Create a wildlife habitat in your backyard

on May 07, 2011 at 3:00 AM, updated May 07, 2011 at 6:51 AM
0507fwild.JPGMichael Flusche weeds near the waterfall in his Lancaster avenue home. A source of water is one of the criteria to be designed as a Wildlife Habitat by the National Wildlife Federation.

Michael and Grace Flusche were staying in a bed-and-breakfast in Washington, D.C., when they noticed a green and tan metal sign announcing that the inn's small urban yard was a Certified Wildlife Habitat.

"We came back, looked it up and said, 'We can do that,'" Michael Flusche said.

"It really came down to good husbanding of the earth. That seemed a compelling reason to do it."

A year later, the Flusches have a sign of their own, hung on a wood fence in the yard of their home on Lancaster Avenue in Syracuse's University neighborhood.

The signs are a program of the National Wildlife Federation, which has declared May "Garden for Wildlife Month."

The goal of the program is to replace some of the habitat that has been destroyed by commercial and residential development. As land is developed, woods and meadows become lawns and wildflowers and weeds are replaced by flower beds. Native species that provide food for wildlife are replaced by ornamental trees and shrubs.

To be certified, a habitat must provide food, water, cover and a place for wildlife to raise their young.

"Water can be simply a bird bath," said Janet Allen, whose Westvale yard has been certified for nearly a decade.

"I think the idea is once you get started, you will continue and become more aware that we depend on ecosystems more than we realize."

The Flusches turned to Vicky Hilleges, owner of Pippi's Perennials in Kirkville, to help design their garden.

"I chose plants for continuous blooms that would provide nectar, pollen, fruit and berries throughout the season," Hilleges said.

The Flusches reduced the size of their lawn to make way for the garden border, which includes viburnum, a flowering shrub; ninebark shrubs; serviceberry; ostrich ferns; and daylilies, which draw butterflies.


The serviceberry is a big hit with the birds, Flusche said, as is the small waterfall and stream they had installed.

"There's no way of documenting the increase, but the bird population is up considerably," he said. "When they get into the stream and splash around, it's really nice to watch," he said.

The Flusches cut the number of annuals they grow, but have not eliminated them in favor of native perennials. They grow impatiens by the garage, where nothing else will grow.

There's one category -- shelter -- that Flusche said he wishes they were doing more.

"We need to make a more dense cover, perhaps by piling some brush behind the dogwood tree," he said.

Allen recommends evergreen trees and shrubs as an easy way to provide cover to protect wildlife from severe weather and predators.

"I have a photograph of a chickadee sitting inside a shrub, and you can see how protected it is," she said.

"There's so much value in having native trees and shrubs," she said. "And how much work is a tree or shrub?"

The application fee to have a habitat certified is $20 and the sign costs $30.

"It's on the honor system," Allen said. "No one comes around and checks."

Flusche said he is "encouraged by the number of people who see the sign and want to do the same thing."

"It may seem a bit pretentious. It's not a wildlife preserve. We don't have lions and bears," he said.

"But it's a nice thing to do."

As part of the promotion marking May as Garden for Wildlife Month, the National Wildlife Federation will plant a tree for anyone whose yard is certified wildlife-friendly. Nearly 140,000 sites around the country have been certified as wildlife habitats.

The federation's guidelines for creating a wildlife-friendly yard:

Provide food

Planting native forbs (any herbaceous plant that is not a grass), 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


Create cover


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, such as wildflower meadows and bushes where many butterflies and moths lay their eggs or caves where bats roost and form colonies.

Let your garden go green


Source: National Wildlife Federation,