tips for tuesday creating a certified wildlife habitat

Kay Berry is just one of those people.  You know the kind.  You just feel better about the world in general after you've had the honor of their company.  Her Northwest Austin home, shared by her husband, Randy, and their precious dog, Gabby, is as inviting to people, as it is to the wildlife that call her home, theirs.  

Mrs. Berry has devoted time and sweat equity to her beautiful gardens and the wildlife it attracts, in the process creating a National Wildlife Federation Certified Wildlife Habitat.  And as lush and simply gorgeous as is the Berry home, the corner you call home can just as easily be certified.  (Or, in the case of yours truly, certifiable)  It's really not as complicated to do so as one might think.  To be a Certified Wildlife Habitat, the National Wildlife Federation requires four simple steps, below:

Supply Water for Wildlife

Wildlife need clean water sources for many purposes, including drinking, bathing and reproduction. Water sources may include natural features such as ponds, lakes, rivers, springs, oceans and wetlands; or human-made features such as bird baths, puddling areas for butterflies, installed ponds or rain gardens.

Create Cover for Wildlife

Wildlife require places to hide in order to feel safe from people, predators and inclement weather. Use things like native vegetation, shrubs, thickets and brush piles or even dead trees.

  

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

Ready...Set...Certify!

Once you have provided these essential elements to make a healthy and sustainable wildlife habitat, join the thousands of wildlife enthusiasts across the country who have earned the distinction of being part of NWF's Certified Wildlife Habitat^®program.  

A hearty thanks to Mrs. Berry for sharing her lovely home and gardens with us.  She makes it look effortless!

For more information about certifying your own landscape as a wildlife habitat, visit National Wildlife Federation at nwf.org.