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JUNE 2021 TIOGA COUNTY COMMUNITY PRESS PAGE 5

Native Plants are for the Birds
FREE Native plants are important to wild- cess to their book catalog where you
ESTIMATES life especially for migrating birds and can browse and reserve a book to pick
butterflies. Why are they important?
up. Books like “Nature’s Best Hope”
Well, let’s take an example. You fly
from Texas to upstate New York every by Douglas L. Tallamy. It is subtitled
“A new approach to conservation that
year to visit your grandma and every starts in your yard”. He advocates us-
year grandma’s waiting at the end of ing your yard to become part of a
your flight with your favorite peanut “Backyard National Park”. Many
butter and jelly sandwich. You haven't backyards planted with native plants
eaten for 1000 miles and you’re very can form links for birds and butterflies
607-759-9282 • Apalachin, NY hungry and year after year grandma’s between nature preserves and larger
there with your favorite sandwich. parks.
Then one year Grandma isn’t there and Another local organization helping
you have no change for the snack ma- to support birds, bees, and wildlife is
chine. Not a good situation. the Owego Rotary. They have recently
Stream & Ditch Repair Excavation Migratory birds make a flight of started developing a nature preserve in
Gravel –Mulch—Topsoil Retaining Walls thousands of miles every year and they an area of the village known as Cana-
don’t have a Grandma with a sandwich wanna, which get its name from a for-
FULLY waiting for them. They are very hun- mer street name in that area. The
Email: mwbmwmrw@aol.com INSURED gry after flying thousands of miles and Owego Rotary is planting many plants
and shrubs that will help attract birds,
native plants attract the insects that the
www.MikesGroundworks.com birds are used to eating. Insects are butterflies and insects and help their
their peanut butter and jelly sandwich. survival in a Canawanna Nature Pre-
What they’re looking forward to at the serve between Water Street and Canal
end of a flight are the plants and in- Street in Owego. Native plants are not
sects they have co-evolved with and only beneficial to insects, butterflies
VERVALIN here. they have evolved in this region they
expect to be there when they arrive and birds and other wildlife but since
CONSTRUCTION & But these plants and insects have are easier to grow and survive. There
are many native plants that can easily
been decreasing over the past 50 years.
REMODELING The decrease in native plant and in- be integrated into your backyard gar-
sects has been accelerating. den. It can be challenging at times to
One big reason is loss of habitat. select plants that are native to this area
(607) 625-3102 The U.S. has lost over 150 million and are attractive in your garden.
acres of habitat and farmland to urban
To help you select some for your
sprawl, and that trend isn’t slowing. yard the Waterman Conservation and
There are ways that you can help. Education Center has selected four
There are two local organizations
plants that are native and suitable for
that are working to help the birds and your yard. WCEC will be selling these
• KITCHENS • BATHS • ADDITIONS • DECKS • other wildlife get the kinds of food that at a plant sale at Farmer Browns Mar-
• CUSTOM COUNTER TOPS • CEILINGS • they need to survive here. ket on Rt 434 on June 19 and 20. The
One organization is the Waterman
plants are Eastern Purple Coneflower,
• REPLACEMENT WINDOWS • PANELING • Conservation and Education Center Cardinal Flower, Smooth Oxeye Dai-
(WCEC) based in Apalachin. Water- sy, and White Turtlehead. These plants
FULLY INSURED FREE ESTIMATES man has 5 nature preserves throughout are native, beneficial to pollinators and
Michael VerValin Apalachin, N.Y. Tioga and Broome County. birds and are attractive enough to put
They also have a library in Apala- in your backyard.
chin which will soon have online ac-