Create a Certified Wildlife Habitat

photo by Craig Smith



Why Garden For Wildlife?
Watching wildlife in action can be fun and relaxing for everyone. Your habitat may attract beautiful songbirds, butterflies, frogs, and other interesting wildlife for viewing from your very own window.
Replacing grass lawns with native wildflowers, shrubs, and trees will increase the beauty of your property and provide a nurturing refuge for wildlife.
Restoring habitats where commercial and residential development have degraded natural ecosystems can be your way of giving back to wildlife.
Gardening practices that help wildlife, like reducing the use of chemicals, conserving energy and water, and composting also help to improve air, water and soil quality.
Gardening for wildlife can help you share your love of wildlife with your neighbors and help them get involved in creating a home for wildlife.

All species of wildlife need the basics of food, water, cover and places to raise young.


from the National Wildlife Federation http://www.nwf.org/backyard/

NatureServe



NatureServe is a non-profit conservation organization whose mission is to provide the scientific basis for effective conservation action. NatureServe and its network of natural heritage programs are the leading source for information about rare and endangered species and threatened ecosystems.
NatureServe represents an international network of biological inventories—known as natural heritage programs or conservation data centers—operating in all 50 U.S. states, Canada, Latin America and the Caribbean. Together we not only collect and manage detailed local information on plants, animals, and ecosystems, but develop information products, data management tools, and conservation services to help meet local, national, and global conservation needs. The objective scientific information about species and ecosystems developed by NatureServe is used by all sectors of society—conservation groups, government agencies, corporations, academia, and the public—to make informed decisions about managing our natural resources.
One of NatureServe’s Goals is to help make biodiversity a mainstream consideration in all significant conservation and natural resource management decisions by making it simple for conservationists, government agencies, corporations, and landowners to access and use high-quality biodiversity information.
NatureServe carries on a legacy of conservation work that began when The Nature Conservancy helped to establish the first state natural heritage program in 1974. Over the next two decades The Nature Conservancy and a collection of public and private partners built a network of natural heritage programs in the United States to collect and manage data about the status and distribution of species and ecosystems of conservation concern.
As this network expanded to include Canada and Latin America, natural heritage programs became the recognized source for the most complete and detailed information on rare and endangered species and threatened ecosystems, relied upon by government agencies, corporations, and the conservation community alike. Today the NatureServe network includes 74 independent natural heritage programs and conservation data centers throughout the Western Hemisphere, with some 800 dedicated scientists and a collective annual budget of more than $45 million.
NatureServe, the membership organization for this network, was established in 1994 and was originally known as the Association for Biodiversity Information. By 2001, the organization had grown and evolved into its present form. The Nature Conservancy, which since the 1970s had provided scientific and technical support to the network, transferred this role to NatureServe, along with professional staff, databases, and responsibility for the scientific standards and procedures under which the network operates. NatureServe is headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, with regional offices in four U.S. locations and in Canada.




Every Day is Mothers Day.
Celebrate Mother Earth!:)

Some lines from the song "Let There Be Peace On Earth":
Let there be peace on earth.
The peace that was meant to be.
Let me walk with my brother.
In perfect harmony....
Let peace begin with me
Let this be the moment now.
With every step I take
Let this be my solemn vow.
To take each moment
And live each moment
With peace eternally.
Let there be peace on earth
And let it begin with me.