Conservation Landscaping

What is Conservation Landscaping?

Quite simply, it is making sure you are implementing good conservation practices on your land. In general, these include making changes, additions or managing your property to enhance wildlife habitat, ecosystem health, soil and water conservation, controlling invasive species, and many other practices encouraged by Soil and Water Conservation Districts and also organizations like the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). NRCS has many descriptions of practices as well as programs to help landowners implement their recommended practices.

A good way to get started is to take a look at our Conservation Landscape checklists and resources, which are a part of our Conservation Landscape Certification Program, a free program for all types of landowners including those in residential neighborhoods, schools, land trusts and municipalities, and larger landowners with farms or woodlands. You can use the checklist to see how you are doing in terms of conservation, or you can submit it for landscape certification by our District.

Biologist Doug Tallamy, author of Bringing Nature Home and Nature’s Best Hope, proposes a “Homegrown National Park” where we can all help to create the vast landscape of ecosystems needed to keep the water and air clean, keep farms and forests productive, and help birds, insects and wildlife recover from steep declines in recent years.

More than 165 million acres in this country are devoted to neighborhoods, towns, and lands where we live and work. Implementing healthy conservation practices around our homes will create an environment where birds, butterflies and other creatures can shelter, find food, raise young and migrate. For larger properties, the way farm fields, pastures, edges, landscaped areas and woodlands are managed can make a great difference in supporting a connected, healthy ecosystem that ultimately keeps the land resilient and functional.

resources

If you begin by reading the book Nature’s Best Hope by Doug Tallamy, you’ll have a deep understanding of why and how to create a conservation landscape. Tallamy tells us that creating habitat on our developed lands is vital to turning the tide on the massive decline in all types of animals we are seeing now. See our Recommended Books for other worthwhile reading to get ready to steward your conservation landscape.

Our Conservation Landscape Resource Guide will help you get started.