Greetings,

Before anyone gets upset about the heretical subject heading, my long-term
goal is to remove as much of the scotch broom on my neighbor's property as
possible (fortunately they have given permission for this), and try to
encourage native plants to take their place, to provide more food/habitat
for local birds. About five acres of the property was cleared a long time
ago but has been allowed to go wild the last 10-15 years, and is largely an
overgrown field with some wetlands in the middle, bordered by forest on one
side. Broom is the predominant form of cover in the field (covering perhaps
25% of the total area). I'm wondering whether there would be any value to
local birds to leave some of the broom in the short-term (a year or two?),
until some more native trees/shrubs get a foothold? Certainly a lot of the
local wintering birds are using the broom for cover (goldfinches, towhees,
juncos, sparrows, robins, quail, jays), and I'm thinking that removal of all
the broom (while good in the long run) will have some short-term impacts on
the local bird populations by removing a lot of their cover. Also, I'm
wondering whether any local birds do nest in heavy stands of broom?

Thanks for any comments or advice.

Robin Baird
Olympia, WA
rwbaird at cascadiaresearch.org