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Hello again, !

Welcome to your next Mindful Fall CleanUp challenge! This is another action item, so if you’re excited to get out into your landscape and enjoy a gorgeous fall day, move your body and get your hands in the soil, you’ll love this challenge.

Your challenge is to build habitat bundles for overwintering wildlife.

By this time, you may have observed that there’s natural “debris” in your yard that you’d like to relocate, to “tidy up” a bit. There is a way to do this while still benefiting wildlife.

Today we’ll give you the basics of wildlife habitat bundles, so you can get started easily. Winter (not fall) is the ideal time to prune woody trees and shrubs, while they’re in dormancy. Getting your wildlife bundle set up now will make it easy to add branches to it later.

Heads up: don’t prune now! It can stimulate growth at a time when the plant is trying to conserve resources for winter dormancy. We don’t want to do that, so this is another call to rest, relax, and realize that nature knows best. It’s ok to do little to nothing!

What is a wildlife habitat bundle? 

Some call it a habitat hotel! Others call it a pile o’ sticks. Honestly, wildlife doesn’t care what you call it, they’d just appreciate a space where you don’t feel the need to make a ruckus 😅.

It can be as simple as finding a place in your yard, tucked away from human traffic, where you can pile fallen branches, sticks, leaves, pruned twigs, unwanted plants that you’ve removed from gardens (there are ways to do this safely so they don’t keep spreading!), and any organic material you’ve relocated from other parts of the landscape.

Click to see our post on Instagram + flip through examples of different habitat bundles in different places!

Why are habitat bundles beneficial?

Wildlife and beneficial insects can nest and shelter in the bundles, to stay warm and protected for the winter. Mycelia and microbes will also thrive and get busy breaking down organic matter into future soil. 

With so much of the landscape being “cleaned up” this time of year, we are essentially leaving no room for most wildlife, which means they will search for other places to live. When there are no other places, they become endangered or extinct. 

This is happening so rapidly that we are more motivated than ever to make habitat building simple everywhere.

How to get started?

• Choose a spot. Based on your observations, and how you and others interact with the landscape, decide where you’ll start your habitat bundles - ideally a part of your yard where there’s less human activity. That could be a corner or edge area next to the woods or a tree line. It could be a spot in the middle of the yard where you choose not to mow or do anything this winter. Don’t worry, it doesn’t have to be perfect!
  
  

• Gather materials. Collect any sticks, twigs + organic matter that you can easily grab from areas you’d like to tidy up - garden beds, lawn, etc. Maybe you noticed some when you looked for dead trees last week and left them standing (A+!). This is your chance to cut down any dead limbs that might fall over winter, or call a tree trimming company if they are large or out or reach, just be sure you tell them not to chop down the whole tree!
  
  

• Start your pile! It’s okay to just toss materials on the ground where you’ve located your bundle. Keep it as neat or wild as you choose.

• Let it be. If you start to notice signs of residency (tracks in the snow, animals moving to and fro) then try to leave it alone, or add material to it gently, but don’t reorganize it. Let them make their home the way they like it!

Remember, building habitat can be simple, while still making a huge impact for wildlife. Try it out, then watch and see who comes to visit this winter. 

In community + resilience, 

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