Preserving Wildlife in Austin: Unmasking the Threat of Habitat Destruction

Half of Austin is situated on some of the most fertile soil in the world, the other half is spread out through rolling limestone hills full of canyons, creeks, caves, and oak trees.

Austin’s natural environment is capable of supporting some of the most biologically diverse ecosystems in Texas. But as urban development continues - our natural areas are being paved over and replaced with shopping centers, subdivisions, and parking lots. The native plants that made up our natural areas have been replaced with front yards full of high maitenance, non native turf grass and ecologically useless foreign perrenials. Together this combo of irresponsible development and irresponsible landscaping is the one-two punch of habitat destruction. They have disastrous effects on local wildlife and human beings - impacting everything from our food supply to our mental health.

There’s good news though. A straightforward solution to habitat destruction exists and it’s simple… habitat construction.

Habitat and Biodiversity

Before I tell you some very cheap and easy ways to construct a basic habitat for our little critter neighbors, you need to have an understanding of the basic relationship between Habitat and Biodiversity.

There is a delayed 1:1 relationship between the size of a wildlife habitat in an area and the biodiversity of that area. As the size of a habitat decreases, biodiversity decreases to match the size of the new habitat.

EXAMPLE: If we develop 50% of the available land in Austin, plant a bunch of non-native plants, cover the ground with concrete and asphalt, and then call it a day - we just reduced the local habitat size by 50% which sets up a situation where we lose 50% of our biodiversity.

In reality, we have developed nearly 98% of Austin. This means we’re scheduled to lose 98% of our biodiversity. Instead of foxes, skunks, finches, warblers, dragonflies, butterflies, raccoons, cranes, bees, salamanders, beavers, porcupines, sphynx moths, and the thousands of other species you may see on your morning walk, future generations will see cockroaches, grackles, and maybe the occasional rat.

This kind of biologically bland future doesn’t have to happen though and the damage that has already been done can be reversed (provided the species we want to save aren’t already extinct). All we need to do is adjust the way we develop new land and update our current outdoor spaces to be more in line with nature. If we do this we can build and preserve a healthy & resilient Austin ecosystem.

Habitat Construction

The easiest way to combat continuous habitat destruction is to construct a lot of mini habitats all around Austin. We basically want to “rewild” our urban areas in an aesthetic and controlled way. Every outdoor space can be “rewilded”, and while larger spaces are capable of providing more support for wildlife, even apartment balconies can make a huge impact to their local ecosystems.

You don’t need to turn your entire property into a dense prairie full of biodiversity to make a difference (although that is pretty much the gold standard for habitat construction). You can stick with more traditional landscaping styles so long as you make a few adjustments.

Plant Native & Plant a Variety

Stick with different varieties of native plants. Our local wildlife are deeply entwined with our native plants because they evolved over thousands of years alongside each other. Every native plant occupies some ecological niche. Many of these plants are the only food source for specific caterpillars (aka host plants). If you don’t have these native plants, you don’t get caterillars which means you don’t get moths/butterflies OR birds.

You want a nice variety of plants in your landscape with staggered bloom times, different ecological niches, and varying heights/densities in order to support the largest amount of wildlife possible.

Native plants have also adapted to survive in our region with little human intervention - After all they were growing here just fine before we came along. That means less maintenance for you, less supplemental watering, less chemicals, and more money left in your bank account. They are cost friendly and the ecologically responsible plant choice.

Click here if you want a list of common Native Plants you can add to your landscape

Plant Dense

We want native plants and a lot of them. Most of our native plants have varying root depths which means they can be jammed in pretty close to one another and not compete because each occupies their own zone in the soil. We want to do this in order to jam as much biodiversity in an area as possible, reduce the amount of exposed soil, reduce the competition from non-native invasives, and to provide a nice little brush area for our smaller critter neighbors to hide and hunt in.

Make sure a dense patch of taller growing shrubs/small trees into your landscape. These create thickets and if you want to attract birds and provide habitat for them you need a thicket.

Include Shelter

Incorporate little hiding holes into your landscape. The most common ways to do this is with rocks/boulders, logs, bird houses, and pretty much anything else you can think of that a little critter may like to call home. Perhaps an old shoe?

Include Water

Lastly, you’ll want some form of water available for wildlife. It could be a bowl of water you fill up everyday, a $50 water feature from amazon, or custom built water feature, pond, or babbling brook. It doesn’t really matter how the water is made available to the wildlife only that it is.

Apartment Balconies

If you only have access to an apartment balcony or a small outdoor space you can still do everything mentioned above. You’ll just need to plant your natives in pots instead of the ground. Focus more on supporting pollinators like butterflies and bees with pollinator plants & host plants that have staggered bloom times. Incorporate a small dish full of water they can drink from.

In Summary

It’s unfortunate that so much of Austin’s natural habitat has been destroyed because it puts us and our local wildlife in a precarious position. If we do nothing then our future will be a whole lot more ecologically fragile and dull than our past. Good news is, we can all make an impact no matter how big or small our outdoor space is. Together we can turn Austin back into an ecological oasis