u/LRonHoward

Last year I posted about this, but I'm still seeing a lot of people on social media pushing orderly and neat/tidy native plantings... and I want to push back.

Disclaimer: this is not intended as a criticism of people who live in HOAs or other areas with strict regulations and/or neighbors that will report you and cause major headaches. This is intended for people who live in areas with managed natural landscape ordinances or for areas of your property that nobody sees.

I covered most of this in my prior post, but everything still applies. I want my little property to be a one stop shop for as many different little critters as possible... and that means mess. All of that decaying plant material, leaf "litter", dead stems, fallen bark, etc. from last year is actual habitat for these little creatures to find shelter, overwinter, and nest in! Messy gardens are the best gardens for the ecosystem! Why make the pollinators and other beneficial insects/arachnids find your yard when you can provide conditions where they don't ever have to leave?

So many people don't believe me when I say this, but if you look up where and how native flies, bees, wasps, lacewings, fireflies, etc. overwinter you'll find that most of them overwinter under "leaf litter", in brush piles, in the soil, or in and other cover. Hell, I see Common Picture-winged Flies (Delphinia picta) every year and they actually feed on decaying plant matter.

Anyway, I just wanted to give a little support for anyone out there who is keeping a messy garden. Keep making those brush piles. Keep leaving the leaves. Keep leaving those snags. Keep limiting soil disturbance and reducing mulch use. All the native little creatures out there will love you more than they'll ever know!

Please people, for the love of god, KEEP YOUR CATS INSIDE. Every year, I see my neighbors' outdoor cats (there are at least 3 or 4) kill birds, chipmunks, bunnies, and who knows what else. These are domesticated animals that should be kept inside (for the safety of the cat and for the safety of the urban wildlife around us).

The USDA Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service states:

> Although wildlife managers recognize the beliefs of many concerned stakeholders, including advocates who use strong emotional appeals on behalf of cats, it remains that free-ranging and feral domestic cats are an invasive species spread by humans (Lowe et al. 2000) (Figure 1)

This document goes on to state:

> The threat which free-ranging cats pose to native wildlife cannot be understated. Proponents of free-ranging cats on the landscape argue that predation by such cats on wildlife is negligible when compared to other sources of mortality, however many studies have shown that cats are a major, if not the greatest, source of mortality to native birds, mammals, reptiles, and amphibians (Lepczyk et al. 2003; Beckerman et al. 2007; Van Heezik 2010; Lloyd et al. 2013; Loss et al. 2013 and 2015; Woinarski et al. 2017 and 2018; Li et al. 2021).

There is a lot of research to support the tremendous negative impact outdoor cats have on our environment... Most of all I just want to see the actual wild critters around me making burrows in my backyard. Please keep your cats inside. Thank you!

Edit: To clarify, I am talking about people who let their cats freely roam around outside unmonitored. Responsible cat owners who leash their pets while outside or monitor & observe them constantly when unleashed in a fenced in backyard are not the people I am talking about.