The Challenge —- Increase NHC Wildlife Certified Habitats by 30%
The Gardening for Wildlife Committee of the Cape Fear Garden Club strives to assist club members and the members of the community by providing ideas for creating the essentials that are necessary to attract wildlife to their property. The National Wildlife Federation explains the complete process on their website that individuals should follow to establish a healthy habitat and to become a “Certified Wildlife Habitat” at https://www.nwf.org.
In 2019, Frances and Jim Parnell’s home and garden was especially chosen to showcase a Certified Wildlife Habitat on the 2020 Azalea Garden Tour. The goal was to educate the public by example as to what it entails to have a Certified Wildlife Habitat. The Gardening for Wildlife Committee worked alongside Frances and Jim cleaning, planting, and organizing in preparation for the April 2020 tour. Unfortunately, Covid-19 occurred, and the tour was canceled.
Never one to waste a good opportunity, the committee decided to create a video of the Parnell property illustrating the various requirements of certification. Using information provided by the NWF and personal expertise, presentations were created. A professional videographer was found to direct the action and edit the finished video. After many starts and stops due to cold, wet Spring weather, the video is ready to be downloaded to the Cape Fear Garden Club’s YouTube channel. The video will also be viewable on the club’s website, www.capefeargardenclub.org. We hope the videos will be helpful to those eager to have their outdoor space a Certified Wildlife Habitat.
The Gardening for Wildlife committee would like to CHALLENGE club members to help us increase the number of areas certified, either public or private in New Hanover County, by 30% in the 2021-2022 year. According to our calculations to reach this goal, we will need approximately 104 additional areas certified!!
The Gardening for Wildlife Committee for 2021-2022 needs to update our current information in the club yearbook as to how many club members’ properties or public areas are recognized by National Wildlife Federation as “Certified Wildlife Habitat”. If your property is certified and NOT currently listed in the CFGC yearbook, or if you have had a new area certified, please send your name or the name of the public space to deloreshawes@yahoo.com so we can update the list for the new yearbook. This will count toward our goal of a 30% increase in certifications. If you wish to have your space certified go to nwf.org/certify and follow the steps described to submit the information about your outdoor space. We sincerely hope that our video will help with inspirations for establishing a welcoming, nurturing home for wildlife.
We are more than happy to help with questions and resources,
Gardening for Wildlife Committee