A rehabilitated Red Tail Hawk is released. Photo by Will Stuart.

Fun and educational activities at the celebration included a tree walk, a bird walk, fishing in the lake, crafts, and the exciting release of a rehabilitated red tail hawk.

Mayor Jim Taylor and team leader Jill Palmer proudly display the certificate. Photo by Will Stuart.

Debbie Foster, one of the team leaders, said she was recently at a Matthews Women’s Club meeting. She told me about meeting:

“When I spoke about Matthews Naturally, the whole room burst into spontaneous applause. It was as if each person in the room really GOT what it is we do and why we do it.  They appreciated it and they recognized the value of it. We all benefit from projects that protect our air, soil and water quality. We all benefit from protecting living creatures and providing and enhancing habitat for them. We all inhabit the same planet. The Community Wildlife Habitat project and certification contributes to those benefits by education and implementation of common goals. We are looking to the future!”

Congratulations, Matthews!

Learn more about NWF’s Community Wildlife Habitat program >>

Kris Eggle Visitor Center at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument

Ajo is located in the heart of the Sonoran desert in southwestern Arizona and is the gateway community to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. As part of their outreach, the Community Wildlife Habitat team helped create a Certified Wildlife Habitat® garden at the monument’s Kris Eggle Visitor Center. They also worked to create habitat gardens at Ajo Elementary School and Triangle Park, as well as the Curley School artisan center.

This was truly a community-wide effort. All over town, one can find the NWF Certified Wildlife Habitat signs displayed by proud homeowners on their front fences.

Pima County Commissioner Sharon Bronson, team leader Vivian Sartori and Roxanne Paul; Jewel Clearwater photo, International Sonorand Desert Alliance

Congratulations to Ajo and the Community Wildlife Habitat team!

Haycock Township celebrates their certification

A concerned group of citizens decided to form a Community Wildlife Habitat team and fulfill the requirements for the township’s certification.  They gave presentations to organizations, set up tables at the Fire House’s Sunday breakfasts and created a blog where residents could get more information.  In all, 64 homes, 2 schools, the historical society building, a park and 10 farms became NWF Certified Wildlife Habitat sites.

On a lovely day in October, the community came together to celebrate the certification at the Township Building.  I was privileged to represent NWF and present the certificate to three of the township supervisors.  I also recognized Dr. Julie Fagan and her team of volunteers.

Congratulations, Haycock Township!  You are a great example of a rural community coming together to protect wildlife.

To learn more about Community Wildlife Habitats or to certify your own yard as a wildlife habitat, visit our Gardening for Wildlife page.

Team leader and teacher Martha Christine stands near Calypso Elementary’s Certified Schoolyard Habitat

As NWF’s Senior Coordinator for Community and Volunteer Outreach, I have traveled to many certified communities, but when I spoke at Bethlehem’s certification celebration, I commented  that like many certified communities, Bethlehem has become “green” in many different ways.  They are creating a Greenway through the city and have a robust recycling program.  Mayor John Callahan remarked, after accepting NWF’s Certificate of Exceptional Merit, that Bethlehem has also achieved the Arbor Day Foundations Tree City USA Growth Award.

Way to go, Bethlehem!  Keep up the good work for our wildlife and our planet!

Johns Creek residents have made it a priority to provide food, water, cover and places to raise young in backyards, school grounds and in community spaces throughout the city.  Amazingly, the Community Wildlife Habitat team of volunteers was led by high school student Malcolm Barnard.

Malcolm with city proclamation. Photos by Brian Lucy, NWF.

Schoolyard Habitats representatives accept signs on behalf of their schools

Roxanne Paul, Na'Taki Osbourne Jelks, Malcolm & Mayor Bodker

Monte Sano Civic Assoc, Pres. Marylynn Perry, Roxanne Paul & Team Leader Susan "Soos" Weber proudly display certificate. Photo by Jerry Green.

The “mountaineers,” as they are often called, decided to make it a priority in their community to provide wildlife habitat in home gardens and community sites. A team of volunteers led by Susan “Soos” Weber gave workshops on how to garden for wildlife by supplying food, water, cover and places to raise young for wildlife in over 100 sites around the community. At a time when towns and cities across the country are losing green spaces and wildlife habitat to development, Monte Sano stands out as an example of reversing the trend. In all, 84 homes, the elementary school, the fire station, a museum, two churches, a community garden, the local TV station and the community center became NWF Certified Wildlife Habitat® sites.

The Community Wildlife Habitat team also offered numerous nature hikes and programs for adults and children. Again, they were reversing the trend of an “indoor childhood” that is so common for the younger wired-in generation.

The celebration was held at the recently renovated CCC-built Gatehouse to Monte Sano State Park. The Gatehouse had been closed since the 1950s, but volunteers applied for and received a grant for nearly $10,000 to renovate and restore the stone and wood structure. It will now serve as a nature center, full of interpretive exhibits on the local natural history.

Clearly, the residents of Monte Sano steer their own course, and it is not the usual one that we see across the country. As a Certified Community Wildlife Habitat, Monte Sano is a healthier and more pleasant place to live for humans and wildlife alike.

Want to participate in Garden for Wildlife Month? You can get started today and soon enough your garden could be a Certified Wildlife Habitat.

Here’s a quick, fun way to get families outside this spring. Invite your neighbors for a community clean-up!

In our neighborhood, folks shared their yard tools and gave each other gardening tips, while parents and kids cleaned up trash from the nearby stream. Find out three tips to improve your community clean-up by watching my video diary:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Some photos from our clean-up:

Here's all the trash we collected, including this baby stroller and styrofoam grave from Halloween - all in a nearby stream!

Daughter and father cooperate on trash pick-up

Have you organized a community clean-up in your area? What worked for you?

If you enjoy organizing community events, you might enjoy our Community Wildlife Habitat program where you encourage your neighbors to garden for wildlife.

National Wildlife Federation’s Storytelling Video Diary Series shares the candid tales of nine NWF staffers from around the country; armed with their cameras in the Great Lakes, California, South Dakota, the Pacific Northwest, Northern Virginia, and Washington, DC, these nine staffers will share with you their individual trials, epiphanies and stories as they unfold in their daily adventures.

Oak Crest residents held a ceremony to mark their community's designation as a Certified Wildlife Habitat^®. (Photo courtesy Oak Crest)

Oak Crest is the largest retirement community in Baltimore, Maryland with over 2,100 residents and sits on an 87-acre campus amongst a flourishing ecosystem. In November, residents and staff came together to celebrate the receipt of that designation at a ceremony, appropriately held by the pond on campus.

The pond is used to encourage wildlife and recreation, individual garden areas and a greenhouse for residents, a nature trail and forest buffer zones.  In the fall of 2009, a “green roof” was installed on the assisted living and skilled nursing buildings that comprise Renaissance Gardens.

A Flourishing Eco-System

Oak Crest supports numerous species of wildlife on the grounds of its campus, including deer, squirrels, foxes, geese, ducks, hawks, bluebirds, woodpeckers and catfish. There is a nature trail that is maintained by residents and staff.

(Photo courtesy Oak Crest)

Brian Dorsey, facilities manager for grounds and transportation, noted that the National Wildlife Federation has “strict guidelines on the habitat elements that must be in place to receive the award. A property must provide food sources for wildlife. These can be supplied naturally through plants or supplemented through feeding. Also, there must be water sources, cover and places to raise young established on the property.”

A Resident-Driven Effort

Many of Oak Crest’s initiatives are resident-driven. The “green” approach is a collaborative effort between the residents and staff of Oak Crest.  Resident groups such as the Garden Club (consisting of Garden Plots, Greenhouse & Nature Trail committees), Recycling Plus Group, For the Birds, Earth Day and the Blue Heron Yacht Club provide input regarding campus environmental policies.

“These requirements have been intrinsically satisfied for years through the ‘green’ approach to operations to which our residents and staff have been so diligently committed,” continued Mr. Dorsey. “I’m most proud that this is a grass-roots effort. The fact that we supply all of these elements implies good stewardship by Oak Crest to the air we breathe, water that we shed and the plants that support a healthy ecosystem.”

If you would like to certify your own backyard, go to www.nwf.org/gardenforwildlife to learn more. If you are interested in learning more about becoming a certified Community Wildlife Habitat, go to www.nwf.org/community.

Learn more about attracting wildlife to your garden and how to create a National Wildlife Federation Certified Wildlife Habitat^® >>

Contribution of blog content and photos: Jeff Getek, Public Affairs Manager, Oak Crest

Mayors John Woods of Davidson and Jeff Tarte of Cornelius accept the Community Wildlife Habitat certificates with Roxanne Paul (left). [Ron J. Deschaies/Treasured Events of Charlotte

The Lake Norman project was called “Wild over LKN” and was unique in its organization and breadth.  The Lake Norman team of volunteers worked with all eight towns surrounding the lake (Davidson, Sherrills Ford, Cornelius, Denver, Huntersville, Troutman, Terrell and Mooresville) to create habitat gardens in homes, schools and community sites. It was the first time that a large body of water and its surrounding towns became a certified Community Wildlife Habitat.

In addition, the Lake Norman Wildlife Conservationists created osprey platforms and turtle basking platforms around the lake and worked with Duke Energy to better protect the many islands on the lake.

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The Lake Norman Community Wildlife Habitat team is recognized for their efforts. [Ron J. Deschaies/Treasured Events of Charlotte

Mayor John Woods of Davidson and Mayor Jeff Tarte of Cornelius were on hand to receive the Certificates of Exceptional Merit for Lake Norman’s achievement. Project leader Don West and his team of dedicated volunteers accepted small gifts from the National Wildlife Federation and the applause of all the guests for their remarkable efforts on behalf of Lake Norman’s abundant wildlife.

Here’s a video from a local North Carolina news station about another certification process in the area:

Volunteers of all ages at Truxton Park

Annapolis Recreation and Parks and National Wildlife Federation’s Chesapeake Mid-Atlantic Regional Centercollaborated on a restoration project at Truxtun Park on Aug. 16, spreading woodchips along two heavily used trails, cleaning up trash along the water trail, and placing grass seed and straw at the entrance to the trail.

Kids at Work

No fewer than 35 Cub Scouts from Annapolis Pack 366, kids and parents brought shovels and rakes to get the work done.  The project is part of a larger initiative to certify Annapolis, MD as an NWF Community Wildlife Habitat.

As we gathered at the head of the trail, Marisa Wittlinger, Environmental Programs Coordinator for City of Annapolis, highlighted the importance of the restoration work. She talked of erosion and how sediment and trash enters the local waterways through run-off. She spoke of solutions to erosion problems and gave examples of how the work they would be doing would impact the health of the Bay. After thanking the kids and handing out gloves, shovels, and rakes, we set out on the first trail.

Trash clean-up along an eroded water trail.

Never Too Young to Start!

For most of the kids, some as young as 3 years old, it was the first time they had volunteered. Speaking with parents as we moved along the trail, I heard the same message, “It feels great getting my kids outside doing this kind of work. I would have never guessed they could have so much fun with a shovel!”

Throughout the morning I overheard kids talking about erosion and pollution, sophisticated topics for 7- and 8-year-olds.

“This is really sad how people leave their trash. Don’t they know it is going in the water?”, asked one of the boys.

“In the end, we will conserve only what we love, we will love only what we understand, and we understand only what we are taught.” – Baba Dioum

Planning for Our Future

Throughout the morning, teachable moments presented themselves. NWF and Annapolis Recreation and Parks’ staff answered questions about what kids were seeing in the nature around them. Using nature as an “outdoor classroom”, staff pointed out areas of extreme erosion and how it impacts trees’ root systems. At the conclusion of the morning’s work, we gathered at the trail head.  It was clear from looking at these proud kids that we had started them on a journey of becoming future stewards of our environment.

Learn more about attracting wildlife to your garden and how to create a National Wildlife Federation Certified Wildlife Habitat^® >>