Landscape for Wildlife: A Collection of Resources

Folks embrace social media for a variety of reasons. Among the benefits I enjoy: gaining fresh perspectives, learning new things and meeting interesting people.

Pollinator Pathway image by Kelly Brenner

Image of Seattle's Pollinator Pathway © Kelly Brenner

Kelly Brenner and I were “introduced” to one another via the Certified Wildlife Habitat community on Facebook, where months ago she began sharing posts from The Metropolitan Field Guide blog she writes. One of the more recent additions is a list of “Landscape for Wildlife” resources organized by regions, which I thought would interest Beautiful Wildlife Garden readers. Links to wildlife gardening information from universities, extension services, government agencies, nonprofits and other groups are provided. Here Kelly explains how the collection and related ones came to be:

“The Metropolitan Field Guide was originally created when I graduated from the Landscape Architecture program at the University of Oregon, with the idea of creating somewhere for designers, engineers, architects, planners or homeowners to go for resources, examples and information about designing urban wildlife habitat. As I started to research and write, I realized there are so many excellent resources out there that there was no reason to reinvent the wheel by writing how-to posts. Instead, I tried to compile resources for various aspects of habitat—from creating wildlife ponds to using regional plants—and making them available in one place, for all regions, with analysis, some of which is provided with book reviews.

“With my landscape architecture education, I recognize the importance of designing for specific regions and that’s one of my biggest complaints about general habitat design books: They’re not regionally specific. Granted, there are many elements that are common to all habitat design, but a designer in the deserts of Arizona is going to have very different design challenges and goals from somebody designing in the Puget Sound region. The resources I’ve found reflect that need, so that you’ll find guides on how to create wildlife-friendly fencing in the Rocky Mountains and guides for lizard habitat in the Southwest. There are certainly resources missing, but like everything, it’s a constant work-in-progress and will never be complete since there are always new resources being made available. Indeed, I’m continually finding more resources or having them sent to me. In the way I’ve created the ‘Landscape for Wildlife’ and ‘Regional Plant Lists for Wildlife’ resource lists I have plans for further lists, the next being ‘Built Structures’ (e.g., bat roosts, bee houses, etc.). I always welcome resources, stories, designs and dialogue. I do this because I love it!”