Okay, so this might seem cheesy to some of you but we thought this was pretty darn cool: turns out our property meets the criteria as a Certified Wildlife Habitat™ through the National Wildlife Federation.
What that means is our little 1.8 acres provides these basic elements to attract wildlife and restore wildlife habitats:
Food: Shrubs, trees that provide nectar, pollen, berries, seeds and nuts. And incorporating supplemental feeders and food sources.
We have loads of red & black raspberry bushes, blackberry bushes, wild strawberries, blueberry bushes, apple trees, wildflowers, tiger lilies, and we have a bird feeder!
Water Supply: a clean water source such as pond, lake, river, spring, creek, wetlands; or human-made water features such as bird baths, ponds, or rain gardens.
We have two creeks, which border our property on each side - one is Buffalo Creek, the other is a run-off for Buffalo Creek!
Shelter: native vegetation, shrubs, thickets, brush piles and downed/dead trees.
Untouched woodland area surrounds around property, included thickets, brush piles, vegetation, and dead trees!
A Place To Raise Young: a sheltered place to raise offsprings such as meadows, bushes, caves.
We have bushes and meadows - where we have seen deer laying down in!
Sustainable Maintenance Practices: reduced chemical use, composting, mulching, etc - how you maintain your yard and gardens has an important effect on the health of the soil, air, water, and habitat for wildlife.
We have a compost pile, grow our herbs/veggies/berries organically, hardly use chemicals, and much!
We have seen a plethora of wildlife here - it's really awesome to observe and watch them, and be able to live along side of them! We've seen deer (they come right into the middle of our lawn at nighttime during Fall & Winter because we leave old produce out for them to eat), fox, squirrels, raccoons, turkeys, birds of all assortments (my favorites are the Cardinals - they sing a really pretty song & our gorgeous to boot!), rabbits, toads, frogs, minnows, butterflies, moths, dragonflies, and more.
We are truly blessed to be able to give "Bean" the opportunity to grow up in this kind of setting, and to be able to nurture a love of God's creations, nature and wildlife right in our own backyard!
But, no matter where you live you can make an impact on wildlife habitat! Even when we lived in the city of Tonawanda we had a vegetable garden, berry patch, apple tree, compost pile and practiced sustainable gardening.
So... What are you doing at your home to minimize your footprint and encourage wildlife habitat??
Even the smallest changes can have a big impact on wildlife!
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