In my old neighborhood, one, two or even three Ring notifications came through each day, exclaiming, “There’s a fox on Gerba Drive!” The frantic messages were from a homeowner who had moved from an urban area into a newly developed subdivision in the “country.”
I’ll admit that I, too, adopted a sense of anxiety about wildlife when we moved from town to an 11-acre property in Saratoga, New York. Shortly after moving in, we learned that our property was part of a coyote highway. I worried (or, more accurately, lost sleep) over whether they’d harm my horses—and I wasn’t new to the country. I was a farm kid.
“Wildlife has been on the landscape for millions of years, and finding ways to coexist is important to recogniz[ing] their intrinsic value as animals and their benefit to people,” says J.P. Rose, the urban wildlands policy director and senior attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity, based in Tucson, Arizona. “Predators—specifically coyotes, mountain lions and bobcats—play a crucial role in our ecosystems and keeping them healthy.”
He cites mountain lion populations as an example. Mountain lions have been completely eradicated by humans in the eastern U.S., and as a result, there are much higher deer populations. This has caused issues with ticks and Lyme disease, as well as vehicular collisions.
“People and wildlife both benefit when we respect wildlife and give them room to live on a landscape,” he adds.
Wildlife species aren’t much different from humans—they’re simply looking for ways to survive in an ever-changing landscape.
A big-picture perspective on wildlife
Animals, especially large carnivores, need plenty of space to roam. Specifically, they require up to 50, 60 or even 100 square miles, says Keith Bowers, senior landscape architect, restoration ecologist and founder of Biohabitats, a firm that does ecological assessments, planning and design.
“We’re facing a huge biodiversity crisis where species are going extinct at a faster rate than they have in human history,” he says. “The No. 1 reason species are declining and going extinct is because of habitat and habitat fragmentation.”
Habitat fragmentation happens when a large, continuous area of natural environment, like a forest or grassland, is broken up into smaller, isolated areas for shopping malls, subdivisions, agricultural expansion or road development. The animals that once thrived in these areas are disconnected from the natural resources they need to survive. As a result, human to wildlife interactions are increasing.
It’s not uncommon to see (or know a friend or neighbor who has seen) coyotes, mountain lions, moose and other large mammals strolling through developed neighborhoods. But coexisting entails more than locking up trash cans and encouraging wildlife to keep a safe distance from homes and shopping plazas.
“We need to think about the larger picture and say, ‘How can we design the road base and our infrastructure in such a way that we’re not only not fragmenting habitat, but can we design it in such a way where we’re restoring habitat?’” Bowers explains. “The first level is a continental scale level, which is thinking really big across North America and how we can rewild and reconnect corridors.”
Wildlife corridors
Wildlife corridors, such as bridges, overpasses, culverts, tunnels and fencing, are being integrated into highway and road construction. Strategically designed to attract and direct wildlife, they create safe passage for large mammals moving across land.
According to Bowers, for the last two decades, the Wildlands Network has been working on reconnecting big corridors up and down the Rocky Mountains. Planning of safe passage corridors must be considered at all levels, from a continental North American perspective to regional, state and municipality perspectives, through comprehensive zoning plans.
Reconnecting wildlife corridors is as much about human safety as it is about protecting wildlife. According to 2008 data from the U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration, there are between 1 and 2 million vehicle-wildlife collisions in the U.S. each year. Annually, this results in over $8 billion in property damage, 200 human deaths and 26,000 injuries. The University of Minnesota Center for Transportation Studies also found that in 2020, deer caused 1,112 crashes, four deaths and 28 critical injuries in Minnesota alone.
“The first wildlife crossings in Canada and the United States were advanced 25 years ago near Banff,” says Nina-Marie E. Lister, professor at the Toronto Metropolitan University School of Urban and Regional Planning and director of the Ecological Design Lab. “A 10-year monitoring project showed very clearly how long it took wildlife to learn how and where to cross safely. Multiple generations of young [animals] know exactly where to go, and roadkill has been reduced by over 90%, so that’s an incredible statistic for success.”
Making your property more wildlife-friendly
Coexisting with large wildlife around your property starts with understanding their needs and behaviors. By making simple adjustments to your outdoor space, you can minimize conflicts while creating a thriving habitat for local species.
Here are a few strategies to make your home more wildlife-friendly while encouraging animals to keep a safe distance:
1. “Rewild” property perimeters
Let the edges of property lines become less manicured to give wildlife access to passage corridors away from your home.
“Taking down fences at the ends of our yards or allowing our gardens to rewild at the perimeters, [when] done in a strategic way, can improve connectivity and allow more coverage for wildlife to move safely across those landscapes,” Lister says. “The city of London, England, which is known for its manicured, pristine-looking landscapes, rewilded both Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park in sections. These are sections that include fallen logs and go unmowed and are allowed to be rougher-looking.”
2. Use wildlife-friendly fencing
Fencing may define the edges of your property or enhance curb appeal, but certain styles can prohibit wildlife movement and can create injury.
El Dorado County Fish and Wildlife offers detailed advice for wildlife-friendly fencing, including:
- Removing spikes, pickets and barbs from the top of fencing or covering sharp points with decorative covers
- Leaving a buffer between fencing and the road to give animals ample space to move without getting in the way
- Avoiding net fencing
- Choosing smooth wire fencing over barbed-wire fencing, where applicable
- Raising fencing high enough off the ground for wildlife to crawl under
3. Be active on planning boards
“Get involved with your local municipality and comprehensive planning or zoning process and help advocate for wildlife,” Bowers says.
Similarly, if you live in a community with a homeowner’s association, participate in planning and decision-making processes concerning wildlife.
4. Plant native plants
Native plants are an engine of life that supports countless species. Choose native plants over non-native types when you can. For example, oak trees harbor hundreds of native species, whereas crepe myrtles have almost zero because they aren’t native to the U.S., Bowers explains.
“I can’t stress this enough,” he says. “The one thing homeowners can do is plant and insist that native plants are planted in their community and in their yards.”
5. Avoid anticoagulant rodenticides
Anticoagulants are blood thinners included in bait blocks to kill mice and other rodents. However, predators that feed on rodents often suffer from secondary poisoning—so try not to use this type of bait.
6. Keep animals moving away from your house
Adam Hartung, CEO and managing partner of strategy and transformation consulting firm Spark Partners, saw animals dying from secondary poisoning and took action to find ways to keep them moving away from his home. Providing a water source on the periphery of his two-acre property adjacent to an open space is one way he accomplished this.
“I want to try to give the animals someplace to go beside my house by creating a positive environment for them,” he says. “I get inexpensive horse troughs that are only a foot tall and put water in there.”
7. Be strategic with outdoor lighting
Light pollution can also disrupt the natural behaviors of wildlife.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service offers a comprehensive list of strategies to counter its effects. Suggestions include warmer light tones, motion detectors, timers or dimmers and using blinds or curtains to prevent indoor lighting from seeping outdoors.
“[DarkSky] has tips on lighting principles,” Rose says. “Use motion sensor lights and make them directed at what you’re trying to illuminate as opposed to blasting the entire area.”
8. Consider conservation communities
Conservation communities are neighborhoods that are specifically designed to preserve open space and provide wildlife with habitat through safe corridors and protected spaces. Lagoon Valley in Vacaville, California; Prairie Crossing in Grayslake, Illinois; and Serenbe on the outskirts of Atlanta, Georgia, are a few examples.
Coexisting with wildlife is critical
We have a dual perception of predators: They inspire fascination by evoking a sense of freedom, yet they simultaneously cause us to fear. Yet without strategic use of land, species will disappear, so finding ways to create properties where both humans and wildlife can thrive is essential.
“We’ve been spending a lot of time on climate and climate change, which is where we should be because that’s a huge issue,” Bowers says. “But even if we solve climate change tomorrow, there would still be this huge loss of biodiversity and a continuing decline in biodiversity.”
Numerous organizations focus on expanding wildlife corridors and providing homeowners education and tips for coexisting with wildlife. Here are just a few examples, if you’re looking for resources:
Photo by Saptashaw Chakraborty/Shutterstock.com
This article originally appeared in the March 2025 issue of SUCCESS+ digital magazine.
