Dear Kindred Community,

Please Vote. Legislators are aware of the power you wield as a voter and every vote counts. Vote for people who will have a good chance of promoting protection for our planet, locally and on a larger scale. Vote to make communities healthier for people, for animals, and for the environment.

1. Leave the Leaves, Stems, and Seeds

As the season shifts and flowers fade, plants continue to encourage life. Don't rush to cut them back just yet! Their seedheads are busy feeding birds, sheltering insects and spiders, and supporting a healthy, diverse ecosystem. As much as possible, let the leaves, stems, and seeds be and enjoy the wildlife that needs the food and structure.

How to Use Your Leaves and Stems to Support Nature
There is much biodiversity hiding in that leaf litter! Leaf litter provides habitat for a variety of native insects and wildlife, such as bees, butterflies, moths, frogs, and more. Help these valuable creatures complete their lifecycles by leaving them be or gently raking leaves from paths into more sheltered areas, such as planting beds.

Instead of bagging your leaves or mowing them, here are three options to try from Homegrown National Park:

1. Leave leaves in a THIN layer where they fall. Your trees will appreciate getting back the nutrients. Raking up all these leaves removes valuable habitat and food for the biodiversity living in lawns. However, if the leaf layer is too thick it can damage your grass and make pathways slippery, so then gently rake leaves to other parts of your yard.

2. Place a THIN layer of leaves in a garden bed. Too thick a layer might smother future emerging spring growth. Many beneficial critters overwinter in our yard vegetation and soil, such as bees, crickets, ladybugs, caterpillars, and lacewings. In turn, insects provide food for birds.

3. A HEAVY leaf layer around trees can choke out weeds and grass. Caterpillars that live in native trees will be seeking a leaf layer to overwinter.

In addition, you can pile some leaves up in a corner of your garden and they will break down into compost for your garden, for use in coming seasons.

The City of Kirkland is encouraging residents to use rakes when moving leaves. The City recently ran out of free rakes because of high demand! To reduce environmental and health damage from gas-powered leaf blowers, the City of Kirkland will stop/sunset the use of gas-powered, hand-held, and backpack leaf blowers by December 31, 2025.

If you have surplus leaves, Kirkland residential customers can put leaves into your gray cart for composting. In November households can put out up to five free yard waste extras per week (look under the 2024 Solid Waste Rates section of this document).

Go beyond the leaves by leaving logs and stems!
Leave stems and seedbeds to provide food, habitat, and nesting material for different kinds of wildlife.

A great way to support above-ground nesting bees is to leave dead plant stems standing in gardens, even after seedheads have fallen off. Bees will lay and provision offspring in hollow or pithy stems.

When is the best time to remove old stems after helping bees?
According to Tufts Pollinator Initiative for native bee nesting, the answer is ideally never completely to remove old stems; however, you can leave old stems for another two years, a longer time than you might think.

After the end of the growing season, you can cut stems back, up to 18 inches tall. Leave these cut stems for at least another two years. They provide nesting places for bees and you won't notice them among new spring growth. Here's the detail. While two years might seem a long time to leave stubble in a garden, it ensures that native bees find safe, undisturbed places to nest.

Wildlife-friendly Certification:
Posting signage in your garden to inform visitors about how gardens can be managed to balance aesthetic and ecological goals can be helpful. Leave the leaves and certify your wildlife habitat garden, open space, park, or balcony in October to get 10% savings on certification and a Certified Wildlife Habitat sign to show your neighbors you are practicing natural yard care. Enter code FALL10 for 10% off.

2. Halloween - Safe Not Deadly

Spread the word that using fake spiderwebs as outdoor Halloween decorations carries unintentional dangers. They are deadly for bees, butterflies, and small birds; are even strong enough to snare an owl.

This owl entangled in Halloween fake spiderweb was rescued from a Californian home by the Marin Humane Society. It was taken to WildCare's Wildlife Hospital where it made a full recovery. Photo credit: Buffalo Bill Center of the West

3. Opportunities to Learn

Kirkland Library Presentation
The Beauty and Benefits of Native Plants
Free in person. Saturday, November 9, 2024. 2:00PM - 3:00PM
https://kcls.bibliocommons.com/events/66f1c73133e81f529149d25f

Cascade Gardener Presentation
Favorite native plants for everyone!
Free Zoom Tuesday November 19, 7:00PM-8:00PM
Native Plants with Peggy Campbell

National Wildlife Federation Habitat Steward Training
Virtual workshop 6:00-9:00 PM on Tuesday and Thursday evenings November 5th, 7th, 12th, and 14th. Optional field trips and volunteering opportunities available. $20, with scholarships available. No one will be turned down due to lack of funds!
https://novhabitatstewards.bpt.me or contact Guinevere at WAEducation@nwf.org.

We're happy to answer questions about Kirkland's Community Wildlife Habitat Program, and to engage in related discussions using kirklandcwh@ilanga.com. Please forward our newsletter to interested contacts, and let us know of addresses to add to our e-news list.

Your friendly community supporters,

Kirkland Community Wildlife Habitat Team

Aly, Ann, Ash, Marilee, Sharon

Please like or follow us on Facebook

Kirkland's Community Wildlife Habitat Program strives for each person to make our community healthier for people and wildlife.
We encourage residents to certify their properties to show support for wildlife-friendly activities: https://www.nwf.org/certifiedwildlifehabitat

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