When Vancouver resident James Lanz and his wife, Kate Ketcham, moved into their Cascade Park home nearly seven years ago, one of the first tasks they wanted to tackle was the landscaping. Grass covered the front yard and shrubs covered the front windows.
“It was actually my wife that did all the work and the planning,” Lanz said. “I was just supportive.”
After moving from their home near downtown Vancouver, where they lived for 28 years, they knew they wanted to incorporate native plant species but weren’t sure where to start. They turned to the Backyard Habitat Certification Program.
The program is a collaborative effort among the Watershed Alliance of Southwest Washington, Columbia Land Trust and the Bird Alliance of Oregon (formerly Portland Audubon Society). It provides support and incentives for residents who want to restore native habitat to their backyard.
Climate discussion
Watershed Alliance of Southwest Washington will host a discussion on the statewide Climate Action Plan currently in development from 5-6:45 p.m. Nov. 14 at Fort Vancouver Regional Library’s downtown Vancouver branch, 901 C St. Registration is recommended but not required. Visit thewatershedalliance.org/events online.
“We had the idea … to gradually start doing some naturescaping to make our property more habitable for birds, bees and butterflies,” Lanz said.
He said when the couple first moved, they didn’t see many birds coming into their yard or the neighborhood. He said there were hardly any bees either, because there weren’t any plants to attract them.
Things are much different now that the couple replaced the grass lawns with dozens of native species, that is, plants found in the region prior to the arrival of the Lewis and Clark expedition and European settlement.
“There are so many birds in our backyard now. We do feed them, but they have lots of natural things to eat,” he said.
With bird feeders hanging from the eaves and along a path that meanders through the backyard, Lanz said it’s a wonderful space to sit and watch not just birds and bees but also the butterflies, beetles and other insects that have moved in.
Over the years, Lanz and Ketcham have planted Indian plum, snowberry, currants, wild strawberries, Oregon grape and various ferns. The habitat program doesn’t require all plants and grass be replaced with native species. Lanz said he loves flowering plants and found a way to compromise by growing chrysanthemums, roses, vegetables and other plants in containers placed in the front and back yards.
“We counted them up, and we have 62 plants that are on the Portland Plant List,” Lanz said, referring to the plant list used by the habitat program.
The idea seems to be catching on with Lanz and Ketcham’s neighbors.
“Now, our two neighbors are doing something similar,” Lanz said. “We’ve got three houses in a row that have no front lawns and have lots of different things planted that will be better for habitat.”
Another benefit to the native plants when compared with grass lawns is less upkeep and less need for watering. Lanz said he and his wife still pull weeds, but much of the lawn is covered in bark chips to reduce weed growth, which they got for free through ChipDrop.
The Backyard Habitat program is offered to private residences under an acre, schools, community groups, public institutions and businesses. The program fee is $35 and includes a visit from a habitat technician to identify which species to plant to attract birds, bees, insects and other wildlife.
“We got started with some residents in Southwest Portland who wanted to get rid of some ivy in their neighborhood. They felt like it needed to be a collective effort,” said Greer Ramsey, habitat technician for Watershed Alliance.
After Columbia Land Trust and Oregon Bird Alliance joined in, the program moved across the river and into Clark County in 2019. Ramsey said the program now has about 900 properties enrolled with nearly 200 properties certified.
“It’s pretty easy. You just go to the website and sign up. It’s a sliding scale so you can pay as little as $5 to sign up your property,” Ramsey said.
Recommendations are tailored to each participant’s yard and interests. Participants also receive other benefits such as discounted prices on native plants, coupons to local garden centers, follow-up technical assistance and certification signs to display in their yard.
“We usually have to wait a couple of months at least to get that visit scheduled,” Ramsey said.
The site visits are usually about an hour long, she said.
“I identify the native and noxious species on their property and identify areas where they can start building wildlife habitat and improve stormwater management,” Ramsey said.
She said it’s important to follow the Portland Plant List because native species at nurseries aren’t always correctly identified. She said the site visit isn’t just about promoting native plants but identifying the right plants for the property.
“It’s pretty important that you plant the right plant in the right place,” she said. “We will say for your sunny, dry parts of the yard, here’s what you should plant there and for your shady, wet part of the yard, here’s what you should plant there.”
Ramsey said participation in the program starts with 5 percent of the yard naturescaped with mostly native plants. For the next two levels of certification, that increases to 15 percent of the yard and then 50 percent.
Sunrise O’Mahoney, executive director of the Watershed Alliance, worries about the future of the popular program. Funding for the program has been at risk after Vancouver announced it was cutting funding to the alliance and other nonprofits to make up a $43 million budget shortfall.
“This program is funded by multiple agencies, it’s not just the city of Vancouver,” O’Mahoney said.
After a public backlash about the proposed cuts, the Vancouver City Council announced Monday it would delay some of those cuts.
O’Mahoney said the council has since agreed to continue its funding to the Watershed Alliance through 2025 but said the organization would need to find alternate funding sources after that.
Residents who want to see what native species naturescaping looks like can visit the city of Vancouver’s Water Resources Education Center, the Wildlife Botanic Gardens in Brush Prairie or the program’s virtual Open Gardens Project online at backyardhabitats.org/category/open-gardens-project.
