Certify Your Garden

The Benefits of Certifying Wildlife Habitat

• As you go through the process of certification, take a good look at all suggestions in the materials. You will discover many tips and ideas that you could easily add to your garden.
• Every small action you take can have major benefits for the critters in your area. The certification process will help you find many small actions that you can easily implement.
• The sign that announces that your garden is certified is not just about your pride. However, you should always be proud of your choices to protect wildlife. By doing just one thing, you have already done more than most people in this country. Congratulations! You are making a difference.
• But the sign is a very useful way to start conversations with your neighbors. Often when neighbors see your sign, they will ask you questions about what it means. This is the perfect way to begin to encourage them to make more positive choices, too. You can begin to teach all of your neighbors about the joys of sharing your space with birds, butterflies, pollinators amphibians, and other critters.
• And, finally, purchasing your sign is a great way of supporting these organizations who are doing great work in protecting wildlife.

Garden Certification Programs Available

Monarch Waystation – Monarch Watch – Creating a Monarch Waystation can be as simple as adding milkweeds and nectar sources to existing gardens or maintaining natural habitats with milkweeds. No effort is too small to have a positive impact. By creating and maintaining a Monarch Waystation you are contributing to monarch conservation, an effort that will help assure the preservation of the species and the continuation of the spectacular monarch migration phenomenon.

Yard by Yard – Oklahoma Association of Conservation Districts – This program highlights community members who implement practices that promote water, land and ecology resiliency and positively impact their communities “Yard by Yard,” one at a time.

Wildscapes – Oklahoma Department of Wildlife – The Oklahoma Wildscapes Certification Program recognizes individuals and businesses who have considered the needs of wildlife through their landscape design. See step #10 for certification instructions.

Certified Wildlife Habitat – The National Wildlife Federation – Anyone can create a welcoming haven for local wildlife. Turning your yard, balcony container garden, schoolyard, work landscape, or roadside greenspace into a Certified Wildlife Habitat® is fun, easy, and can make a lasting difference for wildlife.