Mowing around wildlife

Listen to this radio show (MP3 download) or read below.

Radio interview source: Mark Oja, wildlife biologist, Natural Resources Conservation Service

Fencerows and ditches aren't meant to look like a pristine yard. We mow the main ditch by the house, but the rest of them are allowed to grow wild with tall grass, honeysuckle and wild grapes. We do try to keep the trash out and while I'm walking the ditches, I'll see birds and other critters scurrying about, happily thriving in their habitat.

Mark Oja is a wildlife biologist with the Natural Resources Conservation Service and says these unkempt areas are critical. Delay mowing them for as long as you can.

"Ideally, avoid mowing during the primary nesting season of nesting birds and fawning times for white tail deer," Oja says. "And typically that time frame is between May 1 and August 1."

This also includes not overusing chemicals like insecticides and herbicides. These chemicals eliminate the high protein food source that birds like pheasants need for nesting and chicks require once they've hatched. A plant you see as a weed to be controlled may be what the birds rely on for food.