Leave Some Leaves for Wildlife

While we all want clean sidewalks and storm drains, fall leaves don't have to all be raked or blown away. Consider places in your yard where you can leave some leaves for wildlife and the environment. Many beneficial insects need leaves to complete their life cycles. For example, some adult butterflies and moths overwinter in leaf litter to emerge and delight us in the spring. Others spend their chrysalis stage camouflaged among the leaves, to reach maturity the following year. Altogether dozens of species of moths, beetles, butterflies, fireflies and other insects need your fall leaves to survive. So do the birds, who are skilled at finding those bugs in winter, and feed their chicks with them in the spring. 

Leaves are also a natural mulch. They slow down rain water and let it seep slowly into the ground. As they decompose they return valuable nutrients to the soil. The leaves of our native trees are especially valuable. Think oaks, maples, magnolias, birches, redbuds and sycamores. 

The combination of natural leaf mulch and native plantings help absorb rainwater and keep this oak tree on Connecticut Ave healthy. Photo by Stella Tarnay. Native plants median by DC Master Naturalist Kathy Sykes.

Consider taking the following steps as you plan your fall cleanup:

- leave a neat layer of leaves under your deciduous trees

- create a mulch layer of leaves in the median area in front of your house 

- mulch your flower beds with leaves

- rake some leaves to the edges of your yard

If you'd like to read more about eco-friendly fall cleanup, here is a radio interview with entomologist Dout Tallamy, and related cleanup tips from the Pennsylvania Department of the Environment. Also see a brief visual exploration of the critters that use those fall leaves, from a neighborhood land trust.