Evaluating the National Wildlife Federation's Certified Wildlife Habitat™ program: Fid-Bau Portal

Evaluating the National Wildlife Federation's Certified Wildlife Habitat™ program

Widows, Steffenie A. / Drake, David

Highlights • We evaluated the National Wildlife Federation's (NWF) Certified Wildlife Habitat™ program in the Orlando, Florida area. • NWF Certified yards provided more abundant and higher quality wildlife habitat relative to non-certified yards. • The NWF Certified Wildlife Habitat™ program needs to improve habitat connectivity between Certified yards and other larger blocks of habitat. • The presence of fencing was one of the biggest problems with the certified yards and contributes to a lack of habitat accessibility. • The NWF's Certified Wildlife Habitat™ program appears to be successful as an outreach program that encourages landowners to landscape and manage their property to benefit wildlife.

Abstract The National Wildlife Federation's (NWF) Certified Wildlife Habitat™ program strives to provide habitat for wildlife, primarily in human-dominated landscapes. The main objective of our research project was to determine if yards certified in the NWF's program offered wildlife habitat not available in non-certified yards in the same neighborhood. A second objective was to validate the applications of certified landowners by examining habitat listed on their certification application relative to what was available in their yard. Our project focused on neighborhoods within the greater Orlando, Florida metropolitan area. We visited 50 certified yards, 50 neighboring, non-certified yards, and 50 non-adjacent, non-certified yards in the same neighborhood. To evaluate the yards, we used an ecological check-list to determine the quality and quantity of wildlife habitat in each yard. Based on the results of our study, there were significant differences in both quality and quantity of habitat found in certified versus non-certified yards. The Certified Wildlife Habitat™ program is successful in that yards in the NWF program offer wildlife habitat that is not available in non-certified yards. However, our biggest recommendation for the NWF program is that it needs to have a larger, more contiguous landscape scope. Certified yards need to be adjacent, or in close enough proximity to one another that they can act as a contiguous landscape in and of themselves, but also have connection to and coordination with other larger blocks of habitat.