Important food-producing trees for birds and animals
The title of this post --"best fruit trees for wildlife" -- was a search engine query that brought someone to this blog today.
This phrase brought several thoughts to mind.
- Wildlife eat some fruits that humans don't often eat (such as dogwood and red-cedar berries).
- Some fruits that humans eat are not eaten by many animals (such as pawpaws and wild plums.)
- Some trees produce nuts and seeds (not fruits) that are important wildlife foods.
- Wildlife often eat flower buds, leaves, bark and twigs, not just the fruit, nut, or seed.
Keeping all that in mind and remembering that the word "wildlife" means everything from hummingbirds to moose, here are some great native trees for wildlife.
| Ashes Aspens Beech Birches Cherries Chokecherry Cottonwoods Crabapple Devil's walking-stick Dogwoods Elms Firs Hackberry Hawthorns | Hickories Maples Mulberry Oaks Persimmon Pines Pricklyash Redcedar Serviceberries Spruces Sumacs Viburnums Willows |
Sources: Hightshoe, Martin, Zim & Nelson
To obtain information that is specific to your area, contact your county extension office and/or your state wildlife conservation office. Don't hesitate to consult them. After all, we are paying their salaries with our tax dollars. Most of these public servants are pleased to be asked and very willing to help.
"The power to recognize trees at a glance without examining their leaves or flowers or fruit as they are seen, for example, from the car-window during a railroad journey, can only be acquired by studying them as they grow under all possible conditions over wide areas of territory. Such an attainment may not have much practical value, but once acquired it gives to the possessor a good deal of pleasure which is denied to less fortunate travelers."
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