New Book on Native Plants and Backyard Food Web

Doug Tallamy, chairman of the department of entomology and wildlife ecology at the University of Delaware published a book late last year “Bringing Nature Home-How Native Plants Sustain Wildlife in Our Gardens”. This book is a map of the food chain in our backyards, with lists of plants by region and the wild things that eat them. He focuses on the relationship between insects and native plants, which are important food sources for birds and other wildlife.

Some info from the book:

• 96 percent of North American birds (excluding seabirds) feed their young with insects
• Insects contain more needed protein and fats than the bird seed (and more protein than beef! also see this article)
• Oaks support 517 lepidoptera species
• Buttonbush feed 18 species of butterflies and moths

Tallamy was interviewed in this article
'To Feed the Birds, First Feed the Bugs' (New York Times: March 6, 2008). He and his wife are trying to practice that vision on their own 10 acres.

"They are struggling to plant the native species that are needed for insects and animals to flourish. As exotic ornamentals leap the garden fence and out-compete the native plants, many creatures are starving to death because they did not evolve with the exotics and simply can’t eat them...

...You don’t have to cut down the lilacs, but they are doing nothing for the insects and birds. “It’s as if they were plastic,” Mr. Tallamy said. “They’re not hurting anything, except that they’re taking space away from something that could be productive.”