Habitat Essentials

A juvenile American goldfinch with talons clasping the stalk of a blooming pink coneflower.

CREDIT: LINDA ABRAMS

In 1972, two U.S. Forest Service scientists found that the basic principles applied by wildlife managers to large-scale habitats—providing food, water, cover, and places for animals to raise young—also work on small-scale landscapes. Based on that research, the following year the National Wildlife Federation launched what has become known as the Garden for Wildlife® movement, inspiring people to create landscapes and other garden spaces designed to provide the habitat essentials for birds, butterflies, bees, and other local wildlife.

The idea is simple: wildlife depend on plants to provide those elements of habitat, specifically the native plants that co-evolved in their ecosystem. By choosing native plants for your landscape or other garden space and by designing and maintaining it in a natural, sustainable way, you can restore habitat for wildlife right around your own home and community. Spaces with at least 70 percent native plants have a significant benefit to wildlife.

What it all boils down to is this: the act of planting something for a purpose is the definition of gardening, so when you plant natives to support wildlife, you are part of the Garden for Wildlife® movement!

When you create a space that provides four essential habitat elements – food, water, cover, and places to raise young – and practice sustainable gardening, the National Wildlife Federation will recognize it as a Certified Wildlife Habitat®.

An ideal Certified Wildlife Habitat® provides food, water, cover, and places to raise young for wildlife with a minimum goal of 70% native plants that provide multi-season bloom and are free of neonicotinoids and other pesticides or herbicides.

Read more about each of these habitat essentials and use our checklist to see if you’re ready to certify your habitat.


Habitat Essentials


A monarch caterpillar, striped with yellow, black, and white bands, munching on green milkweed leaves.

CREDIT: HEATHER RUSSELL

Food for wildlife habitat

Native plants form the foundation of the food web in the natural world and should do the same in your wildlife-friendly garden or landscape. Plants provide food to wildlife in a variety of ways, from berries to nuts to nectar. In a wildlife garden, even the leaves of your plants can be an important food source for some wildlife (and that’s ok). Native plants support insects that are the next level of the food web, serving as a food source for many other species. After you fill your space with native plants, you can supplement with a well-maintained bird feeder, too.

Hummingbird in flight sipping water from a birdbath.

CREDIT: JUDY JOHNSON

Fresh water for wildlife habitat

Wildlife needs clean drinking water to survive. Birds need to bathe to keep their feathers in good working order, while other species including some amphibians, insects, and other wildlife lay their eggs and/or live in water full time. You can provide this habitat component in a variety of ways by adding a simple birdbath or shallow dish of water to a water garden or small garden pond.

You might not even need to add a water feature at all. Natural water bodies including lakes, rivers, bays, or coastal areas on or adjacent to your property count. Even seasonal water bodies such as vernal pools offer this vital habitat component.

Small frog clasping the stem of a plant while using the leaf as an umbrella from rain.

CREDIT: HEATHER ORKIS

Cover for wildlife habitat

Wildlife need places to hide to feel safe from people, predators, and weather extremes. The same native plants that provide food will also provide this habitat element. Some plants offer extra cover and protection, such as evergreen or thorny plants, but the key to providing is really planting densely. The more plants your landscape has, the more cover it provides. Even dead plants, from hollow trees to brush piles to the natural layer of fallen leaves, provide excellent cover. You can then supplement this natural cover with roosting boxes for birds and small mammals or even a bat house.

Adult hummingbird perched above two hummingbird chicks in their lichen covered nest.

CREDIT: STOKES CLARKE

Places to raise young for wildlife habitat

Providing food, water, and cover helps wildlife on an individual level, but if we want their species to continue to exist, it’s important that our habitats give them what they need. This includes finding a mate, engaging in courtship, building nests or dens, feeding their young and anything else their species need to reproduce. Providing places to raise young will look different for different kinds of wildlife. Birds need nesting places and insects to feed their babies. Frogs and salamanders need ponds to lay their eggs. Butterflies and moths require specific native host plants for their caterpillars.

Two people filling up green watering cans from a large tub of collected water.
Sustainable gardening for wildlife habitat

Providing the four components of habitat—food, water, cover, and places to raise young—will create a wonderful wildlife-friendly habitat space in and around areas where people also reside. How you design and manage these garden habitats is critically important, too. Maintaining your landscape in a sustainable, environmentally friendly way ensures that the soil, air, and water that native wildlife (and people) rely upon stay clean and healthy. The following can help you make the best choices to minimize any negative impact of gardening, landscape, and maintenance practices and become even more resilient and beneficial.

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