Last week I listed food plants that attract wildlife to a
landscape. Persimmon, apple, plum and blueberry plants were high
on my roster but I also described oak, dogwood, serviceberry,
beautyberry, cherry laurel, red buckeye, mulberry and honey
locust. I gave ideas for food plants for birds a few weeks
earlier and followed that with an article about providing them
with housing. Building a birdhouse is easy – but how does one
build abodes for other creatures? Though you might consider some
of them vertebrata non grata , the two methods described below
will bring lots of animal activity to your yard. LOG PILES
Wildlife expert Jeff Jackson says that different kinds of log
piles attract different kinds of wildlife. A pile made of fast-
rotting wood (sweetgum, elm, pine) quickly becomes home for
snails, slugs, wood-eating beetles and various larvae. These
creatures attract predators like garter snakes, salamanders and
skinks. The rotten wood also gives cold-blooded animals a good
place to lay their eggs or to give