Migratory bird populations have declined an average of 1% per year since 1966. This adds up to a 50% loss in the number of individual birds in 50 years.

The World Conservation Union Estimates that 12% of all bird species are threatened with extinction due to habitat loss and invasive species.

Tent caterpillars are an excellent wildlife food source, feeding over 60 species of songbirds — most notably, the black-billed and yellow-billed cuckoos. Frogs, mice and skunks also feast on tent caterpillars. Pine sawflies are one of the most abundant and important summer songbird food sources, providing a huge portion of the diet supplied to hatchling songbirds.

Planting native trees is like setting up a huge bird feeder, and you'll never have to purchase seed or clean out or fill the feeder! The top five choices are oaks, willows, cherries and plums, birch and cottonwood.

Insects are the largest group of animals to convert plant energy, gathered from the sun, into a form useable to animals who cannot digest plant material. With few exceptions, insects can only digest the native plants with which they have co-evolved. They can starve to death on juicy, green but unfamiliar imported plant. If insects cannot survive, then everything that eats the insects — songbirds, small mammals, amphibians and reptiles — cannot survive either.

Shrubs and hardy perennials are also an important part of the restoration process. Coneflowers and rudbeckias provide nutritious seed cones, and many prairie grasses are larval hosts to butterflies.

Berry producing woodies give hungry mammals and fledgling songbirds delicious late summer and fall fare.

41% of North American land is in agriculture, 54% has been develpoed into city, suburbs and roadways.

This means 95% of the original habitat of the United States is gone, and we've shrunk the available habitat to 1/20th of its original size.

Just remember, it's all about balance. In an organic garden, the eco-system will keep itself in check so that each part can survive and serve its community. No need to fear the bugs!

Statistics from Douglas Tallamy's Bringing Nature Home, published November 2007 by Timber Press.