Congratulations to Wild Over LKN. Thanks to their diligence, Lake Norman is now the third Community Wildlife Habitat in the state, and only the 55th in the country. Even better: It's the first such habitat to "encompass all towns surrounding a lake," according to the National Wildlife Federation on its Facebook page.
Here's more on the certification from Wild Over LKN's website:
A Community Wildlife Habitat is one that provides habitat for wildlife throughout the community — in individual backyards, on school grounds, and in public areas such as parks, community gardens, churches, and businesses.
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So how do we achieve certification? We need to earn a certain number of points in each of four categories: Habitat Certification, Education, Community Projects, and Administration. This point total is determined by the population of the area. The National Wildlife Federation has provided a list of possible activities so that we can create an individual plan that works best for us.In the first category, Habitat Certification, we must have a certain number of individual backyard habitat (homes, townhouses, condos or apartments), a number of public/private habitats (businesses, parks, churches, or farms), and a number of school backyard habitats.
Our Education Team must create an information kiosk, project brochure, information website, publish periodic newspaper or magazine articles, and hold multiple workshops on wildlife gardening, native plants, and protective shelter.
The Projects Team is tasked with working with local parks to create wildlife friendly landscapes, host information booths at community events, work with local nurseries to label native plants, and develop and implement projects ranging from our osprey nesting platforms and fish attractors to stream and trail cleanups.
The Administration Team must maintain a project notebook from our inception through certification, apply for available state and federal grants for wildlife enhancement, and seek both individual volunteers and business and civic organizations that wish to affiliate with us.
Read on here.
There's plenty of wildlife- and nature-related happenings going on around Lake Norman. To get involved, check out Lake Norman Wildlife Conservationists' site for upcoming events.