In order to educate residents about wildlife and to increase wildlife habitat in DC, the Fisheries & Wildlife Division has instituted a backyard wildlife habitat education program.

This program will help you understand the role that your yard and land can play as habitat for wildlife, and show you how to make your property a more attractive place for birds, butterflies and many other types of wildlife.

We hope to help property owners manage their land to create good wildlife habitat in a way that is aesthetically pleasing and helps build community. The program will include educational and hands-on workshops starting in spring 2009 and a certification program under which participants will be able to register their property as wildlife habitat and have it certified under a volunteer-administered certification program.

This program will help to implement the DC Wildlife Action Plan by reducing threats to wildlife and increasing wildlife habitat on private land in the city.

More information about backyard wildlife habitat can be found ot Audubon At Home, the National Wildlife Federation Backyard Habitat Program, and the Chesapeake Conservation Landscaping Council.