By Margaret Baird

Growing up in southern New England, my siblings and I couldn't help but look forward to the transition from August's humidity to the increasing crispness of September, even if the change of seasons signaled the end of our carefree days. And while the departing summer's haze meant that the lawn mower would soon be put to bed for its long winter's nap—hurrah!—we knew we would have no luck avoiding yard chores any time soon. The plentiful assortment of trees on our property ensured that.

Once released to the ground, vibrant foliage became nothing more than a vast prairie of leaf litter—piles and piles waiting to be raked and disposed. Endless loads to be hauled to the end of the yard and pitched into the wooded lot next door or neatly bagged and set by the curb for town pickup.

We could have saved ourselves a lot of time and trouble if we'd stopped raking long enough to consider how our urge for orderliness affected the welfare of our wild neighbors during the coldest months of the year. Thankfully, in today's more environmentally aware age, routine yard cleanup is no longer on the must-do list for fall—and that's good news for wildlife. Beyond providing the traditional seed and suet feeders for birds and small mammals, there are plenty of other modest efforts you can make around your sanctuary to help an even greater variety of wild animals survive harsh weather conditions.

Keep Those Fading Flowers

This year, hold off on nipping and tucking your garden beds or patio container plantings until springtime, and resist combing your yard clean of leaf litter. Put yourself in an animal's position: Just when the going gets tough, potential winter food and cover sources are removed, leaving a bleak and uninviting landscape in which to survive the cold months.

But if you leave dead stalks, leaves, and seedheads standing in your yard, garden, or apartment balcony, you will not only feed and nourish wildlife but also provide much needed cover for many species of wild animals struggling to survive amid the winter's dropping temperatures.

Large seedheads like those of black-eyed Susans, sedums, purple coneflowers, joe-pye weed, and sunflowers are especially favored by wildlife as food sources. So too are the seeds of zinnias, marigolds, cosmos, phlox, and dianthus. As they often remain green well into winter, hardy ferns can be especially valuable as both cover and a food source, while berry-producing plants such as bayberries, junipers, and cotoneasters are year-round favorites for many species, particularly birds.

Here's an added bonus you may not have considered: Leaving plant material in your garden beds can lend beauty and texture to an otherwise drab winter setting. In particular, the tall, wavy, golden shapes of ornamental grasses and sedges such as feather reed grass, switch grass, little bluestem, and broom sedge can be magnificent to behold in the autumn landscape, and are perfectly lovely beneath a powdery dusting of snow. Many wildlife species will readily forage the seeds of grasses, and birds will pluck old stalks and foliage for use as nest-building material in the spring.

Leave the Leaves

Think of fallen leaves as an organic windfall for your yard and garden. While you may want to remove at least some of the accumulated leaf litter from your yard—depending on whether your property contains many trees or just a few—know that small, deep piles of leaves can provide cozy nests for hibernating reptiles, amphibians, and insects; make a cost-effective, water-conserving mulch for garden beds; and are ideal additions to a compost pile.

For mulch, leave the leaves where they fall or, better yet, shred and spread them uniformly in your garden. To best improve soil fertility and retain moisture, aim for about two to three inches in depth with mulches of any kind.

Give 'Em Shelter

With the gradual loss of foliage in autumn, wild animals face an increasingly critical need for adequate shelter and cover from predators. Building a brush pile is an easy and inexpensive way to clear your yard of stray branches and twigs, and the results will provide a safe haven for ground-nesting birds, reptiles and amphibians, insects, and small mammals such as chipmunks, rabbits, and skunks.

In choosing a site for your brush pile, pick a spot in an out-of-the-way corner of your property, preferably close to food sources and away from buildings. Starting with a layer of larger limbs, stack branches loosely, adding vegetation and leaves on top—this will create plenty of nooks and crannies so that animals of various sizes may enter and find a snug refuge from severe weather. And although it will occasionally be disturbed through the cold weather months, a firewood pile also functions well as shelter for wildlife. Just pile your logs crisscross fashion in order to create internal spaces that invite your wild neighbors to come in from the cold.

Water Sources

Year round, water remains one of the most important and beneficial elements you can provide for wildlife. While it stands to reason that animals are drawn to water sources when the weather's warm, it doesn't occur to many folks that access to water is probably even more crucial for birds and mammals when the mercury dips, since reliable watering holes often dry up or ice over.

Providing water close to home can prevent animals from having to search far afield to slake their thirst—thereby saving them valuable caloric energy, which may mean the difference between life and death on the coldest nights. Investing in a quality heater for your bird bath or artificial pond will keep water ice-free and undoubtedly reward you with a veritable stream of wildlife activity in your sanctuary. As the temperature starts to drop and you reach for your favorite sweater or that warm bowl of soup, don't forget about your wild neighbors. Just like us, they need a warm place to curl up and some comfort food, too.

Margaret Baird is Assistant Director of The HSUS's Urban Wildlife Program.