Research has demonstrated that residential yards can provide important habitat for urban birds, pollinators, and other wildlife. In addition, the motivations and constraints underlying decisions to manage traditional lawns, water-conserving yards, native plants, and other landscape types are well understood. Yet relatively little research has addressed people’s decisions to adopt wildlife-supporting yards. Analyzing survey data from six U.S. cities, we address three related questions: 1) to what extent do residents choose yard features that support wildlife habitat?; 2) how do yard priorities and neighborhood governance, along with socio-demographic factors, explain the adoption of wildlife-supporting features?; and 3) how do residents who have already adopted wildlife-supporting yard features differ in their motivations from those who plan to adopt such features and those who do not? We found significant potential for adding vegetation (specifically shrubs and native plants) and other wildlife-supporting features to increase yard complexity and vegetation diversity. While gardening as a hobby was a significant motivator for people who have adopted wildlife yard features, the desire for low-maintenance yards is a constraint among non-adopters. We therefore recommend promoting the planting of low-maintenance plant species or varieties that provide wildlife habitat but require little upkeep, especially among residents who would like to attract wildlife to their yards into the future. We also found that neighbourhood and homeowner associations increase the local adoption of wildlife-supporting yards. Coupled with other findings, our results underscore the importance of tailoring residential landscape features to diverse lifestyles while leveraging social institutions to expand wildlife habitat across urban and suburban neighborhoods.

研究表明，住宅庭院可以为城市鸟类、传粉媒介和其他野生动物提供重要的栖息地。此外，管理传统草坪、节水庭院、原生植物和其他景观类型的决策背后的动机和限制因素也很清楚。然而，相对较少的研究涉及人们决定采用支持野生动物的院子的决定。通过分析来自美国六个城市的调查数据，我们解决了三个相关问题：1）居民在多大程度上选择支持野生动物栖息地的庭院特征？2) 庭院优先事项和社区治理以及社会人口因素如何解释野生动物支持功能的采用？3) 已经采用支持野生动物的院子功能的居民与计划采用和不采用这种功能的居民的动机有何不同？我们发现添加植被（特别是灌木和本地植物）和其他支持野生动物的特征以增加庭院复杂性和植被多样性的巨大潜力。虽然园艺作为一种爱好是采用野生动物院子特色的人的重要动力，但对低维护院子的渴望是非采用者的限制因素。因此，我们建议促进种植可提供野生动物栖息地但几乎不需要维护的低维护植物物种或品种，特别是在希望将野生动物吸引到他们的院子里的居民中。我们还发现，社区和房主协会增加了当地对野生动物支持庭院的采用。结合其他研究结果，我们的研究结果强调了根据不同生活方式调整住宅景观特征的重要性，同时利用社会机构在城市和郊区社区扩大野生动物栖息地。