The West Virginia Division of Natural Resources Private Lands Conservation Program is excited to announce a series of Wild Yards Habitat Assessment Workshops taking place across the state this summer. These workshops aim to educate participants about the importance of native plants for wildlife and train them to be able to assess backyard wildlife habitat.
The workshops will cover the importance of native plants for wildlife, common backyard invasive plants and native lookalikes, habitat features to attract and support wildlife in the backyard, and go over common mistakes and pitfalls encountered when attempting to create and maintain wildlife habitat. After the classroom portion, participants will be able to practice their habitat assessment skills by visiting a local certified Wild Yard.
Participants are encouraged to apply their new skills and knowledge to volunteer as Wild Yards Assessors to help the WVDNR grow the program, which recognizes the efforts of West Virginians to create and maintain wildlife habitat in backyards across the state. Volunteer assessors would visit properties in their region that have submitted a Wild Yard application to confirm the presence of the required habitat features and submit a habitat assessment checklist to the Wild Yards Coordinator for final approval and certification of the property into the program.
Registrants should be comfortable with common native plant ID but need not currently be enrolled in the Wild Yards Program.
To register for one of the habitat assessment workshops, please email DNRWildYards@wv.gov with your name and the workshop you wish to attend.
