Nancy Lawson

Groundhogs can cause headaches for homeowners—learn how to coexist with these wild neighbors.

Through careful observation and humane gardening, it doesn’t take long to see that many animals shape homelands for creatures large and small, often in hidden ways.

The loud low-frequency noise of landscaping machinery travels far and drowns out a proven natural benefit to our mental health: birdsong.

Naturalistic backyard ponds welcome frogs and other animals.

Though many of us consider bird feeding a benign way to connect with nature, it often exacerbates an already pervasive cultural bias that favors birds over practically any other animal who visits the...

The impact of free-roaming cats on wildlife has long been a hot topic, but the role of dogs gets less attention. It's time to talk about curbing our dogs' instinct to hunt and harass wild animals.

By transitioning your yard from grass to viable habitat, you can help wild animals come in for a soft landing.

By staying aware and observing my garden, I embarked on a scientific journey that taught me more about monarch butterflies and their relationship to the world.

Changing the law of the land benefits animals, the environment and humans.

We can all prevent supposedly animal-friendly landscaping methods from backfiring through careful product selection and monitoring. Here are a few tips.

As it turns out, just beneath the surface of our leaf piles, decaying perennial stalks, grasses and patches of soil are many more species who have no voice to signal their presence. By bringing a...

Homegrown gardens can help prevent pollinator poisonings. Here are a few tips for success.

Whether you have a patio, balcony or rooftop, you can create pocket habitats by thinking from other species’ perspectives. Here’s how.

You don’t have to break the bank to create a lovely backyard haven.

By catering to caterpillars, you can create a butterfly garden.

What you don’t know can hurt birds. Planting bird food is a natural alternative to purchasing sunflower seed and other commercial crops where lethal wildlife control has sometimes been used to protect...

A microcosm of our contradictory relationships with animals, human-squirrel interactions have long been shortsighted. Although a common animal, squirrels live an uncommon life.

The elements we all too often chop down, rake away, chase with leaf blowers, bag up to be hauled off like trash are homes for other species, not to mention restaurants, kitchens and nurseries. For so...

Tips for engaging kids in nature outside your door.

By choosing native plants, you can help put your garden to work for wildlife.

Even if you’re part of a homeowner association, a wildlife-friendly garden is possible.

How familiar are we, really, with what lies below, let alone who eats, sleeps and breeds there? Instead of traveling afar for a sense of place in the universe, what if we paid more attention to what’s...

Being trapped and relocated is one nightmare that is a common reality for many backyard creatures. One minute they’re going about the business of survival, and the next, without warning, they’re...

Myths abound about skunks, but these animals are gardeners’ friends.

Here's how you can help bats, your friendly neighborhood night-flyers.

Little mammals play a big role in healthy gardens.

Unfortunately, homeowners’ responses to wild nibblers often involve poisons and traps. But you can have your veggies—and your flowers and trees—and let the wildlife eat some, too, by following these...

Making space for nature takes courage—here’s how to start.

Mason bees, mining bees, bumble bees and others whose services have produced fruits and seeds for millennia are at risk, dependent on ever-shrinking habitat to accommodate lifestyles that barely...

Edited by Harrison and fellow photographer Kim Nagy, Dead in Good Company offers an intimate view of Mount Auburn, weaving tales of lives ended with stories of those just beginning.

Prune trees carefully to avoid harming wild families. Given the chance, wild parents often carry displaced babies to alternate nests. But countless animals never have that opportunity.

Homeowners usually focus more on readying properties for resale than nurturing a home for other species. Research reveals that even when people want to garden ecologically, the desire to match the...

Coexisting with these shy plant-eaters is easier than you think.

Though they’re often celebrated as harbingers of spring and rebirth, commoditized tulips are too overbred to welcome pollinators and too prized as decorative possessions to be shared with larger...

Studies are beginning to show why it might be best to turn down the volume.

Every outdoor space, whether a transformed city plot or a suburban pocket prairie, matters to animals. Here’s how to reclaim land for wildlife well beyond your own backyard.

Millions of animals die in the road. How can we help?

Rodenticides wreak havoc across the animal kingdom. Animal advocates are fighting to end the use of these dangerous chemicals and protect wildlife.

Scientists are naming light pollution as a significant but largely hidden contributor to habitat loss. By turning off the lights—and choosing bulbs with care—you can help wildlife.

This summer, help family and friends find nature wherever you go.

Instead of awe and wonder, fear is our default reaction to wildlife near our home, often leading to trapping, poisoning, or, in the case of small creatures, the angry stomp of a shoe. Here's why we...

Keep hummingbirds healthy with a balanced diet.

Growing native edibles increases food security for all.

Living alongside deer for decades, I’ve learned that gardens can thrive in their presence—to the point where our habitat now hosts uncommon butterflies, drawn to plants the deer leave untouched.

Many factors drive fluctuating wildlife populations. Some are distinctly manmade, as when mosquito spraying in Fargo, North Dakota, killed migrating monarchs in August. But others are part of the...

From natural histories of misunderstood species to stories of interconnectedness, the following selections will help you (and, in some cases, your children and grandchildren) think differently about...

When beavers return, habitats flourish.

While snakes are some of the shiest creatures to cross our paths, they’re among the most persecuted. Make space in your habitat for these shy, misunderstood animals.

What we do (or don’t do) outside affects whether wildlife live to see another spring. This winter, use this checklist to cultivate a year-round home for your wild neighbors.

Coyotes go out of their way to stay out of ours. Yet for all their efforts to politely coexist, these intelligent, adaptable canines receive little thanks. Here's how to make the best of life with our...

Decaying logs and miniature bogs, hollowed stalks and piled rocks, nutritious pollen and leaves fallen: They’re not the stuff of traditional nursery rhymes and baby showers. But if wild mothers-to-be...

From coast to coast, gardeners are putting down the power tools and letting nature take the lead.