Habitat Coordinator, Kay Packard, established her own habitat during her husband’s bout with ALS in 1992– beginning with birdfeeders being hung by the bedroom window for his enjoyment. By reading and taking classes, Kay came to realize that the main component of the habitat is the garden – one that sustains wildlife without the necessity of feeders - through the use of plants (especially natives), shrubs and trees. After her husband’s death, Kay became active with the Georgia Wildlife Federation, serving on the Board of Directors for 6 years, and becoming involved with National Wildlife Federation.
After reading about the first Community Wildlife Habitat in Alpine, California, Kay, who had taught classes and had a garden club in her subdivision, decided Chamblee needed to become one also. After receiving the application from NWF, she began her search for Committee Members – and came up with a great group including an environmental engineer, who answered all the hard questions on the app, to several neighbors who worked for EPA and members from the Chamblee City Council. The Education Directors of GWF and the Southeastern office of NWF, Laura Bryant and Vicki Seastrom, were instrumental in guiding us through the 3 years of hard work for certification. We had agreed to get over 100 homes, businesses, civic areas, churches and schools certified as Habitats before we could claim our Community status. The kickoff for this project began with a Nature Extravaganza at Huntley Hills School in 2000, culminating in the Certification ceremony at City Hall in June, 2003 of the whole zip code 30341. Chamblee was the first Community Habitat in the Southeast and fifth in the nation.
This is an ongoing project. As habitat owners move away, it is a challenge to get new yards certified. We promised to have something for the community each year, which is our annual garden tour of certified habitats , the Rivers Alive Stream Clean-up in October, and having a presence at other community events.
In addition, the “garden club” (for lack of a better name) meets monthly with speakers from all areas of the gardening and wildlife community in metro Atlanta, All are welcome at this program. Watch our calendar for upcoming meetings, usually held the first Thursday night of each month at 7:30 PM at Lowe’s on Peachtree Industrial Blvd.
In 2004, our Representative, Jill Chambers, had Chamblee recognized in the State House of Representatives where we received a proclamation for our achievements. There have also been several TV shows featuring our Community Habitat.
We are proud of our connection to NWF, and help celebrate their 70th birthday in 2006 and congratulate them on having now certified over 70,000 homes businesses, schools and other areas as Wildlife habitats throughout the country.
Their TV program, Backyard Habitats on Animal Planet, asks us to help repair habitat destruction and support our plant and wildlife communities “one backyard at a time”. We invite you to join is in this endeavor.
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We cannot command
Nature except by obeying her. -Francis Bacon Ah, summer, what power you have to make us suffer and like it. -Russell Baker Worlds can be found by a child and an adult bending down and looking together under the grass stems or at the skittering crabs in a tidal pool. -Mary Catherine Bateson |
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