Falls Church City Backyard Habitats

The Backyard Wildlife Habitat program is the National Wildlife Federation's (NWF's)
nationwide education program that provides homeowners with the information and tools
they need to transform ordinary back yard into a haven for local wildlife. In the City of Falls
Church, the wildlife we're trying to attract in our habitats is primarily birds, butterflies, bees
(for pollination), beneficial insects, and salamanders.

After you make the necessary changes to your yard, you can apply for certification with
NWF, and then optionally purchase an attractive sign for your yard. This will tell neighbors
and visitors that you care about maintaining the "healthy balance" that wildlife
needs to survive. An added benefit of Backyard Habitat is that it incorporates
watershed-friendly landscaping practices, helping our local watersheds stay clean and
healthy.

Components of a Backyard Wildlife Habitat

The main components of a Backyard Habitat include:

Food - This should come from berry- and seed-producing shrubs, trees, and other plants.
If you do not have enough of these when you're first starting out, you can supplement
your feeding with bird feeders; however, make sure you follow practices that discourage
rats from getting into your bird feeders (these include using no-mess seed blends and
storage of seed in gnaw-proof containers).

Water - All animals, birds, and even insects need water to survive. A moving water feature
(a fountain or dripping birdbath) is an absolute magnet for birds. In the summer months,
make sure you use Mosquito dunks to prevent mosquitoes from breeding in your birdbath.

Shelter and places to raise young - A brush pile, a rock pile, and evergreen shrubs and
trees provide good shelter for your backyard wildlife. In the spring, make sure you have
nesting boxes for birds to use for raising young.

Bayscaping and Backyard Habitats

In addition, creating a Backyard Habitat is an excellent opportunity to incorporate
watershed-friendly landscaping elements (also called "Bayscaping" for the benefits it
provides to our fragile Chesapeake Bay watershed) into your yard. Among other features,
bayscaping involves planting as many native trees, shrubs, and wildflowers as possible,
reducing or eliminating lawn areas (converting them to mulched beds or rain gardens
instead), reducing or eliminating impervious surfaces such as driveways and other paving,
and the addition of a rain barrel or cistern to catch rooftop runoff. Remember that your
Backyard Habitat and bayscaped yard does not need to happen all at once -- you can make
the transformation gradually over several years.

These types of practices, if implemented by enough homeowners, as well as by new
development projects in the City, would go along way to help manage stormwater and
avoid situations such as the Tripps Run flood plain issue!

Habitats in Falls Church City

Several residents of the City of Falls Church have already made their backyard habitats and
have been certified. Go to Wrenaissance to see an excellent website documenting a Falls
Church Backyard Habitat. If your backyard is already a certified Backyard Wildlife Habitat,
please email me or post information to the Falls Church City Environment Yahoo! Group.
Knowing how many backyard habitats are in the City is important to know when spreading
the word! Also, I'd like to have a Habitat Photo page of Falls Church habitats.

In December 2000, Reston, VA, became the third certified Community Habitat nationwide,
and the first in Virginia. In 2001, Arlington County registered with NWF to become a
certified Community Habitat after meeting goals for certification. After forming a committee
to coordinate the certification, setting goals for community certification, and drafting a
plan, The Arlington Community Wildlife Habitat project is now in the process of educating
its citizens on the value of Backyard Habitats and the restoration of natural areas. When
certified, Arlington will have 1,000 certified backyard habitats, as well as several schoolyard
habitats.

In August 2005, Falls Church City began the process of becoming a certified Community
Wildlife Habitat. Read more about this project at
http://Habitat.FallsChurchEnvironment.org.

Creating Your Backyard Habitat

If you haven't yet started your habitat, you can learn more about it from the NWF website.
Although I feel that their Habitat Starter Kit is overpriced for what you get at $25.00, they
have a new free online course called Creating Places for Wildlife. (This course will only be
free for a limited time).

The NWF site also has other great tools, such as finding lists of plants native to your area,
and identifying birds and other animals you might see in your habitat. I have some basic
NWF brochures about creating Backyard Habitats, along with certification applications.
Applying for certification costs $15, and a sign for your yard costs about $20.

What About Pests?

The most common response I get from people when I approach them about the possibility
of creating their own backyard habitat in Falls Church is, "I don't need more wildlife -- I
already have yard and garden pests!" To prevent mosquitoes, make sure you either dump
the water in your birdbath every 3-4 days or keep about a half of a Mosquito Dunk
(available at Brown's) in the birdbath and replace the dunk every month or so during the
summer months. A moving water feature, such as a fountain, also is less attractive to
mosquitoes (and birds love the sound of moving water!).

Also, remember that the Norway Rats that we have here are not the kind of "wildlife" we
want to attract in our habitats -- they are exotic pests that can't survive in the wild -- they
generally need to live near humans to get their sustenance. Most importantly, I find that
people who have habitats are more educated about how to prevent problems with rats and
other pests (such as mosquitoes) than people with "normal" yards.

Links to More Information

Websites:
National Wildlife Federation Backyard Habitat Program
Humane Society of the United States Urban Wildlife Sanctuary Program
National Zoo Backyard Biology -- Wildlife Gardening
Wild Ones
Wrenaissance

Books:
You can find all of these books at the Tyson's-Pimmit branch of Fairfax
Library. Unfortunately, I haven't found a great collection of natural/native
gardening books at the Mary Riley Styles Library.

Noah's Garden, Sara Stein. This is the book that will get you hooked on
natural gardening. If you are at all interested in this topic, you must read
this book!

Planting Noah's Garden, Sara Stein
The Natural Habitat Garden, Ken Druse
Easy Care Native Plants, Patricia Taylor
Wild Neighbors, John Hadidian and the Humane Society of the United States

Contact us for more information on how you can get involved with creating
Backyard Wildlife Habitats in Falls Church.