Backyard Wildlife Habitat - in Los Angeles!

 

By Ileene Andersen, CNPS Southern California Regional Botanist

 

Sometime near the beginning of 2003, I happened to read an article in the Los Angeles Times about a family who were getting cited by a city south of mine, for “unsightly weeds” in their front yard.  Turns out, this family was made up of two biologists and their kids and their yards were landscaped in California native plants – not “unsightly weeds”.  Furthermore, their yard was certified by the National Wildlife Federation as an official Backyard Wildlife Habitat.  The city backed off on their citation and another “score” for native plants/habitat was heralded in the Times!

 

Well that got me thinking about my own yard, made up of a handkerchief-sized backyard, and a steep-sloping hillside that is planted (and cleared judiciously) for fire.  Needless to say, as an ardent admirer of native plants, my “yards” have been “restored” to native plants found in the general area through the years.  The slope is functioning as a primarily self-sustaining native patch (no irrigation is needed, but we still trim the sugar bushes, laurel sumacs, toyon and Matilija poppy for fire).  Our backyard has drip irrigation which I use judiciously during the summer in some areas. We have a lovely old California walnut (Juglans californica var. californica) that lived here prior to the house and deck.  It is the focal feature of all the yards, providing the house/yards southwest shade in the summer, and light and warmth in the winter when it is deciduous - not to mention perches and food for a variety of critters.

 

We have installed two water features.  A “quiet” pond, which gets topped off by the hose occasionally, has emergent cattails which allow for dragon- and damsel fly habitat. I have floating board as a “raft” for thirsty birds, and am currently incorporating a “beach” for smaller birds/insects to access the water safely.  Our “noisy” pond is a water dribble down a rock face on our patio, collecting into a reservoir at the bottom.  Hummingbirds use the vertical falls as a water/bathing source.  We also have a bird bath under a toyon, three feeders (seed feeder, hummingbird feeder and a “suet” cage) and two bird houses.  Because we live at the top of a rocky ridge, rocks are plentiful, and I have several rock piles placed amongst the planting areas – our lizards love them. Of course I’ve planted bird/butterfly supportive native plants too.  I haven’t used herbicides/pesticides for years because it puts the yards out of balance.  In fact, we’ve had fewer argentinian ants simply by reducing/eliminating irrigation in the yard.

 

In reflecting on our yard, I realized that it too was providing some type of wildlife habitat, and I was inspired to check out the certification requirements for becoming a Backyard Wildlife Habitat.  I went to their website www.nwf.org/backyardwildlifehabitat/  and found that this certification program has been going on for over 30 years! They certify all types of property, based on the ability of that property to provide appropriate habitat for the critters that occur there.  Properties include schoolyards, community gardens, neighborhoods, individual houses and more.  For California, the list of recommended plants for habitat is a very homogenous and it is quite inferior to our infinitely more extensive and pertinent CNPS’ guide to landscaping species in the Santa Monica Mountains. 

 

The application for certification was also available at the site, so I printed it out  and looked at the requirements.  In order to fill out the application, I had to document my “yard’s” acreage, photograph the “yards”, document the species that occur on the property (I know the plants and keep a bird list) and fill out the certification application.  So, after a couple of hours, I sent off my certification application and $15 evaluation fee to the National Wildlife Federation, and waited. 

 

A couple of months later, we received our certification!  Once certified, we could order a Backyard Wildlife Habitat plaque for an additional $18 – that fit into the budget!  So now, while my neighbors display their “security” signs in their front yards, our yard proudly displays our Backyard Wildlife Habitat sign.  I’m hoping that some of our neighbors will be curious and ask about our sign, but that hasn’t happened yet. 

 

For me, it is sufficient to know that even my little spot in the middle of the big megalopolis of the greater Los Angeles area, is still an integral part of supplying habitat to the creatures whose ancestors have lived or migrated through here since the last ice age!  In the broader context, any well-designed yard can provide health and habitat to all critters, including our kind.  This tiny step in fact may be critical for conservation of our unique habitat here in California.

 

I had fun doing this project, it took very little of my time/resources out of my busy schedule.  If you want more information on how to do it, please visit the National Wildlife Federation’s website and together, we can weave a web of habitat across southern California!