Has anyone out there established a wildlife safe haven as part of your landscape by using a deadfall of downed trees and brush and planting it with blooming vines and food source shrubs. I have about an acre of land with allot of trees, many of which have been damaged by storms or are dying from overcrowding and age. Rather than dragging downed portions of these trees to the front to be picked up in about 6 months by our chipper service, I have started developing a large pile of this deadfall to serve as wildlife shelter, I thought I would plant native vines (honeysuckles and such) to grow through and over the pile and plant native berrying shrubs around the area to add food sources for the wildlife. One thing seems to hold true with wildlife. If you build it, they will come.
Using Deadfall As Part Of Wildlife Gardening
You do not mention whether or not if you live in a town or in the country , which could be a constraint. Designs for brush piles which is what these are called have a variety of designs I have found . various fish and game departments from across the country have a lot to say about these . Some consideration you might do is what is it that you might desire to attract and what would you not . Conditions for me here in the southwest are vastly different that what I would imagine that you would have . i started with a rather barren 4 acres of what was reclaimed farmland with little to no vegetation on it .
Here are some comments I made on this subject at a different forum;
It seemed that there were people who lived in towns HOA's etc. where brush piles as were being discussed might not be allowed due to thier being unsightly or fire hazards , various reasons . For my part I was investigating the idea of attempting to make a exclusionary brush pile . Some websites made hints at designing brush piles that were customized somehow as to what it might attract .
Midwesternerr posted some pics at the above thread Of brush piles done by the Missouri Department of Conservation That illustrated vary well how the density of materials would favor as to wheter a fox or a snake would be inclined toward a brush pile .
I was curious if anyone had ever put chain link fencing into the layering of building a brush pile . Here on my own property , I have observed most of the birds here are capable of passing through the openings of chain link . If this were done , it would exclude a lot of possible predators of bird nests after eggs and young . Keeping out the likes of racoons , fox, skunks and the like . Rabbits are for me a nuisance here so I would desire to keep these out . I built bins for my firewood so as to keep rabbits from living there so creating habitat for them is something I wish to avoid . So would putting chain link in a brush pile make sense to others of you ?
Passing on some other things of interest I read of much of which I found of interest was making " piles " out of decorative block such as is used to make birms . Here is a number of sites that talked of " alternative " piles such as rock piles , living brush piles which were smaller trees that were partially cut through then bent down to the ground so as to be a non-flamable brush pile . Various underground dens , read through and see what you all think is viable . I think a lot of it was .
http://fw.ky.gov/pdf/brushpiles.pdf
http://extension.umd.edu/publications/PDFs/FS599.pdf
http://www.dnr.state.wi.us/org/land/wildlife/publ/rabitat.pdf
http://www.loudounwildlife.org/HHBrush_Pile.htm
http://www.in.nrcs.usda.gov/technical/biology/645%20Wildlife%20Brushpile%20Jobsheet.doc
Another article on brush piles;
http://www.birdwatching.com/tips/brushpile.html
There are designs for "living brush piles" which is some of what you allude to , I have started vines on dead tree snags that I have installed . Most designs for brush piles suggest starting with something for a base . Rocks, block , small lengths of logs layered at right angles or even a stack of pallets as a core . This gives a lot of crevices that will maintain as such for a long time .
The next brush pile I build I will start with a base of 4 to 5 pallets then building a "slip cover" of chain link fancing to go over the pallets burying the llower edge of the chain link so as to prevent the likes of feral cats from entering . I seek to establish housing for ground birds such as quail and I have seen quail go through chain link so this should not prove to be an impediment for them . Then covering this core base with branches, twigs and finishing off with a vine .
Is this something like you have in mind ?
Good thoughts and resources! I've been pondering the use of chainlink fencing, too. (For my backyard, where I just happen to have a few short sections of fencing, and neighbor who feeds feral cats.)
I have medium-sized brush piles in my backyard, but I haven't really bothered to try to cover them with vines. Some of the "hoppy" birds as well as the squirrels seem to like to jump up to get a little overview of their surroundings, which I think they wouldn't be able to do with a lot of vegetation.
We have used intentional brush piles in a neighborhood habitat restoration project. Part of our issue there was that the area had come to be used for drug deals and for camping, so we needed to block that access (or at least make it not convenient), while encouraging wildlife and native plants, while discouraging invasive plants. We ended up doing kind of a pick-up-sticks thing, where the big brush is threaded together to make a barrier, which really can be easily dissassembled when we need access.
The keeping the bad folks out part worked well, the leaving access for maintenance works. The wildlife attraction is unclear - there's definitely activity, but it's hard to say how much relates to the brush, as we did quite a bit of other work on the habitat, and as we are into our second year of ridiculous weather. A challenge has been that invasive/undesirable vines grow more quickly than the natives. It's tricky to sort them out to try to keep eradicating the bad ones, both due to thorns/allergens, and to challenges in identification. We've planted the natives nearby, but not next to, and will just count on the little animals and the elements to disperse them into the brushfall.
You might check into the "dead or dying" trees. If there's a disease or pest issue, you may want to be sure and remove those from the property (not chip them onsite). Anything healthy that you end up chipping, keep and spread the mulch.
I'd agree that planting the berry plants will bring wildlife. Who will poop out the seeds from whatever the last berry they ate was, which will help build the habitat.
Don't forget about smaller wildlife, lizards and frogs and such. They love piles of things, and again, help get the whole habitat functioning, even if you don't see them much.
In addition to shelter, water is critical for habitat. If you don't already have a source, you might look into a small water feature, near the brushy area. Whatever little animals are living in there can pop out to drink, then dart back to their secure space.
Sounds like a fun project. Share some updates as you go...