Turn your Garden into a Wildlife Habitat
Eve
r noticed this attractive Certified Wildlife Habitat Backyard signs? It means the homeowners are proviodingg the essentials for wildlife: food, a reliable source of water, cover (like a rock pile), and places to raise young (like large shrubs or a water garden). They've also agreed to follow healthy, sustainable gardening practices like mulching and reducing the use of chemicals. Many gardeners are already doing these things and simply go online to apply for certification. Easy! The $15 fee includes a certificate, a year's membership in the NWF, and their excellent magazine. The information in the application and elsewhere on the website is doing a lot to educate homeowners across the country.
Why Certify Your Backyard?
- You'll see more birds, butterflies, fro
gs, and turtles.
- You and your whole family will learn more about gardening by reading the quarterly Habitats Newsletter you'll receive.
- Certification includes one year membership in the National Wildlife Federation, including their award-winning National Wildlife Magazine.
- It'll show your support for creating a more nature-friendly world right here.
- It'll teach kids about nature and gardening in fun ways.
Photo by Julie Wiatt
Community Certification
It's exciting when you certify your own backyard and it's even more exciting when your whole community joins in!
To win habitat certification as a community, a certain number of backyards must be certified, based on the total population. In addition, a certain number of public places must become wildlife-friendly - like schoolyards, churchyards and parks. 
More points toward community certification can be won by holding events like native plant sales or stream clean-ups or having "regular articles in a local paper about the project," something I perform for my town by writing about wildlife for the local paper. Points are also awarded for having a habitat website with news and lots of resources to help in the process.
Or if your town is prefers the dynamism of blogs, do what we did and create a free one on Blogger.com. Encourage schools, teachers, Boy Scouts, and regular gardeners to write about their own habitat projects. You might post questions like "What are your best shrubs and trees for attracting birds?" and compile comments from readers.
Why Have your Community Certified as a Habitat?
- Residents will meet like-minded neighbors who share their love of wildlife and nature.
- It'll improve the watershed through reduced toxic run-off.
- It'll help reduce carbon emissions related to climate change.
- We'll all learn more about living more lightly on Earth.
- Nearby individual habitats can combine to create a wildlife corridor.
This article was originally published in Maryland's Voice Newspapers. If you have comments about it, send 'em along.
Great Information in Print
- Silent Spring
, the classic by Rachel Carson.
- The Natural Habitat Garden
- Projects for the Birder's Garden
- Welcoming Habitat to the Garden
- Creating Small Habitats for Wildlife in Your Garden
- Kids' Easy-To-Create Wildlife Habitats
And On Line
- The National Wildlife Federation is the go-to organization on wildlife, and here's the dope on their Backyard Habitat certification program and Community Habitats.
- List of certified community habitats in the U.S.
- Great article in the Washington Post about urban habitat gardening.
- Natural Gardening is a blog written by a plant ecologist and wildlife-lover in South Carolina.
- Cornell has a great site about birds, and here's a cool site about owls.
- And who can resist Singing Insects?
- The NWF released some Tip Sheets for Wildlife (in pdf) - about bird feeders, nesting boxes, attracting butterflies and more good stuff. And here's more expert advice about feeding birds in the winter from HGTV's ornithologist.