Shaping Our Wildlife Sanctuary Program: How Can You Help Wildlife?

Volume 31 Issue 1, Winter 2026

by Brian Magurn, Wildlife Sanctuary Ambassador

Doug Tallamy’s latest book is titled “How Can I Help? Saving Nature With Your Yard.” Those sentiments are the core of the Wildlife Sanctuary Program (formerly known as Audubon at Home). The Wildlife Sanctuary program is a partnership between the Northern Virginia Bird Alliance and Plant NOVA Natives that is delivered through Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy. It is a volunteer-based program drawing from trained Master Naturalists and Master Gardeners. The program is a conservation project of the Northern Virginia Bird Alliance, which promotes conserving and restoring local natural habitat and biodiversity by educating property owners and certifying properties as a “Wildlife Sanctuary” when they include all the required elements for a healthy wildlife habitat.

Entomologist Tallamy, co-founder of the Homegrown National Park movement  (https://homegrownnationalpark. org/), emphasizes that private property is crucial for conservation because approximately 78 percent of the U.S. — and 85 percent of U.S. land east of the Mississippi — is privately owned. Your own property is a great place to start creating habitat for wildlife by planting native plants, removing invasives, and taking other steps to improve the ecological function of your landscaping to support wildlife. Any property is eligible — not only homeowners, but also schools, faith communities, HOAs, businesses, government, and parkland.

Site Visit

Our volunteer Wildlife Sanctuary Ambassadors schedule no-cost, inperson site visits where they meet with the client and visit the property. On the site visit, they talk about the client’s goals for the property and take stock of the current plants, geology and soils, habitat features and practices, and water conservation. They gently educate the client on best practices for wildlife habitat: removing invasive plants; planting natives; leaving the leaves that fall in autumn; and avoiding humanmade hazards to wildlife like pesticide use, glue traps, and light pollution.

During the site visit, Ambassadors help identify plants: the good, the bad, and the ugly. Again, this is done gently, as most homeowners are unaware that the landscaping that came with their house is often a collection of non-native and sometimes invasive plants that can’t be eaten by local insects and don’t provide habitat and food for birds and other wildlife that depend on them. Ambassadors also evaluate the habitat layers and make recommendations for maximizing them to increase biomass and shelter.

Site visits are available at any point in the process. Whether a client is just starting with native plants or ready for certification, Ambassadors will work with them to develop suggestions to reach their goals and improve the quality and quantity of habitat. After the site visit, the client receives a written site report that includes the invasive species that were identified and links to fact sheets from Blue Ridge PRISM for info on identifying and removing them. The report also includes native plants that were identified and info on their wildlife value. (For example, when I had my property certified in 2015, I learned that violets were a host plant for three species of fritillary butterflies in our area.) The report also provides a list of suggested native plants that will do well given the conditions, as well as any additional recommended habitat practices.