PLANTS FOR WILDLIFE UTILIZATION AND EROSION CONTROL 3 
The production of food, indispensable though it may be, cannot 
be ranked unconditionally as first among the uses of plants to wild- 
life. Food there must be, but the ways ot wildlife are such that 
food can scarcely be utilized unless situated in or near suitable 
cover. Defining suitable cover may be difficult. One thinks first 
of its concealing capacity, but there is to be considered also its ac- 
tual mechanical efficiency in excluding predators or at least in imped- 
ing their progress. In summer the - provision of shade may be an 
important attribute of cover, and at all times the convenient location 
of cover in relation to food supplies is a prime consideration. ee 
may appraise cover requirements to the best of his ability and plan 
and modify cover according to this appraisal, but the final test of 
value is the degree of use, and sometimes this appears to depend upon 
P ietiine that the particular form of wildlife concerned recognizes 
but man does not. Man does the best he can by providing cover good 
for quick refuge, temporary concealment, and more or less permanent 
lodging, using a variety of plants to form it, distributing rather than 
concentr ating it, and making it of food-bearing species or placing 
it so as to be re eadily accessible to food supplies. 
The genera of plants known to be of most value in providing cover, 
browse, herbage, mast, fruit, and seeds for wildlife are herewith 
listed in systematic order.’ It is realized that in a single genus the 
species may differ greatly in value to wildlife, but details for all 
genera are not well enough known to justify tabulation by species. 
Any available native species of the genera listed may be transplanted, 
or representatives (native or exotic) may be obtained from nurseries, 
No barberries, currants, or buckthorns are included, because they 
harbor destructive rusts. Omitted also are plants poisonous to man 
on contact, as poison-ivy and poison sumac, as well as various kinds 
dangerously poisonous either to wild or to domestic animals, when 
eaten, as yew, wild cherry, lupine, laurel, rhododendron, and 
groundsel (Senecio). 
COVER PLANTS 
Cover for ground dwellers consists of plants of sufficient height to 
conceal the forms of wildlife concerned. It seems most effectual if 
dense, stiff, thorny, or evergreen (pl. 1). Plants that form thickets 
even so extensive as to dominate the landscape are good cover spe- 
cies. Cover for the above-ground fauna is most satisfactorily pro- 
vided by dense evergreen trees. Deciduous plants, on the other hand, 
unless of very dense growth, are not of much value for cover except 
in summer. 
Pine (Pinus). Juniper, red cedar (Juniperus )* 
Spruce (Picea). (rou Ios) 2 
Hemlock (Tsuga). Scrub palmetto (Serenoa). 
Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga). Greenbrier (Smilax). 
Fir, balsam (Abies). Waxmyrtle (Myrica). 
Arborvitae (Thuja). Sweetfern (Comptonia). 
White cedar (Chamaecyparis). Willow (Salix). 
°> HELLER, A, -A. CATALOGUE OF NORTH AMERICAN PLANTS NORTH OF MEXICO, EXCLUSIVE 
OF THE LOWER CRYPTOGAMS. Ed. 2, 252 pp. 1900. 
3 Such low junipers as Juniperus communis, J. prostrata, and J. sabina are excellent 
cover: red cedar (J. virginiana), an alternate host of apple rust, should not be planted 
near apple orchards. 
