Jannink Park , showing the latch on the side which lifts up for ease of cleaning. The logo SCE stands for South Canoe Elementary, the Outdoor School. Students helped build the birdhouses at the Makerspace.

Birdhouses are only part of the solution. Birds need sources of food. For insect-eating birds like swallows, insects are in decline because of the proliferation of pesticide use. Birds also need safe perching and roosting sites  -- and that means trees. Birdhouses would be less necessary if we kept more trees, and did not fell them as soon as they die.

We are fortunate that our community still has many pockets of native vegetation, and areas of original fir and cedar forests that preceded European settlement. These provide habitat for songbirds and other wildlife.

When we pave our subdivisions, and replace native forest lands with turf grass and non-native landscape plants, we lose habitat. However, there are things we can do restore it, and to create safe corridors for wildlife.

Years ago, the Canadian Wildlife Federation developed a "backyard habitat" booklet for homeowners to help wildlife. 

So many of their backyard habitat projects are relevant.  http://cwf-fcf.org/en/resources/DIY/habitat-projects/map-your-backyard/backyard-habitat/ 

We have opportunities to create habitat in small spaces in our yards -- everything from allowing a thicket of bush to grow wild in a corner, to creating spaces for toads with a few overturned clay pots, to planting gardens for butterflies.

And, we can plant trees! As part of our quest to bring songbirds back, let's plant trees and create habitat!

New developments could follow the example of the regional district building which has landscaped over half of the parcel with native shrubs and trees. These poplars are only a few years old but already they are providing wildlife benefit.

The CSRD building with native poplars and other shrubs. 

When I lived at Gardom Lake, I planted dozens of trees over the years - cedars, birches, and particularly Douglas firs. I often found fir seedlings on my walks along roads in the area, growing in the gravel on the shoulders and in the ditches. Knowing that any that survived would be mowed down, I used a trowel to transplant them to various sites around the property that needed filling in.

Young firs transplant easily when they are small

These firs were transplanted in 1995;
the photo was taken in late 2007.
They are probably double the height now.

I had good success with young firs transplanted in early spring or late fall, as long as I watered them for the first couple of summers.

The two trees on the left were a little bigger than seedlings when they were transplanted.

Planting and nurturing trees is one of the most satisfying of the projects I have worked on over the years; I miss having trees to look after now that I live in a strata complex.

I used to remind myself of a Chinese proverb; here is a version of it that I found on the internet:

"The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago; the second best time is now."

And, here is a Greek version with a similar message:

"A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in."

So, go forth and plant!

And when you have planted a tree, reward yourself with a listen to this beautiful song, "To the Planters of Trees", by the Baha'i singer Nancy Ward. This song was recorded at least thirty years ago; I have listened to it many times but it still resonates for me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uv6wfNLQNU

As a final note: I want to mention Wangari Maathai, who is one of my true heroes. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 for her work in founding the Green Belt movement in Kenya, empowering women and promoting peaceful resistance to violence. The Green Belt Movement (http://www.greenbeltmovement.org/) has planted over 51 million trees in Kenya. What a legacy!

Wangari Maathai. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wangari_Maathai_in_2001.jpg. Kingkongphoto & www.celebrity-photos.com from Laurel  Maryland, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons