Nature's Gardeners

Updated: Apr 19, 2022

Becoming a backyard naturalist requires homeowners to reprogram deep-seated cultural norms about wildlife on their property:

Embrace caterpillars on my plants?

Reduce my lawn?

Wasps and spiders are allies?

Level up! Next, we are going to embrace our backyard rodents.

Squirrels, chipmunks, and rabbits are a welcome sight in our backyard ecosystems. Despite their penchant for mischief, they provide valuable ecological services far beyond the potential nuisance they pose to homeowners. Stable squirrel and chipmunk populations are an environmental health indicator. These animals play a vital role in forest regeneration, and as prey animals, they are a primary food source for owls, hawks, bobcats, and foxes.

Squirrels

Squirrels have developed an ecological relationship with the native plants, shrubs, and trees in their habitat. For example, squirrels transport nuts and pinecones away from the tree to bury them for a winter meal. Fortunately for hazel, beech, chestnut, oak, stone pine, and Scots pine trees, squirrels forget some of their cache sites, and these nuts and pinecones become the next generation of native trees.

Two walnut trees drop thousands of black walnuts each fall in my yard. Rather than curbside disposal, I deposit walnuts behind the compost pile. By spring, the walnuts are gone. We enjoy the annual autumn rite of squirrels dashing across the yard, toting a walnut as big as his head in its mouth. It is fascinating to witness (and hear!) squirrels chew through an impenetrable walnut shell to eat the walnut.

Left: Foraging at the birdfeeder, Middle: Working a black walnut Right: Cleaning up after tipping over a birdfeeder.

Chipmunks

Chipmunks have a similar relationship with oak trees. Like other nut-bearing trees, oaks depend on rodents to disperse and bury acorns. For those in the Northeast- have you noticed the dramatic increase in chipmunks this year? The 2020 spike in the chipmunk population coincided with a bumper crop of acorns in 2019.

Despite their vegan reputation, chipmunks also eat bird's eggs, insects, earthworms, snails, salamanders, small snakes, frogs, and young mice.

These chipmunks dug their burrow directly under the birdfeeder.

Rabbits

Rabbits play a passive role in our backyard habitat. They birth their young in underground burrows (warrens) and spend their time on our lawn grazing clover. I was surprised by their habit of shadowing me at a six-foot distance as I worked in the yard. I assumed they determined I was not a threat and learned to enjoy my company! A less sentimental explanation is the rabbits used me as a human scarecrow to separate themselves from scarier predators.

Last summer, a family of rabbits chose our yard to raise their young.

Left: A male relaxes in the clover. Middle: Female exploring the yard. Right: a new arrival ventures out

I will concede that rabbits, chipmunks, and squirrels are a nuisance if they get in the house or dig in inconvenient places in the yard. I've made my peace with squirrels eating some of my birdseed, chipmunks digging near a wall, or rabbits nibbling my seedlings. As a backyard naturalist and wildlife photographer, I'll accept these annoyances to enjoy their frenetic energy, comical behavior, and the many photo ops they provide.

Groundhogs

If chipmunks and squirrels are nature's gardeners, groundhogs are nature's harvesters. Groundhogs can test a homeowner's goodwill like no other animal. Their large dens undermine foundations, swimming pools, and walkways. Moreover, their legendary appetite lays waste to gardens and landscaping. They also have an annoying habit of eating half of every fruit on the vine.

Given the consequence of having groundhogs on your property, it is understandable that homeowners go to great lengths to have them removed. Some people trap/relocate, some shoot them, and some have a dog on guard duty.

A cautious groundhog in my yard enjoying the clover

I have made my peace with groundhogs by setting a simple boundary:

You can visit my yard. You cannot live here.

The battlefield tactic that has worked for me is to dump spent cat litter in their burrow. Groundhogs are obsessively clean where the dens are concerned, and as a prey animal, the scent of predator urine is an effective repellant. Often, eviction requires two deposits of spent litter, but it has worked every time.

I still have groundhogs visit my yard as they work in their territories. However, they are more interested in the clover on my lawn than in my landscaping and gardens. Groundhogs also love morning glories, so I have eliminated them from my garden plan.

To protect young plants from deer and groundhogs, use steel cages. Also, reconsider your landscape choices. For a list of groundhog-resistant plants, refer to the document I have added to this blog. Some plants on this list are not native or are invasive in your area, so I recommend additional research before committing to a plant.

Groundhog resistant plants: Penn State Cooperative Extension