City staff is seeking to recognize and cultivate a dozen otherwise unnoticed plant and animal species under the new Backyard Habitat Program introduced by the city’s Planning and Economic Development Department in May.
Bowie resident Gary Allen is one of a growing number of urban gardeners participating in the program and a small pond serves as the heart of his habitat, attracting insects, raccoons, groundhogs, hawks and other birds and even deer. For resident Maria Arnold a solitary bee house is one place in her Bowie garden for animals to flourish and fellow Bowie resident Maureen Fine grows milkweed in her backyard for monarch butterflies to eat.
These backyard features are aesthetically pleasing, Fine said, but they also serve to meet qualifications for certification as a backyard habitat, such as a food and water source, by the National Wildlife Federation. Registration as a backyard habitat with the NWF costs $15 and qualifies residents to be considered similarly by the city.
The backyard habitat program is the third of 12 action plans outlined in Bowie’s Environmental Infrastructure Action Strategy Plan, which was approved by the City Council in September with a goal of conserving and restoring the natural environment.
Senior Planner Elizabeth Chaisson said the aim of the program is to encourage residents to replace turf in their yards with native plants such as Virginia Creeper in order to decrease lawn mowing and thus reduce carbon emissions and improve air quality.
Additionally, the native plants are more drought resistant and conserve water as well as absorb storm water runoff. ‘‘Most backyards would probably meet the criteria without doing much of anything,” she said.
The stated goal in the Backyard Habitat Program action plan is to have a minimum of 150 lots certified by 2012. Chaisson said before the program officially started, 41 Bowie residents were NWF-certified.
Arnold said after a May meeting in which she, Allen and Fine helped introduce the program to a group of 10 residents, she heard from a couple of people who ‘‘were really jazzed about doing the certifications.”
She said the current number of registered residents is yet to be determined as applications with the NWF are pending. All Saint’s Church as well as Rockledge and High Bridge Park Elementary Schools are working towards certifications for their properties, she said.
Allen, who directs the Center for Chesapeake Communities in Annapolis, has been certified through the Wild Acres program run through the Maryland Department of Natural Resources since the early 1990s. He has become an advocate for Bowie’s program that also accepts certifications from programs such as Wild Acres.
For residents just starting their habitat, Fine suggested they start with a small native plant and watch how it grows before building a more complex garden.
An NWF habitat steward volunteer who has been cultivating her backyard for many years, Arnold now hosts herbaceous plants, trees, perennials and nectar plants for butterflies and hummingbirds.
Another presentation through the city will not be held until 2009, Chaisson said, but a brochure about the program will be delivered to all new residents, and she will soon send out a newsletter to certified residents who also receive a magazine from the NWF.
For more information about starting a backyard habitat, visit NWF.org. A booklet about native plants in Prince George’s County is available through the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission Web site.
