Huge lawns have little wildlife value. If you have an expansive lawn on your property, save yourself some mowing and let part of that lawn transition to young woods.
This fact sheet from University of Maryland Extension walks you through steps to covert lawn to old field or shrubland and then how to maintain those young woods over time.
In natural environments, there’s a transition area where forests and grasslands meet. But in residential areas, lawn and woods often meet in a hard edge. This fact sheet from Indiana discusses how to create a more natural woodland edge at your lawn’s borders.
Even if your property isn’t large, you can make a difference for wildlife. This article describes how landowners Carl and Mary Graybill converted part of an old farm field on their 5.5 acres in Pennsylvania to a young woods that supports birds like the brown thrasher.