Trees also help to filter dust and pollution. By their seasonal changes trees create a habitat for plants and wildlife for timber to build our houses and schools and to make paper. All the books that you read and even this fact sheet started life as a tree to make the landscapes more varied and interesting and to provide food and shelter for birds, insects and other animals. Broadleaved trees help to keep the soil healthy and productive by bringing up essential minerals from the soil and returning them to the ground in the form of autumn leaves, which make the best and richest organic compost for your gardening. It forms a rich habitat with its ground layer of bluebells, violets and primroses and its shrub layer and associated tree canopy.
Trees provide birds with food, cover, nest sites and song posts.
Food is available directly in the form of buds, seeds and fruit and indirectly as a result of the insect life that plants support. Some of our native trees such as oak, ash, birch and hawthorn support numbers of insects which in turn are a source of food for many species of birds such as tree creepers, blue tits, wrens and warblers. One in every two Irish insect species is dependent on these woodlands for their homes. Other birds like the blackbird, the thrush and the wood pigeon eat the berries and seeds of trees and shrubs during the winter when other food is scarce. Trees also offer shelter from harsh weather and cover for nesting birds.