For all of us that have grown up or lived around the Meadowlands or anywhere in New Jersey for any length of time, we all know far too well how much natural surroundings we have lost over the years. Today our preserved natural areas have become a quilt work of fragmented fields and forests that have become surrounded by suburban overdevelopment and landscaped with foreign plant species.
This has stressed our birds, butterflies and pollinator population to their limits with little left for their battle for survival. And to make matters worse New Jersey may be the first state to reach “buildout,” which simply means that one day that all land in the Garden State will be either built on or preserved, and that will be it. In the end that will leave us with vast areas of wasteland when it comes to wildlife unless we save the landscape in which we live.
In a concerted effort to connect and expand our forests, nature centers and preserves with a series of steppingstones that benefit migratory birds, butterflies and other wildlife, Bergen County Audubon has a Free program that the entire community, no matter where you live, can take part in to help reverse the tide of habitat loss.
Our Certified Wildlife Garden program allows homeowners, communities, schools, businesses, places of worship, nature centers and others anywhere in New Jersey and for that matter any state at all ( we now also have NY and PA) to have their gardens that benefit wildlife certified by Bergen County Audubon Society.
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