[Community_garden] Create a neighborhood wildlife habitat - Seattle, USA

[Don Boekelheide]

Pacific Northwest Sunday Magazine
Seattle Times
Seattle, Washington, USA

Feb 12,2007 

[Note: This is an interesting idea for community
gardening projects. db]

Going Wild:
One backyard at a time, our neighbors are saving
precious habitat

 
BY VALERIE EASTON
(in her online feature, PLANT LIFE)

ONE PARK, SCHOOLYARD and backyard at a time, Lake
Forest Park has achieved Community Wildlife Habitat
status. Only the third community in our state and the
21st in the nation to achieve such a designation,
leaders of the little city just north of Seattle were
so highly motivated they fast-tracked their way to
certification in just a couple of years. "On an aerial
map, Lake Forest Park is a wedge of forest cover
surrounded by urban sprawl," says Gretchen Muller in
the Seattle office of the National Wildlife
Federation. "They already had a deep conservation
ethic and were restoring salmon habitat."

"Plant it and they will come" could be the mantra of
the federation's program to preserve biodiversity.
Remember Joni Mitchell's lyrics "pave paradise and put
up a parking lot"? Communities have an effective
antidote to development right in their own backyards,
by encouraging good gardening practices like planting
natives and eschewing chemicals. This same ethos helps
preserve the watershed we all share.

Picture a network of native-rich gardens forming
wildlife-friendly corridors through our neighborhoods,
towns and cities. Birds, bees, butterflies and other
critters shelter, drink, eat, reproduce and navigate
through these urban greenways to safely reach our
dwindling natural areas. Muller applauds the Puget
Sound region as a national model in the quest to
preserve and restore habitat. With three certified and
five in the running, we have the greatest
concentration of communities dedicated to providing
wildlife-friendly habitat in the country.

And in case you ever doubt that one person can make
all the difference, it was the vision and energy of
Libby Fiene, who's lived in Lake Forest Park for 29
years, that set her city on the road to certification.
"I was hiking in the mountains and realized I could
garden with native plants," says Fiene, who says most
people in the city have been delighted to learn how to
eliminate lawn, use fewer chemicals and introduce
native plants into their landscape. Five parks, two
schools, a business and 160 backyards later, Fiene has
achieved her goal, helped along by the LFP Stewardship
Foundation, which was already restoring creeks and
salmon habitat throughout the city.

To participate, a community must first register with
the National Wildlife Federation. The program is
surprisingly flexible; communities can be
self-defined, which means you choose your own
boundaries ranging from a city block to the entire
city of Seattle. Two components are core to the
program. Every community needs a number of backyard
habitat gardens that provide food, water, cover and
shelter for native creatures. The schoolyard-habitat
component involves educating kids by creating outdoor
living classrooms. The number of points required for
certification varies with population size. For
example, a neighborhood of 1,000 people would need to
certify at least 20 backyards, two public spaces and
one school, among other requirements.

Lake Forest Park joins Tukwila and Camano Island as
the three certified communities in our state. Tukwila
led the way, achieving certification in 2002. Camano
Island boasts 560 backyard habitats and a network of
like-minded people working to promote a sustainable
environment. Bellingham, Alki, Fidalgo Island and Gig
Harbor are all registered and working their way toward
certification, which usually takes three to five
years.
To join the effort??To learn how to help make the
Pacific Northwest the first certified eco-region in
the nation, see www.nwf.org/backyardwildlifehabitat,
or call Gretchen Muller at 206-285-8707, ext. 107.
What's so powerful about the wildlife federation
program is that so many segments of the community join
in to achieve a common goal. The effect of backyard
habitats is greatly enhanced by the participation of
schools, businesses and municipalities. The city of
Lake Forest Park has joined the effort, reducing
pesticide and herbicide use along roadways and in the
parks to almost nil. "We're pretty vigilant about best
management practices in all our public areas," says
Tema Nesoff, who works with the LFP Parks Commission.
For Fiene, the value of the Community Wildlife Habitat
designation lies in communicating clearly to everyone
what her city is all about. And maybe it'll prevent
Lake Forest Park from suffering the all-too-common
realization that Mitchell warned of: "You don't know
what you've got 'til it's gone."

Valerie Easton is a Seattle freelance writer. Her
e-mail address is valeaston at comcast.net.

PHOTOCAPTION: Roger and Connie Olstad, walking Kobi,
are among the many volunteers helping restore wetlands
in the new Grace Cole Nature Park, one of five
certified Community Wildlife Habitats in Lake Forest
Park.

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