They had a modest goal: to enroll 25 homeowners adjacent to the parks and encourage and incentivize them to remove ivy and plant native plants in their yards. The program was one piece of a larger effort by WWRP to create a 300 acre corridor south of Forest Park, one of the region’s most important remaining wildlife habitats.

The program recognized that residents whose yards adjoined this natural area had to be part of the effort to keep the native habitat healthy and thriving. In a developed area, people had to be part of the solution.

It wasn’t clear that the Backyard Habitat pilot would even work. After all, it asked participating homeowners to spend their own time, money, and resources to restore their yards. Marketing for the program consisted of yard signs and word-of-mouth. Would they even be interested?

There was enthusiasm for the program and its goal of creating wildlife corridors through the urban area from the start. As participants removed ivy they noticed native plants growing in on their own. More birds showed up to forage. Word spread. Others wanted to join from throughout the region.