Family-Outdoors

Monarch butterflies and pollinators are in trouble. You can help by planting a  pollinator garden ! You can plant a garden anywhere - your yard, school, church, business or even in a pot for your front steps. Despite its namesake, milkweed is not a weed. These beautiful wildflowers are the only source of food for monarch caterpillars and essential for their survival. Plant milkweed that is native to your area and attract all kinds of pollinators. Photo by Joanna Gilkeson/USFWS. Native wildflower gardens add a pop of color to your garden, help bumblebees and butterflies, and need less maintenance. This purple coneflower attracted both bumblebees and a crab spider! What's not to love? Photo by Jim Hudgins/USFWS. A simple, native flower garden will attract beautiful butterflies to your yard and help pollinators stay healthy. In addition to nectar from flowers, monarch butterflies need milkweed to survive, so if you notice the leaves on your milkweed have been chomped, don’t worr...

With warmer weather luring people out to their yards, state conservation Almost all North American birds other than seabirds feed insects to their young. Adding a few native plants to your yard can help feed birds, bees and other wildlife. biologists say now is the time to consider adding native plants to their property to welcome birds, bees and other wildlife. "Adding even one or two native plant species can make a difference for birds, bees, butterflies and other wildlife," says Kevin Doyle, a conservation biologist and native plant expert with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. A live, online chat set for noon to 1 p.m. on Tuesday, May 5, will give people a chance to ask their questions about native trees and other native plants. To participate on that day, visit the DNR home page, dnr.wi.gov, and click on the graphic or search the phrase " Ask the Experts ." People can also join the conversation via our Facebook page at  facebook.com/WIDNR...

The work to improve Iowa’s prairies takes center stage each spring when agencies and private landowners use fire to manage their grasslands and improve their value for wildlife. Burning as a management tool helps to fend off encroaching woody species and nonnative plants in an effort to promote diverse native grasses and wildflowers. Burning removes the accumulated thatch and reinvigorates native plants by simulating what occurred naturally for centuries. But unlike Mother Nature, these burns must be well planned to maximize the benefits to the land and wildlife while minimizing the impact to neighbors. The Iowa Department of Natural Resources burns about 15 to 20,000 acres each year and each burn requires a plan, which includes fire breaks, notifying neighbors and contacting the local fire and rescue dispatch. Smoke management is a big issue and wildlife biologists use spot weather forecasts to burn when the conditions are predicted to give the smoke a lift into the atmosphere or...