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ACE Hits New Record: 32 Arlington Properties Certified as Wildlife Habitat Sites in 2003

More Arlington acreage was certified as habitat in 2003 than was achieved in all the years combined since 1973, when the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) began to track certified habitats. In addition, more ACE volunteers than ever helped to clear trash from streams and remove noxious invasive plants to help Arlington be one of the "greenest" urban areas in the country.

Arlington, Va. January 27, 2004 - In its 25th year, Arlingtonians for a Clean Environment (ACE) celebrated its first quarter of a century with 32 new NWF certified habitat gardens in Arlington. The Arlington Community Wildlife Habitat project (ACWH) is an ACE initiative that aims to earn a certified community habitat designation for Arlington County by NWF. Currently, only three communities in the U.S. have been certified by NWF.

As leading coordinator of the ACWH, ACE also trained its first class of 20 NWF-certified habitat stewards in 2003. The stewards supported the ACWH effort throughout 2003 in staffing information tables at farmer's markets, the county fair and at the Home Depot store in Seven Corners Shopping Mall. ACWH volunteers also provided home visits where garden assessments were provided to homeowners interested in learning more about the steps they would need to take to have their yards certified as NWF-habitat. And volunteers also marched in the rain with one cardinal-costumed colleague in the Arlington Neighborhood Day Parade in May to promote the ACWH project. They tossed small packets of wild birdseed to onlookers who gleefully greeted the "Red Chicken" as the Habitat Brigade passed.

The ACWH project seeks to foster homeowners, parks, businesses, churches and schools in the creation of NWF-certified habitats. To be certified, properties must provide food, water, a place to raise young and shelter for wildlife. Habitat elements usually can be provided with simple changes and small additions to most backyards: reduce the amount of pesticides and fertilizers, add a birdbath or small pond, eliminate invasive species and replace them with hardy natives that also provide a food source with their fruit or nuts. These slight changes often deliver long-term cost-savings as well as reduced labor in yard upkeep.

ACE also coordinated dozens of conservation projects that engaged more than 350 volunteers, who removed at least 365 bags of trash from the county's streams and enough invasive plants from parks and public lands to fill a garbage truck to its brim. And ACE organized the first Watershe-Friendly Garden Tour that drew 70 participants who learned about landscaping techniques that can protect water quality on the tour maps provided by ACE.

Through its education efforts, ACE reached 1,600 students at county schools through more than 50 hands-on environmental education programs as well as through its "Rediscovering the Schoolyard" newsletter, which provides teachers and parents with ideas, resources and lesson outlines plus news about Arlington schools that have created outdoor learning areas or begun the NWF-certification process.