Creating a Certified Wildlife Habitat

We live on a four acre horse farm. It is in the middle of a national forest, located in Colorado at an elevation of about 8.500 feet. There are many wild animals that visit our farm. Some of which are Elk, Mule Deer, Mountain Lions, Coyotes, Ground Squirrels, rabbits and more. We had recently moved from Pennsylvania and were so excited about the wildlife in our backyard that we decided to work at getting our backyard certified as a wildlife habitat. All of the certification details that we have included below can be found in more detail at NWF Create a Certified Wildlife Habitat.

To begin our certification process we needed to make sure that we had the required food sources. Continue on to see the certification requirements for providing food and what food we are providing.

In order to meet the requirements for providing food, a habitat needs three food sources. These sources can be natural from plants. Examples would include seeds, berries, nectar, foliage, twigs, nuts, fruits, sap or pollen. If needed or desired supplemental feeders can be used. Supplemental feeders would include bird, squirrel, hummingbird and butterfly feeders. Due to our location, we were able to have all natural, native food sources.

Our menu begins with an assortment of wildflowers that provide both nectar and pollen. We have so many wildflowers that we are only going to make mention of our most notable wildflower. The wildflower that we have witnessed as a food source is the Indian Paint Brush. The humming birds feed from these flowers all day long. They also have stayed throughout the summer and are reappearing again for our fall. Next on our menu is the Rosa Woodsii. It is a good food source for birds and all sizes of mammals. The leaves are editable from spring to fall and berries are available from fall to winter. Our last item on the menu is pine cones. We have an assortment of pine cones all that produce seeds. Our pine cone assortment includes, Ponderosa Pine, Lodgepole Pine and the Colorado Blue Spruce. In our backyard these seeds are a favorite of the Steller's Jay.

A habitat needs only one water source to meet the requirements for providing water. This source will provide a place for wildlife to drink, bathe and in some cases reproduce. The water source can be natural or man-made. Examples of natural sources would include ponds, lakes, rivers, springs, oceans and wetlands. Man-made examples are bird baths, ponds, bogs and more. Due to our location, we are able to have a natural water source.

Got Water? Yes, we do! Our Colorado backyard is a stones throw away from a substantial stream, that is a feed for Boulder Creek. This stream provides water for Elk, Mule deer, Coyotes, Ground Squirrels, birds, and more. One more water source that we would like to mention is our horses water trough. While we are not counting this as our water source it has been a big hit with the Magpies. They love to drink from it and just hang out around the water.

I don't have any bird bath recommendations . I think you need to see them in person. Some bird baths are not very sturdy and some are too deep. Make sure you find a shallow, sturdy bath or you will always have problems. Also, if you are going to provide a bird bath during the winter you will want some type of heater.

What I can recommend is a natural bog, pond, marsh area. When we certified our yard in Pennsylvania we built one very similar to the specifications found at NWF's Stormwater Marsh.

Providing cover requires a certified habitat to have two places for wildlife to find shelter from the weather and predators. Some examples of good cover are wooded areas, dense shrubs, ground covers, rock piles, roosting boxes, evergreens, brush, log piles, burros, meadows, water gardens and ponds. We are lucky to have so many natural covers.

Our backyard is home to many small animals. We chose our covers for certification because these little animals seem to have many threats. They are in need of sturdy cover due to our extra violent storms. While the storms are bad, their number of predators are even worse. These small animals attract so many predators to our yard that we seem to have predator traffic consisting of coyotes, hawks, owls and mountain lions. The covers we chose to use for our certification are rock piles and an evergreen ground cover. Our rock piles are natural rock outcroppings that are very common in our mountain area. While these rocks provide cover for many animals it is a favorite of the ground squirrels. Our second cover is the Common Juniper, a natural, native evergreen ground cover. This seems to be a favorite for many of our birds and rabbits.

Two places are required for wildlife to raise their young. These places are needed keep young animals save from predators, bad weather and human intervention, while providing a space for reproduction, bearing and raising their young. It is often the case that what was provided to meet the requirements for cover also provides a place to support the life-cycle of a species. Some examples of providing a place to raise their young are mature trees, meadows, nesting boxes, wetlands, caves, host plants for caterpillars, dead tress, dense shrubs, water gardens, ponds, and burrows. Once again we have many natural places for animals to raise their young.

We have chosen to use mature trees and our rock outcroppings to meet our requirements. Our yard is full of mature trees. We have a variety of evergreen trees that include the Colorado Blue Spruce, Ponderosa Pines and Lodge Polls. We are also very lucky to have a grove of Aspens. These trees provide a safe place for our many birds to raise their young.

Green Gardening for you habitat requires two sustainable gardening practices. This is so important for the health of your habitat and the wildlife that visit and live there. Some examples of sustainable gardening practices are creating or maintaining a riparian buffer, capture rain water from roof, use soaker hose for irrigation, limit water use, reduce erosion, use mulch, remove non-native plants, use native plants, reduce lawn areas, eliminate chemical pesticides and fertilizers and compost. Green gardening is one of our favorite activities.

All of our gardening practices are green. The two sustainable gardening practices that we are going to use for certification, are ones that required us to do some work. Our first improvement was to remove non-native invasive plants. This was important to us because we want to support our local ecosystem and they often overgrow native species to the point of extinction. We are satisfying our second requirement with a rock garden. Due to our location, we are required to have a large fire barrier around our house. If this fire barrier is mowed it should be irrigated so that it does not become dry. Our solution to this is to create a barrier with a rock garden that is more rock than garden. We are adding plants that are native to our area, so not to require watering, and they are also fire resistant plants. This is a project that will take some time to complete.

You will need to complete a certification application and pay a processing fee. After you complete this step you will receive a certificate, membership that includes a subscription to the National Wildlife magazine, NWF discounts, and more. Once you complete your certification you will be able to purchase a Certified Wildlife Habitat Yard sign. For complete details check out NWF's Certify Your Wildlife Garden.

The image is one of the signs offered by NWF. This was the sign we had at our NWF certified habitat in Pennsylvania. It was the only one available at the time. See below for additional signs.