In 2023 Northwest Indiana became the first multi-county region to be certified by the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) in their Community Wildlife Habitat program. Visit our page on NWF’s site here. We intend to re-certify each year to keep expanding the outreach.
Haven’t certified your own pollinator garden yet? It’s likely easier than you think… Find out what’s required here.
We encourage individual cities, towns and/or counties to pursue certification on their own. There are likely already a good number of certified habitats that will help you meet your goal. You can learn more about the program by contacting National Wildlife Foundation at community@nwf.org.
Fun Facts:
- We learned of the NWF Community Wildlife Habitat program from Leslie Shad, who was a speaker at a Northwest Indiana Green Drinks event in August 2022. Video recording available here.
- After meeting with Leslie Shad and staff at NWF, Northwest Indiana Region Resilience registered as a team in October 2022.
- The April 2023 Northwest Indiana Green Drinks was titled “How to Plant Butterfly Gardens and Establish Pollinator Sanctuaries” (recording here) and drew the interest of reporter Doug Ross who wrote this article about our project focus.
- Doug’s article drew interest from several people who contacted us, asking to become team members or otherwise support the project. We hosted a number of events throughout spring and summer.
- By September we had achieved the required number of points just in time to celebrate at Earth Charter Indiana’s Climate Leadership Summit 8!
It’s a circle of continuous learning! Here are some resources for you.
To Support Schools that Want to Certify
- School curriculum (free, online)
- Access Nature Curriculum, $44.95 (order info and reviews here)
Note: there is no cost for schools to certify and they are worth 5 “points” so this is a good niche for us to pursue.
To Support Communities that Want to Certify
- Community Assessment Workshop (for communities who want to certify individually, outside the regional effort)
- NWF Community Wildlife Habitat Certification Requirements (points needed to certify individual communities, scaled for population)
Advice from Local Experts
April 6, 2023 Northwest Indiana Green Drinks – Where Have All the Butterflies Gone?
THANK YOU!!!
We were able to meet this goal thanks to an outstanding team of passionate gardeners. Though others were involved, these were our “official” members:
- Melisa Carter-Chenoweth, Valparaiso (Porter County)
- Paige Hein, Valparaiso (Porter County)
- Shannon Kietzman, Knox (Starke County)
- Rebecca Koetz, Merrillville (Lake County)
- Vanessa Moore, Valparaiso (Porter County)
- Scott Palla, Chesterton (Porter County)
- Renee Prejean-Motanky, Crown Point (Lake County)
- Kathy Sipple, Valparaiso (Porter County)
- Katie Walsh, St. John (Lake County)
- Dalia Zygas, Michigan City (LaPorte County)
Special thanks to our 2024 intern, Gabrielle Barron, a graduating senior at Indiana University who came to us through the McKinney Climate Fellow program associated with IU’s Environmental Resilience Institute. She created this Case Study document (still in draft form) to document our work on this as an example of a community engagement project that could be replicated in other multi-county regions or in individual towns and cities.
Thanks also to Paige Hein of Washington Township High School in Valparaiso who chose to support this project during her term as 2023-24 Key Club Indiana District Governor of Indiana.
Additionally, thanks to Leslie Shad and Joe Brennan who offered support in the way of advice, financial help and even hosting an event at their home in Michigan City.
Thanks also to Shirley Heinze Land Trust, Izaak Walton League and to Bonnie Swarner for certifying multiple nature preserves through this program to support our regional goal. We encourage people who have already certified their property to pursue the Bringing Nature Home award through Shirley Heinze, info available here.