The layweeders and green team encourage everyone to learn about how to a backyard sanctuary for wildlife. Details are on the poster at the West entrance, with application forms, too. This program has been created by the National WIldlife Federation to promote the health and wellbeing of wildlife, which includes aquatic life (and eventually human life, as well). It is designed to be easily accessible; it's been around for and costs only a $15 one-time fee. The program began in 1973: here, lightly edited, is what NWF says about it
Certify Now! Natural places--and the plants and animals that inhabit them--face ever-increasing pressure from human activity. Few places left on Earth are unaffected by our actions.
As a result, habitat loss is the number-one threat to wildlife today; and urban run-off, one of the primary dangers to aquatic life.
Choosing "conventional" landscaping options-- dominated by cultivated lawn, ornamental plants, and dependence on chemicals and supplemental watering--results in disturbing the balance of the ecosystem and banishing wildlife from the land we once shared.
We can, however, choose to create landscapes that help restore the ecological balance, and allow watersheds and lake waters to run clean.
To demonstrate this, in April 1973 the National Wildlife Federation ran an article in the April 1973 encouraging people to landscape and garden in a more sustainable, natural way, with wildlife in mind.
Response to the article was so overwhelming that NWF began the Certified Wildlife Habitat™ program that same year. Since that time, the practice of natural landscaping has grown in popularity.
You will learn how to restore wildlife habitat in your own yard, balcony, workplace or even your entire community. Once you create your habitat, submit an application and get your yard certified as one of thousands around the country and the world; and receive a handsome certificate that designates your property as part of the NWF's national registry.
You will be saving a place for wildlife right in your own backyard and community, while opening your eyes to the natural world around you, to be nourished by its wonders.