Backyard Habitat Certification Program

Natalie's yard in Milwaukie is an impressive transformation from standard lot to food forest and native haven! She has removed the grass from her entire property and it is absolutely bursting with berries - for people and for animals - and blossoms.

While she says it is all a work in progress, many native plants are already well established including snowberries, thimbleberry, blue elderberry, bleeding heart, and a diversity of ferns and spirea. Mixed into it all are pollinator water sources, bird houses, and bee boxes.

It has clearly been so much work but it's an inspiration. Congrats on your Silver certification, Natalie. We can't wait to see what you'll grow next!

Clackamas SWCD

WeedWise: A conservation program of the Clackamas SWCD

City of Milwaukie

Mara and Bob live in a great, older neighborhood in east Vancouver with huge fir trees. When they moved in about a dozen years ago, the front yard was lawn and some traditional ornamental shrubs. Mara was talking to their adult son about the environment and what they could do about that lawn she didn’t really like; that’s when he suggested the Backyard Habitat program.

Now the front is punctuated by whimsical art and has spacious pathways of deep bark chips with a wide variety of native plants in several islands. One bed has a thick stand of Douglas aster along with a variety of native grasses, and another bed has a lovely cascara with Oregon sunshine, evergreen huckleberry, snowbrush, Douglas spirea, birchleaf spirea, sword fern, and red-flowering currant. It has wonderful textures and colors which get them many compliments from people walking by.

Congratulations to Bob and Mara for creating a beautiful front yard habitat and earning Silver Certification Level! Your lovely yard will help this program spread in your neighborhood!

Clark County, WA

Vancouver, Washington City Government

David's yard in Tualatin features a beautiful summer dry river bed with disconnected downspouts forming a seasonal rain garden. He has created a peaceful woodland garden under a red cedar near the riverbed and has added yarrow, Douglas' aster and fireweed to create a pollinator meadow near the house and in the parking strips.

David worked diligently to remove ivy on and around the red cedar tree and creeping Jenny from the garden. In the woodland area, David has planted salmonberry, Oregon grape, redwood sorrel and sword ferns. Near the disconnected downspout, he has added Douglas' spirea, some Douglas aster, fireweed, common rush, kinnikinnick, birch-leaved spirea, snowberry and yarrow for more year round interest and to highlight the beautiful red-flowering currant and western azalea that are centerpieces of the area. He has plans to add a small native tree in the area to achieve all 5 canopy layers.

Great job, David, for creating such a beautiful habitat for both humans and wildlife. Congratulations on your Silver certification. We look forward to seeing what you'll do in the future!

Tualatin Soil and Water Conservation District

Aloha Resident Uses Backyard Habitat Program to Help Wildlife and Find Community

After working on her yard’s habitat for the past few years, Muffy Vasale’s native-friendly Aloha yard was officially certified by the Backyard Habitat Certification Program last summer. She is one of only 10 in Aloha to achieve the certification. The program didn’t just bring a healthier natural habitat to her home, it also helped her find much needed connection after having to start over after a series of great losses.

Full article from the Aloha Free Press here:
https://alohafreepress.substack.com/p/aloha-resident-uses-backyard-habitat

Terry, in SW Portland, has created a spectacular forested habitat. On a sensitive lands area, she's managed to prevent erosion at the same time ridding the property of invasive weeds. It's difficult to name just a few of the native plants she's chosen for her habitat: ponderosa pine, vine maples, cascara, western hemlock, goatsbeard, Douglas spirea, evergreen huckleberry, salmonberry, Oregon grape, oxalis, kinnikinnick, fringe cup, sword fern, bleeding heart.

Congratulations, Terry on exceptional work and your Gold certification. When are you having us over for afternoon tea?

Metro

Julie and Adam's yard in NE Portland has an inviting front yard where they've removed all of the grass to install a lovely a rain garden containing snowberry, ginger, yarrow, maidenhair fern and rose spirea. Within the thriving bushes a bird bath and bug nesting habitats can be found.

In the backyard, they proudly show off their Pacific madrone, which is surrounded by other native plants including tall and creeping Oregon grape, mock orange and kinnikinnick. Julie and Adam spent many years transforming their yard and it really shows.

Congratulations, Julie and Adam, on your Gold certification. You should be really proud of the gorgeous landscape you've created; the bees certainly enjoy it!

East Multnomah Soil & Water Conservation District

Nicholas began his habitat journey by removing blackberries and ivy from the perimeter of his oversized Milwaukie yard. He then did away with much of the tired lawn, and began to plant natives.

He had inherited a mature vine maple and a very large shrubby cinquefoil, to which he added madrones, a cascara, a Pacific dogwood, mock orange, ninebark, serviceberry, twinberry, snowberry, osoberry, oceanspray, ceanothus, Douglas spirea, red-flowering currant, Oregon grape, evergreen huckleberry, goatsbeard, swamp rose, red osier dogwood, sword and maidenhair ferns, Oregon sunshine, salal, checkermallow, kinnikinnick, oxalis, native bunchgrasses, vancouveria, wild ginger, fawn lily, gumweed, globe gillia, collomia, California poppy, and more.

The result is a lush mixture of mature ornamentals and a complex layering of blooms/bloom times, leaf shapes, sun and shade, with plentiful food, shelter and water for wildlife. Congratulations on your Gold certification, Nicholas!

Clackamas SWCD

WeedWise: A conservation program of the Clackamas SWCD

City of Milwaukie

🍁The Open Gardens Project is in its final stretch! A handful of dedicated hosts are still welcoming registered BHCP participants through mid-October, and these late-season visits can be some of the year's most rewarding. Fall habitat gardens have a magic all their own.

If you have been meaning to visit and haven't made it out yet, now is the time! Check the OGP webpage for remaining availability, and always check the schedule right before you go, since events can be canceled without notice. Not yet registered? This is your last chance to request access:
https://forms.fillout.com/t/6346nXVUhgus

Thank you to every host who opened their garden this season, and to every participant who took the time to visit. You make this community so special. 🌿

Melanie and Cass did a really nice job on creating habitat. The front yard displays many native plants, but the south and backyard are really full with both native plants and already medium tall trees. We were also able to watch an activity not very often seen with beetles.

The plants they have already installed are: honeysuckle, meadow rue, Nootka rose, oceanspray, Oregon geranium, heuchera, Canada golden rod, Douglas aster, Indian plum, mock orange, checkermallow, fringe cup, Pacific ninebark, red columbine, fawn lily, salal, common camas, milkweed, big leaf lupine, yellow monkeyflower, fireweed, California poppy, collomia, Oregon grape, serviceberry, clarkia, Western buttercup, cinquefoil, Pacific rhododendron, Oregon sunshine, twinberry, Pacific bleeding-heart, wild ginger, red-flowering currant, and more.

Melanie and Cass, congratulations on the well deserve PLATINUM certification. Great job on creating an amazing habitat.

The path-lined native and ornamental mixed garden in Shelly and James’s front yard holds just a hint of what they’ve created in the back. Gone is any hint of lawn (and creeping Jenny). All of that has been replaced by beautiful mixed native, ornamental, and edible plantings in borders and islands, surrounded by stone and gravel paths, a welcoming deck, and multiple tucked-away seating areas. Shelly and James have also created pergolas for shade and vining plants, as well as posts for bird houses and feeders.

Shelly has created an impressive spreadsheet to keep track of her plans, showing yard area, sun exposure, plant size, flowering or fruiting season, and more. Its pages list far too many plants to describe here! The range includes cascara, vine maple, and Pacific dogwood trees, and many large native shrubs such as blue elderberry, Pacific ninebark, mock orange, tall Oregon grape, serviceberry, Pacific rhododendron, and evergreen huckleberry. Dozens of native perennials provide three-season blooms that keep the yard humming with pollinator activity, and those are underscored by sword ferns, kinnikinnick, native grasses, and stonecrops for year-round foliage.

While the front yard alone would almost have attained Silver certification, the back yard takes this lovely habitat over the top to Gold. Congratulations, Shelly and James!

East Multnomah Soil & Water Conservation District