15 Things You Can Do for Wildlife on World Wildlife Conservation Day

Build an attractive birdhouse that will last for a lifetime, yet only takes a few minutes to build. All you need to create a welcoming home for wrens and other small birds is a short piece of plastic fence post. Find out how to build this birdhouse with our complete plans.

With a few craft supplies, wreaths are gifts you can make. There are a variety of wreaths you can easily make in just a couple hours. And try this DIY bird feeder wreath that is made from seed heads and a grapevine.

Help protect pollinators like butterflies and biodiversity by planting pollinator-friendly plants like milkweed around your home. Learn more about which plants to use to start a pollinator friendly yard.

Your fine-feathered friends won’t smile in your direction if you clean and fill your bird feeders but you probably won’t be able to hide your smile at the sight of a clean bird feeder. Besides birds of the same feather flock together and word of your clean dining establishment might spread to attract a more exotic crowd.

All those colorful flowers and plants will surely bring the hummingbirds to your favorite gardener's yard, so give those birds a place to refuel with a hummingbird feeder.

A butterfly house will give those Monarchs and other butterflies a place to rest their wings. Several sizes and styles are available online for gift ideas.

Help protect the bees that pollinate all those plants with a bee hotel. If you'd rather make a bee hotel yourself, here's what you need to know.

A pond can become the best feature in your backyard, your favorite hangout, a project you’ll be proud of for years. Water attracts wildlife. That’s sometimes good, sometimes bad. Check out complete plans to build a pond.

We may think plastic bags are a better choice for the environment, but they often aren't. Made from non-renewable crude oil, plastic bags aren't biodegradable and it takes millions of barrels of oil to produce them every year (though, being lighter than paper, it takes less fuel to ship them). However, once they're made, it's nearly impossible to get rid of them. It can take as long as 400 years for one plastic bag to biodegrade. That's a long time for plastic bags to hang around creating pollution problems and creating dangerous situations for wildlife that swallow plastic particles, which can cause harm, choking, or death. So, the next time you're out shopping at the grocery store and the cashier asks if you want paper or plastic, choose paper.

Dirty bird baths can become unpleasant for both birds and humans. Stubborn stains in a bird bath are usually caused by chemicals in rain, tap water or well water as well as organic debris. Find out the tips to cleaning a bird bath.

This simple DIY birdhouse takes on new character when you add an old license plate for a roof. You could pay big bucks for one of these license plate birdhouses at craft shops, or learn to make your own for just a few dollars! Plus, you can recycle those old license plates this way. Find out how to make a license plate birdhouse.

Birds, deer, squirrels, rabbits, raccoons and many other animals will work hard to snack on your hard work. Don't let them get away with it! Check out how to handle pests in a humane way.

The amount of plastic in the ocean today is simply staggering. Scientists from a non-profit advocacy group, 5 Gynes, published a study in 2015 that estimated there are 5.25 trillion pieces of plastic in the ocean. That adds up to weigh around 269,000 tons or 538 million pounds. That plastic causes trouble for aquatic life, which ingests it and can die. Do something by reducing the plastic you use and recycling the things you do use. Learn more about recycling and things you didn’t know.

If you live on a lake or near a lake, chances are there are things you can do to improve the water quality and the aquatic life. Many lakes face issues with invasive species and contamination. Become active in a local soil, water and conservation district or a watershed partnership. Look at reducing fertilizer use, which can promote algae growth in lakes. Find out how to properly fertilize your lawn.

Even if you aren't a beekeeper, there are still plenty of reasons to encourage bees to inhabit your garden or yard. Bees are great for flower pollination, most aren't dangerous (unless their hive is threatened) and, hey, some people even like the sound of murmuring bees on a summer day. Check out other bee friendly plants.