Backyard Farming Bird Conservation is a newly devised concept from Birdfreak.com to promote the merging of two key elements to help the environment.
#1 Backyard Farming
This includes a wide range of possibilities but two critical points are: birdscaping and gardening.
Birdscaping is the planting of trees, shrubs and flowers with the specific goal of improving habitat and helping birds and other wildlife.
Gardening covers all means of growing your own food in a natural way with no harmful substances used in the process. Composting is a highly valuable part of this approach. Gardening, for now, also covers further homesteading projects including raising chickens, keeping bees, and tending to other livestock.
#2 Bird Conservation
It is our belief that individuals are the best hope for bird conservation and this begins at home in your own backyard. By implementing backyard farming methods, you are creating a landscape, a birdscape, that is a magnet for birds. Another way to look at this is habitat construction. Most conservation-based news reports on how much habitat is being destroyed, so we hope to encourage the creation of more habitat, through individual effort, across the globe.
Return on Backyard Farming Bird Conservation Investment
The potential for conservation is often hindered by the expense involved in birdscaping. This is where the farming approach comes in. By growing your own food you can mitigate the costs of groceries you would already purchase, and get fresher produce in the process.
Planting trees and flowers to help attract wildlife not only is enjoyable aesthetically, but adds property value and can potentially lower energy costs over time, depending on placement of large trees.
Now, we aren’t completely “lawnophobes” as some grass is necessary for kids and animals to play in, but less grass is a noble goal.
Putting this into practice
The Birdfreak Team is going to be chronicling our own progress at home, trying to implement these goals. Jennie in northwestern Ohio and Eddie in northern Illinois.
This page will be updated accordingly as we fine-tune our ideas on making this work best for birds. We hope to provide insight into new ways of making backyard farming bird conservation a thing anyone with a yard can do!*
*We don’t want to exclude those who live in condos, townhouses, apartments, or anywhere else without a yard. You can still make a difference and we will approach ways in doing this. For starters, community gardens at apartment complexes are a great way to grow vegetables and encourage others to do so.
