Healthy, attractive trees add interest, pleasure, and value to landscapes. Some factors to keep in mind as you select a tree relate to your projected planting site and some factors relate to you. Healthy plants, growing under conditions that suit them, are marvelously engineered to deal with minor incidence of heat, cold, drought, storm damage, pests, and disease. Sometimes we unknowingly stress them, reducing their ability to stay healthy.

Trees provide cover: Birds and small animals need concealed places for nesting and hiding from predators. The presence of wildlife can make your backyard or woodlot a special place for your family and children. As urban sprawl displaces many birds and animals from their natural habitat, it becomes even more important for home and landowners to provide green space and mini-sanctuaries for birds and other wildlife.

Trees provide food: Having a wide variety of trees that provide seeds, nuts and fruit for wildlife to eat is one way to increase your success in attracting wildlife. although artificial bird feeders can supplement naturally occurring foods, they can attract unwanted pests such as pigeons, Canada geese, squirrels, and even rats. Trees also provide food by attracting insects and providing cover for their activities; mating, egg-laying. Insects form a huge portion of the warm-weather food supply for many species of songbirds.

And, most important in this age of man-made global warming, trees and shrubs sequester large amounts of carbon dioxide.