Attracting Wildlife to Your Backyard: 101 Ways to Make Your Property Home for Creatures Great and Small

by Josh VanBrakle

Many people think of wildlife as something distant, creatures living in natural forests and remote public preserves. But most wildlife in the United States isn’t found in the distant wild. It lives on our private lands, in our very backyards. Because of this, America’s ten million woodland owners are in fact at the forefront in protecting US wildlife for generations to come.



But while most landowners want to help preserve the beauty of the natural environment, most are unsure where to begin. In Attracting Wildlife to Your Backyard, author and landowner Josh VanBrakle provides readers with 101 easy-to-follow activities and practical approaches to help do just that. Some projects include:



Installing a bat box
Making a food plot
Identifying trees that attract wildlife
Forming a brush pile
Assessing a stream’s health
Building a pond
Learning bird calls
Planning a backyard scavenger hunt


Complete with stunning wildlife photographs and an appendix of practical resources, Attracting Wildlife to Your Backyard is an essential read for anyone who cares about the environment.

Genres: Nature, Nonfiction

314 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 6, 2018

About the author

Josh VanBrakle is the author of the perfectly logical combination - to him, anyway - of YA fantasy novels and environmental non-fiction.

Born in Pennsylvania, Josh grew up in Hershey, Chocolatetown USA. He now lives in the rural Catskill Mountains of upstate New York with his wife, daughter, and ill-behaved cat. By day, he works as a forester at an environmental nonprofit promoting rural land conservation. In his spare time, he enjoys hiking, kayaking, nature photography, and generally being outdoors wherever and whenever possible.

Reviews

[Jettiep Parrish · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good information in this book, some things that I had no idea how to do, and others, I remembered as I was reading the book. We have 6 acres and I'm hoping to attract more small wildlife, we have squirrels and a few rabbits, but there are other small animals that I would love to see here.

[Oscar Ortiz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Excellent information if you have a sizeable piece of land. The "backyard" part of the title is deceiving. You can always find golden nuggets here and there that could help you with your vision of creating a more natural environment in your home, but in general, this book is not for urbanites trying to make the most out of their backyard.

[HeatherAnne Norbury · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is more useful to someone with land... not just a "backyard". There is a LOT of useful information on how to attract wildlife to acreage. Minimal information that applies to a suburban backyard.