But if you think our housing costs are high and great options scarce, you should try a day as a Bobwhite quail.
Many of our favorite wildlife characters are facing challenges finding accommodations. Habitat is the defining factor in their existence, from food to shelter to reproduction. Like our housing, habitat is at a premium and wildlife faces less-than-optimal options.
I’ll skip a political discussion, but for wildlife habitat diversity is great and monocultures are not. You can recognize good habitat because it enables creatures to find food and shelter with a reasonable effort.
The time is now to help area wildlife going into the spring. Here are actions you can take to help.
Build a bird box
Many area critters, from Bluebirds to bats, depend on trees or other cavities of varying shapes and sizes for shelter and raising their young. The number of trees left standing throughout their natural circle of life is decreasing and virtually no one is using wood fence posts in place of steel. Easy-to-build boxes provide appropriate accommodations, and by following designs for specific species you have a say in the tenants.
Plant a pollinator garden
We need pollinators to make things go. The problem is, from bees to Monarch butterflies, many are going in the wrong direction. The good news is that attention is being paid and that small changes can have an impact. Avoiding unnecessary pesticides and adding native plants to your landscape whenever possible provides a leg up for some of our smallest neighbors and migrating Monarchs.
Join a conservation organization
For many, the food and shelter part of the equation doesn’t happen in the trees, but on the ground. Ohio was once home to more than 960,000 acres of prairie. Now, just fragments exist.
For ground-nesting birds including Bobolinks and Bobwhite quail, that can mean that they’re both exposed during nesting season and missing the food their chicks need when they hatch. That’s a lot of habitat gone. Individually, it can seem impossible to make a difference. Collectively, with groups such as Pheasants Forever (aka “the habitat organization”), things are changing.
Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever are restoring thousands of acres each year on both public and private lands within the state. There are several local chapters and dollars in these organizations stay with local chapters to benefit the area directly. Ducks Unlimited is another great organization — the Dayton Chapter was founded with the help of the late Jim Robey who wrote for these pages.
If fishing is your passion, then water quality should matter to you as well. After all, that’s where the fish are, and they don’t have the option to move.
Trout Unlimited is an organization dedicated to coldwater fisheries everywhere. The Mad River Chapter in Ohio focuses on studying, protecting, and restoring the principal trout stream of Ohio, the Mad River. Or consider volunteering as a stream monitor on one of Ohio’s scenic rivers for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. It doesn’t require any previous experience or an excessive time commitment but is greatly beneficial to the department’s efforts.
Write a check
From specialty license plates to wetland stamps to hunting and fishing license fees, dollars go to the benefit of all Ohio wildlife.
These are just a few of the ways and organizations you can help. Many organizations count on banquets for funds and it’s that time of year. If you’re able, find one near you and join the fun with like-minded groups.
You’re going to eat anyway, why not have a couple of meals that benefit your favorite wildlife as well?
AVERAGE GUY OUTDOORS
Devin Meister is a local outdoors and wildlife enthusiast and has a blog called “Average Guy Outdoors.” He is an Ohio University graduate. Reach him at meister.devin@gmail.com.