Backyard Habitat Workshop – May 24th

What: Backyard Habitat Workshop

When: May 2th, 4-7 pm

Where: Fort DuPont Community Garden

The District Department of the Environment is continuing its backyard habitat workshop program through 2012. 

The next workshop will be held in partnership with the National Park Service at the Fort DuPont community garden on May 24, 2012.  They will be discussing how to attract pollinators, beneficial insects, and birds to your yard or garden, and will be planting a pollinator border around the community garden.  Attendees will receive a book (Bringing Nature Home by Douglas Tallamy) and other literature on gardening for wildlife, a birdhouse kit and live plants.  The workshop is free and open to all District residents.

To register, send an email to backyardhabitat@dc.gov with “Fort DuPont Workshop” in the subject line and the names of the attendees in the body of the email.

The proof is in the planting

We just got the April/May issue of National Wildlife Magazine in the mail and I was excited to see that this issue is dedicated to Gardening for Wildlife.

If you have followed this blog for long, you probably know that my strong interest in eco-friendly gardening started because of my desire to attract more birds, butterflies and other creatures to my yard and gardens. AND my efforts to garden for wildlife became more focused after I learned about the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) Certified Wildlife Habitat (CWH) program. I really wanted to get my yard certified.

My favorite article in the issue is called Certified Success, and it is about a woman named Stephanie Widows who did a study, as part of her master’s program, to determine how successful the NWF Certified Wildlife Habitat program is in providing habitat.

For the study, Widows visited 50 homes that have certified habitats and evaluated them to see the quantity and quality of wildlife habitat that each yard had. She compared both the habitat elements and the number of wildlife species on these properties to nearby properties and to other, randomly selected properties in the same neighborhoods.

Her study concluded that the certified properties did, indeed, provide more beneficial habitat AND had more wildlife species than the neighboring yards which were used for comparison. In fact, the certified yards had more than TWICE as many species present as the other yards which were visited.

Most people who garden for wildlife can attest to the fact that their eco-friendly gardening definitely does bring in the wildlife. I am sitting outside while I am writing this and can see several species of birds and butterflies and even hear a hummingbird up chittering away in the trees. I know that most of that wildlife is here only because I have made a concerted effort to attract it.

I also know that there haven’t been many official studies done to PROVE that gardening for wildlife makes a difference. I’ve looked for research on the topic before and know it was very limited. So I was excited to read about Ms. Widows ' research.

Of course, you don’t have to have your yard certified in the NWF CWH program to attract wildlife. Certainly, anyone can create an eco-friendly landscape with wildlife in mind and provide the same benefits. But with almost 150,000 homes enrolled in the program (adding up to some 300,000 acres of habitat) the program did provide a great basis for Ms. Widows' study.

To qualify for certification in the NWF CWH program, a property must provide wildlife with food, water, shelter and places to raise their young. Other sustainable gardening practices which allow a property to earn certification are:

• the use of rain barrels
  
• water-wise landscaping
  
• mulch
  
• rain gardens
  
• integrated pest management
  
• removal of non-native plants
  
• use of native plants
  
• reduced lawn areas
  
• elimination of chemicals
  
• composting

Related Posts: Does eco-friendly gardening help local wildlife?
10 Tips for Creating a Wildlife Friendly Garden
How I Became a Bird Nerd

National Bird Feeding Month

Tomorrow may be the ground hog’s big day, but the rest of February belongs to the birds.

In 1994, John Porter, a former United States Representative from Illinois, proclaimed February as National Bird Feeding Month. This resolution was passed in an effort to help encourage people to discover the  fun and beneficial hobby of backyard bird feeding.

When I was a kid, I thought that bird watchers were real nerds. But now I start each day singing a different tune – and it is often accompanied by birdsong.

Backyard birding has been called one of the fastest growing outdoor sports in the nation. According to the  National Survey of Hunting, Fishing and Wildlife-Associated Recreation (FHWAR), in 2006  more than 71 million people said that they enjoy wildlife watching and over 68 million  of them say that they do it around their homes. The report also says that these wildlife-watchers spent over $45 billion dollars on their hobby.  If I’m a nerd, I’m obviously one of many.

What I think is great about backyard birding is that it helps encourage people to take care of the planet. Once you start attracting wildlife to you yard, you soon learn that they like native plants and they DON’T like chemicals (such as pesticides, herbicides, etc.)

So if you aren’t already a bird watcher, I encourage you to give this fast growing hobby a peep – I mean a peak. It doesn’t take much of an investment to get started and winter is a great time to provide a little extra nourishment to neighborhood birds. Put out a bird bath or other water source or buy an inexpensive feeder and a bag of seed. Make sure that they are out of the reach of wandering cats or other predators. And then sit back and enjoy the music!

• 10 tips for Creating a Wildlife Friendly Landscape
• Autumn in the Garden – Great Time for Backyard Birding
• Tips for Helping Chilly Critters

Maryland Statistics -
Total wildlife-watching participants . . . . . 1,491,000
Around-the-home participants . . . . . . . .  1,322,000
Total expenditures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $633,699,000

Virginia Statistics -
Total wildlife-watching participants . . . . . 2,312,000
Around-the-home participants . . . . . . . .  2,082,000
Total expenditures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $960,190,000

Autumn in the garden - great time for backyard birds

It seems like only weeks ago that we were still enjoying summer in our gardens. But rather than spending time reminiscing about the sunshine and summer flowers, it is time to get busy getting the gardens ready for winter.

Here are some posts and articles I found for protecting your plants and lawns for the coming frosts and freezes:

• Get Your Garden Ready for Winter - (from Oprah.com)
• Getting Ready for Winter (written for Colorado but pretty generic)
• Winter Garden Checklist (pdf file)

But I also want to remind you that fall and winter are a great time to feed and observe the birds in your backyard.

Maryland, Virginia and DC are all important stops on the Atlantic Flyway, one of four major migratory flight routes in North America. So every fall, hundreds of thousands of birds of many different species make their way along the coast from their summer nesting places in the northern U.S., Canada and even the Arctic on the way to their winter homes.

These migratory flights are often long and exhausting for many bird species, so providing food, water and a friendly spot to rest will help the birds and add music and life to your garden that will make you soon forget about the colorful blossoms that are gone for the season.

You may be surprised to find out just how quickly simple steps like adding a birdbath and hanging a feeder will bring visiting birds to your yard. For more information about creating a wildlife friendly landscape, read this post: 10 Tips for Creating a Wildlife Friendly Garden 

Wildlife Gardening Workshop November 6th