Backyard Conservation- Yard by Yard Program

The Summary

What It’s All About

Yard By Yard is a voluntary, self-guided conservation program for your yard.  The program is available to people in our District (Skamania County and western Klickitat County, Washington), guided by a checklist of options you select, then shared with others in the Yard By Yard community via photos and the opportunity to post a sign certifying your yard as conservation-friendly.

It is a self-paced backyard habitat program, with a wider definition of “backyard” and “habitat.”

By yard, we mean an area around a home, in town or in the country, up to about half an acre. (We have other services and programs for people interested in conservation on a larger scale.) Just download the Yard By Yard checklist, below, work on it at your pace, and report in when you’re ready for a certifying visit by our staff. We’re excited to see what you do with the place!

Yard By Yard, The Program

Conservation Close to Home

Underwood Conservation District invites you to join us in “bringing nature home,” by making conservation something each of us does close to home.

Yard By Yard is a new program inspired by some other ideas or efforts you may have heard of, like backyard habitat, naturescaping, and gardening for pollinators.

Like all of UCD’s work, Yard By Yard is non-regulatory and completely voluntary. This is something for inspired individuals and families to take on, guided by their own interests, time and energy, personal goals, and property. Download the Yard By Yard checklist (see below); build, install, grow a number of practices on that list in your yard or property; then, when you are ready, show us what you’ve accomplished.

Conservation is often a word we use to refer to natural areas out there, applicable to expansive areas like forests, rivers, public lands, or parks.  This idea can make it feel out of reach, less personal, to many homeowners.  UCD’s Yard By Yard program encourages residents of all types to take action close to home, at our homes, making the place we spend the most time a healthy, functional part of the natural world around us.  Imagine if we took on conservation, yard by yard, throughout our communities, and what kind of beneficial impact that could have for natural resources, wildlife, and our own enjoyment?

Welcoming life into our yards is a way to purposefully expand our sense of community to include the living world around us in our sense of what belongs.  Integrating the conservation of natural resources, like water, soil, and habitat (and the plants, birds and others that need that habitat) can bring about holistic sense of how we share this world with other living things that depend on these resources too.  Aldo Leopold called this the “land ethic.” This can take many forms, such as:

·        gardening with native plants,
·        learning that not all bugs are “bad” or even inconvenient,
·        growing and savoring food by our own hands,
·        thinking about how we use and conserve water,
·        being thoughtful about interacting with wildlife,
·        and, letting our sense of what’s attractive include what’s beneficial to other living things.

The Yard By Yard Process

Here’s how Yard By Yard works, by the numbers

1. READ: Read through the Q&A and the References, below.

2. CHECKLIST: Download the checklist.  (You can tell UCD that you are starting – we hope you do! – by emailing corrie@ucdwa.org)

3. PLAN AND ACT: Work the program at your own pace. This is a self-guided effort. We can help you make a plan for your property, reach out and we can start the process together. You may want to start by selecting what checklist items or projects you want incorporate. After reading the materials on this page and considering the checklist, feel free to email us.  To avoid feeling overwhelmed, it might help to select one or two easier initial tasks and just go slowly.  There’s no rush!

4. REPORT: When you’re ready – when you’ve checked at least 5 practices total, with at least one practice in at least 3 out of the 4 categories on the checklist – let us know. This could be in a month, or a year. Send us a copy of the checklist with your items checked, by email, preferably; or by mail to UCD, PO Box 96, White Salmon, WA 98672. With that, send us some photos to illustrate several of the practices on the checklist that you’ve done, or even little videos; ideally, just email a few from your phone or computer. If you are fine with it and sign a photo release, we would love to share photos on our page with the Yard By Yard community. That’s up to you, of course. Here’s the link to our photo release form.

5. CERTIFICATION: We’ll schedule a time to come visit your property with you, to make sure you have made a good-faith effort for each item checked, discuss future plans or ideas, and award you a certification sign. We are hoping to roll out additional benefits for Yard By Yard participants: stay tuned. This is the start of a living program, and we expect it to evolve over time.

THE CHECKLIST

This is core of the Yard By Yard program. Download the checklist here.

A word about the links on this checklist: They are useful resources, but they are not the only resources.  The references will get you started, and institutions like Washington State University and Oregon State University have many more publications, webinars, webpages, etc., on these topics.

WILDLIFE BIG AND SMALL

Many people already have wildlife – sometimes, more than they can handle. It’s common nowadays for people to move to rural areas in the district and put out a few backyard sheep, chickens, etc. – and sometimes to attract unwanted predators or other wild animals. The checklist has a fifth subject areas for people in this situation, with many helpful tips and resources.

For additional guidance on living peaceably in the country with other wildlife, people can contact:

Todd Jacobsen, WDFW Wildlife Conflict Specialist
Klickitat, Skamania and Clark Counties
Office: 360-696-6211
Cell: 360-600-4920
Email: todd.jacobsen@dfw.wa.gov

SPECIAL THANKS

UCD wishes to mention the help we have received in putting forward the new Yard By Yard program in spring 2021. A number of individuals offered thoughtful feedback on the checklist while it was being drawn up. Of particular assistance were Todd Jacobsen with WDFW, Kris Schaedel with Hood River Soil & Water Conservation District, Kevin Mink with Oklahoma County Conservation District (who pioneered the Yard By Yard idea), and the National Association of Conservation Districts (which provided funding for us to develop our Yard By Yard program). Additionally, the combined Columbia Land Trust-Audubon Society backyard habitat program in the Portland area has been a long-running inspiration. Thank you!

SOME QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

 ADDITIONAL RESOURCES