When Suki Molina took down the bird feeders in her front yard in the spring, the birds didn’t disappear like in years past. Instead, they went straight to her backyard, where swaths of native plants provided them with a buffet of blossoms and bugs.
Molina converted her backyard into a natural habitat with the help of the Golden Eagle Audubon Society’s Habitat Patch Program. Modeled after programs at other Audubon chapters, Habitat Patch began in 2021 with the goal of helping City of Trees residents turn their yards into oases for birds and other wildlife in the city.
Ann DeBolt, retired botanist and Habitat Patch Program adviser, said it began because people wanted to find a way to help the creatures around them, big and small…