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Step 7: Create Wildlife Habitat

Purpose

Explore the diverse habitats in the Barnegat Bay watershed that provide wildlife with all their basic needs – food to eat, water to drink, shelter and protection from weather and predators, and places to raise their families. Understanding the natural spaces that wildlife depend on can provide inspiration for your Jesey-Friendly Schoolyard.  

Why It’s Important

The Barnegat Bay watershed contains a diversity of habitats, including barrier islands and coastal dune scrub, salt marsh, tidal wetlands, maritime forest, pine barrens, oak woodlands, freshwater wetlands, and more. This diversity of plant life supports a diversity of animal life. You can attract and support a wide array of animals by creating a Jersey-Friendly Schoolyard that mimics our natural world. Visit Step 7: Create Wildlife Habitat on the Jersey-Friendly Yards website for more tips, tools, and resources. 

Standard Action

7A: Learn about habitats and wildlife in the Barnegat Bay watershed.

Provide lessons about the variety of habitats found in the Barnegat Bay watershed and the diversity of wildlife inhabiting them. 

Curricula and General Resources about Barnegat Bay Habitats and Wildlife

7B: Attract and support wildlife in your schoolyard.

Invite students to make observations of your schoolyard and determine what wildlife species lives there. Add some features to your schoolyard that will support basic needs of wildlife, such as food, water, and places to rest and raise young. Suggestions include:

  • Appropriate food sources such as fruit and seed-bearing plants, shrubs and trees.
  • Places for wildlife to raise a family and materials to build a nest (this may include a variety of plant types, such as grasses, ferns, vines, perennials, shrubs and trees).
  • Feeders for hummingbirds and feeders for seed-eating birds.
  • Places for birds and wildlife to shelter from the weather or predators (this may include trees and shrubs or brush piles.

RESOURCES FOR SUPPORTING WILDLIFE IN YOUR SCHOOLYARD

Ready to Submit Step 7?  

Upload the Required Documentation to Your Custom Link.

When you enrolled, you received a custom link from us for your action item uploads.

What to Submit for Step 7

  • Copy of your lesson plans about wildlife habitats. Include samples of student learning outcomes and photos of students engaged in your lessons. (7A)
  • Copy of your lesson plans about local wildlife and their basic needs. Include examples of student learning outcomes and photos of students engaged in your lessons. (7B)

Standard Actions for Creek School Certification