Program History

In March 2007, the City of Austin passed a council resolution to obtain National Wildlife Federation (NWF) community level certification. On March 12, 2009 Austin realized that goal and was recognized as a certified community during the Community Wildlife Habitat Certification Ceremony. To date, the City of Austin has over 1,700 certified wildlife habitats and the number is steadily increasing. You can be part of that momentum!

The Community Wildlife Habitat project is part of the National Wildlife Federation’s Certified Wildlife Habitat™ program. These projects benefit the entire community through education, outreach and promoting the use of native plants and landscaping to develop natural habitats that attract wildlife and birds, use little or no fertilizer and require modest watering.

Our City continues to demonstrate national leadership with our continued commitment to Keeping Austin Wild!

Participate in the 2012 Neighborhood Habitat Challenge!

Each spring the City holds the Neighborhood Habitat Challenge. The "challenge" is for neighbors to band together and make a commitment to the Neighborhood Habitat Challenge:

• Neighbors certify the most number of wildlife habitats within their neighborhood between April 15th and November 15th 2012.
• As a neighborhood group, participate in a community habitat related project such as removing invasive plants as part of an ongoing project, planting trees in a common area, restoring a creek area, planting a neighborhood butterfly garden or creating a schoolyard habitat. Follow this link for more details and project
• Publish an article about your Neighborhood Habitat Challenge participation in your neighborhood newsletter and post on your website.

You can start today and get your neighborhood involved!  Check out the flyer for the 2012 challenge!