Guest Post By: Cyndi Lenz
So I was in Sarasota over Christmas and I took Barney for a walk. It wasn’t really a walk it was more like a stop, sniff, urinate, pull sort of exercise. It’s a good thing it was a short walk to the Bay or I may have never returned.
It was a cool area. It’s called Indian Beach/Sapphire Shores.
I saw this sign and I knew that my friends back in Jensen and many of my blogger friends would love this so I took a photo of it.
Maybe we can all do this together as a project and get a sign for our yards.
There’s been a lot building and destruction around us. Let’s make our yards a place where wild life can thrive.
Whether you have an apartment balcony or a 20-acre farm, you can create a garden that attracts beautiful wildlife and helps restore habitat in commercial and residential areas. By providing food, water, cover and a place for wildlife to raise their young you not only help wildlife, but you also qualify to become an official Certified Wildlife Habitat®.
How to Create a Wildlife-Friendly Garden
Provide Food for Wildlife
Everyone needs to eat! Planting native forbs, shrubs and trees is the easiest way to provide the foliage, nectar, pollen, berries, seeds and nuts that many species of wildlife require to survive and thrive. You can also incorporate supplemental feeders and food sources.
Supply Water for Wildlife
Wildlife need clean water sources for many purposes, including drinking, bathing and reproduction. Water sources may include natural features such as ponds, lakes, rivers, springs, oceans and wetlands; or human-made features such as bird baths, puddling areas for butterflies, installed ponds or rain gardens.
Create Cover for Wildlife
Wildlife require places to hide in order to feel safe from people, predators and inclement weather. Use things like native vegetation, shrubs, thickets and brush piles or even dead trees.
Give Wildlife a Place to Raise Their Young
Wildlife need a sheltered place to raise their offspring. Many places for cover can double as locations where wildlife can raise young, from wildflower meadows and bushes where many butterflies and moths lay their eggs, or caves where bats roost and form colonies.
Help Wildlife Thrive with Healthy Habitat
Wildlife thrives in a healthy habitat with the food sources appropriate to their ecosystem, clean water, and plants free from harmful chemicals. Practicing sustainable gardening with the use of native plants, water conservation, and not using pesticides or herbicides ensures wildlife abundance.
Ready…Set…Certify!
Once you have provided these essential elements to make a healthy and sustainable wildlife habitat, join the thousands of wildlife enthusiasts across the country who have earned the distinction of being part of NWF’s Certified Wildlife Habitat® program.
Cyndi Lenz
About Cyndi:
About Cyndi:
Psych Nurse Award Winning Documentary Filmmaker Vlogger Blogger Photographer Crazed River Warrior of the Indian River Lagoon.
