Backyard Habitat Certification Program

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Backyard Habitat Certification Program Plant Roots, Create a Habitat, Transform the World...One Yard at a Time. Banner photo credit: Peter Stevens

Heidi has remade her North Portland yard as habitat by removing blackberries, ivy and pokeweed, then sheet mulching away...
10/13/2026

Heidi has remade her North Portland yard as habitat by removing blackberries, ivy and pokeweed, then sheet mulching away swaths of lawn.

Reserving part of the yard as a food garden, Heidi has planted a western crabapple, mock orange, Douglas and birch-leaf spirea, Oregon grape, red-flowering currant, Nootka rose, evergreen huckleberry, sword, lady and deer ferns, fireweed, Oregon iris, Oregon sunshine, checkermallow, shrubby cinquefoil, harebells, waterleaf, oxalis, Douglas aster, goldenrod, collomia, vancouveria, streamside lupine, salal, kinnikinnick, woodland strawberry, blue-eyed grass, nodding and narrow-leaf onion, and more.

The result is a lush, complex mixture of shapes, colors, blooms, pollinators, birds and other wildlife in a relaxing backyard setting. Congratulations on your Gold certification, Heidi!

Metro

Sacha, of Lake Oswego, has a lush and well-loved garden, which she is delighted to report has attracted a lot more birds...
10/12/2026

Sacha, of Lake Oswego, has a lush and well-loved garden, which she is delighted to report has attracted a lot more birds and insects. She's created beautiful sunny and shady areas, while working hard to remove priority weeds. She and her west side neighbor are working together to create combined native plantings.

Sasha has welcomed numerous volunteer plants into her yard, including a western red cedar and a Douglas fir. In addition to food production and gorgeous ornamentals, she's working with vine maples, cascara, goatsbeard, bunchberry, Douglas spirea, iris tenax, bracken fern, ducks foot, salal, juncus, sword fern, Oregon grape, Indian plum, Oregon sunshine, Douglas aster, kinnikinnick to name a few.

Congratulations Sacha, on Silver certification. We're looking forward to visiting you again in the future to up-certify an even more beautiful garden.

Clackamas SWCD

Clackamas WeedWise
oswego

Friends of Tryon Creek

Carrie bought a ranch home in Vancouver that came with lots of lawn edged by river rock beds. She was partially inspire...
10/10/2026

Carrie bought a ranch home in Vancouver that came with lots of lawn edged by river rock beds. She was partially inspired to start converting to native landscaping to reduce the amount of mowing on this large lot. Now she says that watching all the bugs, frogs, and birds come into her yard is what motivates her to do more and more.

She has removed over 1000sf of lawn with just sheet mulching (cardboard covered with chip drop), and she loves how easy it is to pull any weeds that do come up now. In the front, she has two huge patches of Oregon sunshine which originated as just two 4" pots a couple years ago! Her Richardson's penstemon nearby is also thriving in the chip drop environment with little water. Along her back fence, sword and wood ferns, bleeding heart, and columbine are thriving in the dry shade of the neighbor's conifers. On the north side of her house, a pocket of ferns protects wild ginger and starry false Solomon's seal beneath. On the south side, a riot of poppy mallow, yarrow, self-heal, and California poppy tumble together and sneak across the path. A thick patch of coastal strawberry nearby is eager to volunteer even more places. She has bunnies living under her deck and her shed who had babies this year.

Carrie removed SO MUCH lawn to reduce her mowing and created this lovely habitat that so many more little beings are loving. Congratulations on achieving your Gold Certification, and thanks for helping the environment!

Clark County, WA

Vancouver, Washington City Government

The beautiful native rain garden in Greg and Libby’s Laurelhurst front yard is the first thing that catches a visitor’s ...
10/09/2026

The beautiful native rain garden in Greg and Libby’s Laurelhurst front yard is the first thing that catches a visitor’s eye. Nestled into a mature landscape, it cascades along the sloping side of the yard in a river-rock-filled dry creek bed that manages the runoff of half of the home’s large, steep roof. (Runoff from the other half of the roof is managed by dry wells dug into the remaining grass yard.)

The rain garden, installed through a city program and using Libby and Greg’s design and plant choices, showcases a surprising number of native plants. These include snowberry, red-flowering currant , columbine, trillium, Oregon iris, and dagger-leaf and spreading rush. These are planted around multiple large boulders, including four with hollowed-out tops that fill with water for birds and pollinators. The rain garden is surrounded by a carpet of more than two dozen kinnikinnick. At the top of the rain garden, a stone path to the side yard is lined with Oregon and broadleaf stonecrop, leading to a pair of mature evergreen huckleberry bushes in the back.

Greg and Libby meet Silver Certification with the rain garden alone, but are eager to keep the momentum going, incorporating existing plantings elsewhere in the yard that include an established vine maple, ferns, and woodland strawberry, into more naturescaped areas. And they have exciting plans for naturescaping the backyard once other construction projects are completed there.

Congratulations Libby and Greg on your Silver Certification! We’re excited to see where your naturescaping plans lead next!

East Multnomah Soil & Water Conservation District

Shu-Ju has lived in her West Portland Park home for over 30 years. Her large corner lot had many trees until the ice sto...
10/08/2026

Shu-Ju has lived in her West Portland Park home for over 30 years. Her large corner lot had many trees until the ice storm a few years ago felled large Douglas firs, damaging both her home and much of her landscaping. Even with the storm damage, she received a Silver certification at her initial site visit. However, she was determined to build out a much more extensive habitat.

Her now-Platinum-certified yard is truly incredible. First, she partnered with the Stormwater Stars program to reimagine her now-sunny front yard. A small but very happy Oregon white oak is the centerpiece of a mass of Roemer's fescue and a mix of sun-loving plants including checkermallow, Oregon sunshine, California poppies, red columbine, yarrow, stonecrop and slender cinquefoil. Plants surrounding that area include osoberry, oceanspray, birchleaf spirea, buckbrush, blue elderberry, Douglas spirea and red-flowering currant.

Tucked in the back corner, a charming pond with wapato attracted many active damselflies! It's surrounded by lupine, Pacific waterleaf, yellow monkeyflower, fringecup, self-heal, deer fern, rushes and a serviceberry. In the shade nearby is a patch of trillium, small-flowered alumroot, star flowered Solomon's seal and common harebell.

In the backyard, the deep ditch created by a fallen tree is now a disconnected-downspout-fed rain garden, featuring monkeyflower, bunchberry, wild ginger, coltsfoot, common camas and blue-eyed grass. A Western crabapple tree, chokecherry and red twig dogwood are nearby.

In her side yard, she had surrounded one of the Douglas firs with red twig dogwood, red-flowering currant, tall Oregon grape, and mock orange. That tree also fell during the storm, exposing a huge rootwad and uplifting those plants. She left the angled rootwad and amazingly, all of the plants survived! She continues to plant around the rootwad (including Devil's club!), and everything is thriving, including a lovely stand of fireweed. Evergreen huckleberry, baldhip roses, and claytonia are happily living nearby.

Congratulations, Shu-Ju, on your well-deserved Platinum certification! You have built an amazing, diverse habitat.

Metro

Jennifer's yard in Happy Valley is easy to spot amid the manicured grass landscapes that surround it. The lot has large,...
10/07/2026

Jennifer's yard in Happy Valley is easy to spot amid the manicured grass landscapes that surround it. The lot has large, mature trees including Douglas fir and a mix of other large non-native trees. She has added at least twelve native trees including western red cedars, black hawthorn, cascara, vine maple, and Oregon white oak.

She has created multiple micro habitats with plants appropriate to the location. In two areas with dry shade or part shade, the canopy below the large conifer trees includes vine maples, black hawthorn, cascara, osoberry, goatsbeard, mock orange, thimbleberry, evergreen huckleberry, tall Oregon grape, snowberry, sword fern, fringecup, starry false Solomon seal, wild ginger, fireweed, and oxalis. Multiple sun beds, including a new pollinator bed that replaces part of the remaining lawn, includes Oregon white oak, ocean spray, red-flowering currant, yellow and blue eyed grass, meadow checkermallow, bearberry, lady fern, cascade Oregon grape, phacelia, and Roemers fescue.

Jennifer knew every plant in every corner of her yard and has clearly put in many hours and seasons of work. By naturespacing well over 50% of her plantable area and creating five canopy levels in multiples areas of her yard, she has earned a Platinum certification. Congratulations Jennifer and thank you for creating a refuge for wildlife.

Clackamas SWCD

Clackamas WeedWise

Caitlyn has been enjoying bringing more habitat to her Battle Ground HOA property. Her yard had lawn and sparse ornament...
10/06/2026

Caitlyn has been enjoying bringing more habitat to her Battle Ground HOA property. Her yard had lawn and sparse ornamental trees and shrubs when she moved in. She sheet mulched along the fence in the backyard and along a strip adjacent to the driveway in the front yard, and then she brought in some great natives.

In the front yard, a vine maple is getting established next to mock orange, red-flowering currant, and large-leaved lupine. In the backyard, shrubs such as Nootka rose, red twig dogwood, Pacific ninebark and evergreen huckleberry are thriving next to groundcovers including goldenrod, camas, and nodding onion. A Pacific willow was planted in a low, moist spot, and baby Oregon white oak and Oregon ash trees are voluntarily popping up all over the yard!

Caitlyn plans on adding more habitat and a pond to her backyard. She recently decided to take a break from teaching science and will start working at a local native plant nursery soon! Caitlyn, welcome to our community, we can't wait to see what you do next!

Clark County, WA

Help the Backyard Habitat Certification Program and Friends of Gladstone Nature Park get Pollinator Hill ready for a pla...
10/06/2026

Help the Backyard Habitat Certification Program and Friends of Gladstone Nature Park get Pollinator Hill ready for a platinum certification! This stunning section of Gladstone Nature Park was once a neglected site full of weeds. Now, due to countless hours of volunteer efforts, it's a wildlife haven full of native plants and animals that residents of Gladstone enjoy on their daily walks. With your help and with one final work party, we can help this site achieve the highest level of certification in the Backyard Habitat Certification Program!

Saturday October 24, 10-3pm
18111 Webster Rd, Gladstone OR
Registration & Details here: https://forms.gle/NwPRyCQwd2eXPy8u5

In this workshop, participants will learn:
• the "sheet mulching" technique to block weeds and improve soils
• how to properly remove ivy and other plants to keep them from growing back
• how to plant native plants to ensure their long-term success
• how to get more involved in Backyard Habitat and Friends of Gladstone Nature Park

Come meet new friends, learn skills that you can apply at your home, and help this special park and non-profit meet their environmental goals!

Monty and June have done an amazing job at their Vancouver home by completely removing the entire lawn and creating an i...
10/05/2026

Monty and June have done an amazing job at their Vancouver home by completely removing the entire lawn and creating an inviting habitat for wildlife.

The native plants they've added include mock orange, red-flowering currant, salal, snowberry, lady fern, Cascade Oregon grape, June prairie grass, sunshine, red columbine, kinnikinnick, blue elderberry, evergreen huckleberry, osoberry, lupine, monkey flower, and Cascade penstemon, just to name a few.

Monty and June, congratulations on your well deserve GOLD certification! Wildlife will thank you and so do we.

Tualatin Soil and Water Conservation District

Beaverton City Government

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Portland, OR

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