Family Friday: Nothin’ Better Than Your Own Backyard (for Wildlife)

For August, Lucas Miller discusses a great program run by the National Wildlife Federation and shows how easy it was for his family to create a certified wildlife habitat in their own backyard. (If the reference in the article’s title is unfamiliar, check out Robert Earl Keen’s song I’m Coming Home.)

Whether you have a .35 acre lot in the suburbs, a sprawling ranch in the boonies or a mere balcony in the city, you can attract wildlife that will intrigue and excite your wee ones with a minimal investment of work and money.  The National Wildlife Federation’s Certified Wildlife Habitat program provides you with all the information you need to get started as well as the actual “certification.”  I don’t imagine your local bluebird’s likely to notice the certification sign that you can proudly display but, just perhaps, your human neighbors may ask you a few questions and convert their own piece of turf to a haven for native flora and fauna.

Our own efforts to get certified began about a year and half ago. As a family, we discussed the kinds of animals we wanted to see, or just see more of — butterflies, frogs, lizards, songbirds, and owls all came up. My wife mentioned hummingbirds but I wasn’t sure if we could expect to attract them because we live in north central Austin; a pretty urban environment. It would be nice, though…

The City of Austin was pushing the certified wildlife habitat pretty hard because it was trying (and has now succeeded!) to become a Certified Community Wildlife Habitat. The parks department provided some planning checklists to help us provide for animals’ necessities: food, water, cover, places to raise young, and an environment relatively free of dangerous pesticides and fertilizers. This is all covered on the NWF site as well.

Cover was pretty easy — we had some old branches we stacked up in an out-of-view spot in the front yard and made some “toad abodes” from some broken flower pots (lots of toad in our yard but I still haven’t seen one in any of those abodes).  Native bushes and trees can also count as cover. (Ed. note, to learn more about native plants and how to find what is native to your area, visit our Book Review for “Bringing Nature Home.”)

We’ve been “chemical free” (emphasis on free) since we had a yard to care for so that did not cause any adjustments for us. NWF requires that you make at least two efforts to garden with “green” techniques such as drip irrigation, herbicide-free, “integrated pest management,” rainwater collection, eliminating non-native plants, and more. These are detailed on their Garden in an Environmentally Friendly Way page.

I thought providing water would mean having to make a major water feature replete with a fountain. It turns out that a plain old bird bath was adequate for certification. We purchased one at a store that sells discontinued merchandise for pennies on the dollar (okay, a quarter on the dollar) and I cannot believe how much activity it gets. We’ve had some funny moments with birds that apparently squawk, “Yo, buddy—this thing’s dry. Are you gonna fill it back up or what?!” Last week, at dusk, we even had a pair of screech owls belly-up to the bar! They’ve actually become regulars at the Miller waterin’ hole.

As far as a place for animals to raise their young, host plants for caterpillars certainly qualify. We had great luck with our milkweeds (see my previous post about that) and, of course, a birdhouse can be a fun project to make and thrilling when it becomes occupied. If you can leave a dead tree standing, they are highly sought after by a number of birds and other animals.

When it comes to food, shrubs, vines, trees and annuals can provide berries, seeds, pollen and nectar. A bird feeder is not required but, again, these are fun to make and a special delight when you see them being used. We put up a trumpet vine that has transformed our dated, 50’s-era columns and turned them into things of real beauty. And guess what — we saw our first hummingbird about three weeks ago! One darted by while I was working on this article just awhile ago. I guess we hadn’t seen them before since they had no where to go.

As you see, it really can be done with a minimum of time and money. Of course, you can really go wild and there are many houses in our neighborhood with majestic flower beds, verdant mounds of greenery and a variety of bird houses and feeders. If you’re like me, however, and you don’t have the time or skill to take it to that degree, don’t be ashamed to take it slow and keep it simple. The rewards may well surprise you and, I believe, you’ll be doing one of the best things you can do to help wildlife and keep your family connected with nature.

Lucas is a professional children’s author and songwriter from Austin, Texas. He recently released a DVD, called “Animals Rock,” which is available on his website.

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