Backyard Habitat Certification Program

Wendi was fortunate to find one of the larger Cully Neighborhood properties several years ago. The property came with some well established ornamentals, an assortment of natives, and a Silver level certification. Her yard is divided into sunny patches for fruits, vegetables, and herbs, and plenty of shady areas for ornamental rhododendrons and other natives like evergreen huckleberry and Oregon grape. The previous plantings have matured extremely well, especially with the surface water table being so available. Unfortunately they had some water damage back in December, and have had to excavate their yard a bit to remedy the situation. But the natives love it.

With abundant moisture, Wendi is able to grow sedges and even coltsfoot, along with giant red osier dogwood, and moisture loving trees like grand fir, Western red cedar, and Western hemlock in her backyard rain garden. The result of her water table being so high, is that other moisture loving perennials feel right at home. There are seaside daisies, fringe cup. salal, an assortment of ferns, iris, currants, and spirea and even an ash, throughout the front and back yards.

Despite the ground work, and seasonal slump (we visited in early March), Wendi's yard shows dedication to naturescaping and wildlife habitat restoration. She certainly deserves her Gold level Certification award, achieving 10% over what is needed. With 26% naturescaped, she is well on her way to Platinum level, as she continues to replace overgrown and damaged ornamentals, with new hardy natives. Wendi's yard is a perfect example of using what you have been given to the best of your ability, like wet clay soils, and making improvements by adding mulch, compost and a variety of moisture and shade loving native plants. We can hope for a tour in the future.

East Multnomah Soil & Water Conservation District

Patrick and Amber’s Hillsboro yard is a wonderful example of embracing the natural elements that make their yard unique and beautiful.

The front yard gets full sun and boasts an amazing food garden with vegetable beds, fruit trees and, of course, some native plants like yarrow, self-heal and red-flowering currant. Their backyard is an amazing shady oasis of mature Douglas fir trees with a steep slope to a natural wet area.

They have planted so many new plants it’s hard to list them all. In the upper area they’ve added tall Oregon grape, osoberry, oxalis, bleeding heart, beaked hazelnut, western hemlocks, vine maples, big leaf maples, a variety of ferns and much more. In the lower, wet area they’ve added Pacific waterleaf, red twig dogwood, Douglas spirea, Hooker’s willow, fringecup, wild ginger, streambank violets and uncovered horsetail and skunk cabbage!

Patrick and Amber, congratulations on your Silver certification! You have done an incredible job of reclaiming your wonderful yard from pesky weeds and creating an amazing habitat to enjoy nature. We look forward to visiting your yard in the future and seeing how everything matures and grows.

Tualatin Soil and Water Conservation District

City of Hillsboro - Local Government

Congratulations Jayne and Nate, our recent Silver certified participants of the Highland neighborhood! Jayne had thought about entering the program for awhile and was motivated to get going now. Turns out, she had already done enough to get a Silver certification at her first visit!

Jayne and Nate attended workshops about the Emerald Ash Borer's impact on our native ash trees, and have taken steps to protect the ashes that line their backyard planting area. They have added native understory for these trees, including vine maple, evergreen huckleberry, goatsbeard, redwood sorrel, and snowberry. They're also prepared to consider giving their trees the dignity in their aging and death of transforming into snags to benefit woodpeckers, nuthatches, and other birds. They have a sunny and dry front yard where Friends of Trees have planted two Oregon white oaks as their long-term plan for shading the front. Stroll by in a few years and you might see the prairie plants that love building oak savanna planted around these trees!

Tualatin Soil and Water Conservation District

Beaverton City Government