Backyard Habitat Certification Program

Backyard Habitat Certification Program Plant Roots, Create a Habitat, Transform the World...One Yard at a Time. Banner photo credit: Peter Stevens
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Blanka has lived in her Pleasant Valley area home in Southeast Portland since 2022. Located in the Johnson Creek watersh...
08/29/2026

Blanka has lived in her Pleasant Valley area home in Southeast Portland since 2022. Located in the Johnson Creek watershed, the home is situated on a steep east to west slope and shaded by large Deodar cedar trees as well as a Norway maple in the southern area of the backyard. Blanka and her husband have put in a huge amount of work over the last three years, removing ivy that was covering the entire west side of the backyard and a butterfly bush on the east side. The backyard also has a small pond in the southeast corner which attracts many species of wildlife. The pond is home to a charming Northern Red Legged Frog named Jules who was kind enough to make an appearance during the certification visit!

Blanka has radically transformed the backyard in a short time by removing ornamentals and invasive weeds and adding close to 150 native plants covering over 50 different species including few-flowered shooting star, western trillium, ookow, goatsbeard, littleleaf miner's lettuce, thimbleberry, Roemer's fescue, swamp rose, salal, vanilla leaf, kinnikinnick, oceanspray, piggyback plant, hairy honeysuckle, bunchberry, licorice fern, red osier dogwood, three vine maple trees, and more.

Blanka went above and beyond to create a habitat that will continue to grow and thrive in coming years and will no doubt continue to usher in many wild creatures to join Jules. Congratulations to Blanka and her husband Isaac on their three year journey that led them to a Gold certification and over 60% naturescaped haven for wildlife!

East Multnomah Soil & Water Conservation District

Becky's yard in the Blue Heron neighborhood of Lake Oswego is naturescaped beautifully and is an absolute haven for bird...
08/28/2026

Becky's yard in the Blue Heron neighborhood of Lake Oswego is naturescaped beautifully and is an absolute haven for birds and wildlife. Anchored by magnificent Western red cedars, there are many red twig dogwoods and evergreen huckleberries in addition to ferns, salal and many native groundcovers such as wild ginger, oxalis and inside-out flower.

Great job, Becky, for creating such a beautiful habitat in your yard. Congratulations on your Gold Certification and we look forward to seeing what you'll do in the future.

Clackamas SWCD

WeedWise: A conservation program of the Clackamas SWCD


Friends of Tryon Creek

Our site technician visited Brad's Wilsonville yard in May 2026. By July of the same year, he was ready for a certificat...
08/27/2026

Our site technician visited Brad's Wilsonville yard in May 2026. By July of the same year, he was ready for a certification volunteer to come out! In three months, he had removed the ivy, yellow archangel and creeping Jenny from his yard, and installed over 40 new native plants.

In his front yard, he has tucked in woodland strawberry, fringecup, lady fern and sword fern in a small area. But the backyard is where he really developed a lovely naturescape of mixed canopy layers that are all thriving. He cleared an large area and planted red twig dogwood, red-flowering currant, tall Oregon grape, oceanspray, red elderberry, snowberry and vine maple, underplanting with salal, lady fern, yarrow, fringecup, woodland strawberries, and sword fern. He is carefully watering and mulching with wood chips around all of the new plants to make sure they successfully live through their first summer.

Congratulations, Brad, on your Silver certification! Your quick work is commendable.

Clackamas SWCD

WeedWise: A conservation program of the Clackamas SWCD

Wilsonville - Local Government
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Tom has lived at his home in the Hayhurst neighborhood for 30 years. His large yard slopes down to a lovely creek that h...
08/26/2026

Tom has lived at his home in the Hayhurst neighborhood for 30 years. His large yard slopes down to a lovely creek that had been covered in ivy and blackberry. Lesser celandine, herb Robert, butterfly bush, holly and spurge laurel were also present by the creek and in other parts of his yard. About 10 years ago, he attended a naturescaping workshop, called on the Backyard Habitat program, and with their recommendations in hand he went to work.

Since the ivy and blackberry by the creek were on a steep slope prone to erosion, he rounded up some friends and carefully removed the invasives and shored up the creek wall with fencing and rock support. Then he planted the perfect erosion-control plants - sword fern and snowberry. He then added a wonderful mix of ninebark, vine maple, salmonberry, thimbleberry, twinberry, osoberry, red twig dogwood, goatsbeard, sedge, Oregon grape and mock orange around the rest of the area that he cleared, along with lots of oxalis, fringecup, and trillium. He continued those plantings along both of his side fences, creating some amazing hedgerows, along with adding fireweed, evergreen huckleberry, Douglas spirea, and red-flowering currant in the sunnier spots toward the front of his home. He has a large patch of native roses by his back deck, and a native azalea blooming in his side yard.

Thank you, Tom, for adding more than 700 (!) native plants to your backyard, and congratulations on your Gold certification! Your commitment to helping wildlife is appreciated.

Metro

After removing lawn and eradicating blackberries to create perimeter beds in the front and back yards of her SE home, Ka...
08/25/2026

After removing lawn and eradicating blackberries to create perimeter beds in the front and back yards of her SE home, Kate has begun a gradual process of creating and enhancing habitat. So far, she's planted red-flowering currant, elderberry, Oregon grape, evergreen huckleberry, Douglas aster, yarrow, sword ferns, bunchgrasses and rushes.

As time and the joyous pack of children playing in the yard allow, Kate is determined to expand and diversify her native plantings--though she and the kids have already noticed an increase in the number and variety of pollinators and birds visiting the yard.

Go, Kate! And congratulations on your Silver certification!

East Multnomah Soil & Water Conservation District

Emily's yard in North Portland is teaming with native plants! There is a mix of well-established and newly planted natur...
08/24/2026

Emily's yard in North Portland is teaming with native plants! There is a mix of well-established and newly planted nature-scaped areas. The multiple canopy layers are visible throughout the property, with groundcovers like oxalis, wild ginger, and goldenrod beneath larger plants like sword fern, thimbleberry, osoberry and cascara. Congratulations Emily on creating such beautiful habitat in your yard and on achieving Gold certification!

Metro

Zach’s Bolton neighborhood yard in West Linn is a welcome sight for all those birds migrating back into town one beautif...
08/22/2026

Zach’s Bolton neighborhood yard in West Linn is a welcome sight for all those birds migrating back into town one beautiful April day! The entire front yard is a wonderful meadow with a rain garden running through. You can see pictured here his wonderful stream bank lupine standing tall and teeming with bumblebees and a variety of other pollinators! Some of the other lovely plants in this meadow include camas, yarrow, finge cup, sword ferns, many sedges and native grasses, Douglas aster, Douglas spirea and so much more!

It's obvious that plant speak is Zach's second language. Around back, where the yard has more shade, he selected plants wisely that would thrive in each micro climate. Under the Douglas fir he added some beautiful vine maples with more sword ferns closer to the shadiest part and mock orange just outside the shade. There are four white oak throughout the yard. A leucistic (lacking in pigment) Anna’s Hummingbird was able to survive and thrive in his yard, enjoying his abundant Cooley's hedge nettle!

There are rock and brush piles displayed throughout the entire yard along with nursery logs covered in licorice fern, providing abundant safe habitat for our native insects and ground nesting birds.

Zach also volunteers to promote habitat beyond his yard, including working with Solve to help keep the invasive plants out of the local park.

Congratulations on your Platinum certification Zach!

Clackamas SWCD

WeedWise: A conservation program of the Clackamas SWCD

City of West Linn - Government

Kris lives in an established neighborhood north of Vancouver with mostly traditional ranch homes and conventional landsc...
08/21/2026

Kris lives in an established neighborhood north of Vancouver with mostly traditional ranch homes and conventional landscaping. Her husband liked the landscaping that way too, so imagine his surprise when he learned that Kris wanted to go with naturescaping! The previous conventional landscaping meant that she has had to struggle with vinca, lesser celandine, and creeping Jenny as well as some sneaky blackberries.

One large area in her backyard has been filled with native plants like twinberry, mock orange, aspen, salmonberry, Douglas aster, blue elderberry, and evergreen huckleberry with a very happy sweep of kinnikinnick in the foreground. A baby pacific dogwood is growing in the shelter of a large catalpa tree, and nearby a Douglas fir volunteered a couple of years ago and is looking happy to be there. In other areas along her fenceline is a large oceanspray, rose spirea, thriving salmonberry, red-flowering currant and thimbleberry, while fringed willowherb and self-heal are establishing themselves amongst some non-native herbaceous volunteers.

Kris has already naturescaped 10% of her yard and has overachieved her way to Silver Certification. She also has her eye on a nice area in front to add a beautiful rain garden, so we're sure a certification upgrade is in the near future. Congratulations, Kris!

Clark County, WA

Vancouver, Washington City Government

Derek and Michelle's Wilsonville yard is small but mighty! They luckily had zero invasive plants to remove from their ya...
08/20/2026

Derek and Michelle's Wilsonville yard is small but mighty! They luckily had zero invasive plants to remove from their yard, so they could immediately focus on planting a good variety of natives which now cover the majority of their plantable area.

Their sunny front yard includes yarrow, California poppy, largeleaf and riverbank lupine, fringecup, sword ferns, red-flowering currant, and all three native roses (swamp, Nootka and baldhip). They've tucked a vine maple and fairybells into one shady corner, along with some creeping snowberry. A mock orange is next to an old rhododendron that they are considering rehoming and replacing with a serviceberry.

The small, shady backyard features tall Oregon grape, sword fern, ninebark, thimbleberry and snowberry, with inside-out flower tucked under the existing rhody.

Congratulations, Derek and Michelle, on your Gold certification!

Clackamas SWCD

WeedWise: A conservation program of the Clackamas SWCD

Wilsonville - Local Government

In only a couple of years, Sally has transformed her typical Vancouver, Mill Plain Ridge home into an insect and bird oa...
08/19/2026

In only a couple of years, Sally has transformed her typical Vancouver, Mill Plain Ridge home into an insect and bird oasis. Mostly lawn and ornamentals when she moved in, now the driveway and front parking are lined with meadows and hedgerows. The back lawn was replaced with a carpet of flowers. Large shrubs and small trees have been strategically placed for the birds to rest in while visiting Sally's whimsical stick structures and feeders.

When approaching Sally's front yard and fence line, the bold rainbow colors of fireweed, grindelia, clarkia, poppies, and erigeron draw you in like a pollinator's haven. Along her front chain link fence, Sally added some native shrubs to fill in and act as a hedgerow. There are Douglas spirea, red osier dogwood, oceanspray, several red-flowering currants, mock orange and more. A young blue elderberry is waiting to leap and form the fourth canopy in the front.

In the backyard, along the fence, the meadow, patio, walkway and graveled area surrounding the Art studio, the flow of colors and textures draw you along. Surrounding the backyard are a selection of common local shrubs, like snowberry, mock orange, Oregon grape, salal, and red and golden currants. The small trees, vine maples, cascara, and even a pacific willow sprinkled around the backyard create an orchard like feeling. There are several Douglas fir seedlings waiting their turn. Sally's garden sculptures, made from last year's dried fronds, stalks, and seed heads provide perches for the birds that visit her garden. Her wildlife stewardship was apparent when a downy woodpecker came to hang out, a nuthatch butted in and hummingbirds flitted in and out of the area.

Most Backyard Habitats that receive Gold Certification, take several years to develop. Sally has certainly welcomed the task of naturescaping and creating novel wildlife habitat, instead of mowing her lawn. Congratulations, Sally! We look forward to a tour of your creative yard in the future.

Clark County, WA

Vancouver, Washington City Government

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Portland, OR

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