# Your Backyard Jungle - Make It A Natural Wildlife Environment



## SeaBreeze

Making your backyard into a natural wildlife environment...


Quote:

*Your Backyard Jungle*

A National Wildlife Federation program promotes natural environs at home.

*By Jodi Helmer*
April 2012







Instead of setting traps or screeching in fear when she sees possums, mice and snakes in her backyard, Martha Crotty feels a sense of accomplishment. 

“We love animals and wanted to make sure our yard was a good habitat for wildlife,” she says. 

Her commitment to providing a natural environment for wild animals led Crotty to turn the backyard of her Asheboro, North Carolina, home into a Certified Wildlife Habitat in 2006. 

The National Wildlife Federation introduced the program in 1973 to combat the impact of development on wildlife habitats. Since the program’s inception, the group has certified 150,000 wildlife habitats in the US, 125,000 of them between 2000 and 2011.

“The program helps wildlife but it also helps connect people to nature,” explains NWF naturalist David Mizejewski. “People get certified because they care about wildlife and like to feel like they are part of a bigger movement and cause.”

Crotty hung several birdfeeders and placed a birdbath in the garden. Instead of hauling yard waste to the curb, she piles cut brush in one corner of the yard to provide a shelter for wildlife. These simple steps, combined with planting native species and eschewing chemical fertilizers, allowed her to attract a range of animals—including turtles, birds, raccoons, squirrels and snakes—to her yard.

Full story here: http://energytimes.com/pages/departm...tters1204.html


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## That Guy




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## Vivjen

My sentiments exactly, TG; and I have two!


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## Ina

Viv, You have tigers? I love to "watch" large cats. :hide:


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## Capt Lightning

SeaBreeze,  I try to make my garden as wildlife friendly as possible.  I'm also surrounded by fields and I'm only a few miles from the sea. 

This is one of the few places in Britain where you have native Red Squirrels.  Occasionally we see them in the village.

[URL="http://s287.photobucket.com/user/Capt_lightning/media/redsquizzle_zps250ffc36.jpg.html"][IMG]http://i287.photobucket.com/albums/ll123/Capt_lightning/redsquizzle_zps250ffc36.jpg[/URL][/IMG]


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## maxHR

My Backyard jungle:


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## lonelynorthwind

Wanna see my backyard jungle?  That's all wild blueberry brush, gives me about 10 gallons of berries every year.  



Another sign that springtime is here,  my resident doe is back to trim the blueberry brush but she's shy today. She's been using my place for a nursery the past 4 years.  She usually has two but she only had this little guy last year.


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## Ina

What a lovely scene and scenery to spend your time looking at. To be able to relax and feel the wonder you live in is to be blessed.


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## lonelynorthwind

I know, Ina.  Seems the world's become so crowded, noisy and rushed, not a day goes by I don't wonder how I got to be so blessed to live in the middle of "nowhere"


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## Ina

Northwind, My French Canadian grandfather owned a small airline that ferried people and supplies all over. He used to write to me about his life there, and about the wonders he saw.  He said you couldn't even dream of how beautiful Alaska was. He said it was endlessly challenging.


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