Habitat Certification Program Has Roots in Hillsdale
- Aug 9
- 4 min read
Updated: Aug 10
[August 9, 2026]
By Stephanie Sandmeyer
Backyard Habitat Certification signs are a familiar sight in the yards and gardens of Portland-area homes, and for many years, I passed them by without much notice.
When I moved to Hillsdale, though, and observed the plethora of birds as I walked around the neighborhood, my nascent pandemic-era birding hobby turned into a quest to cultivate an outdoor environment around my home that would attract birds. The Backyard Habitat Certification signs suddenly caught my attention, and I enrolled, but I was unaware that the program started (figuratively) in my own backyard.
Robin Jensen is a Hillsdale resident who was one of several people instrumental in the program’s formation in the early 2000s.
Jensen shared with me that prior to the citywide expansion of the Backyard Habitat Certification Program in 2009 (which is now a collaboration between the Bird Alliance of Oregon and the Columbia Land Trust), multiple groups were working toward habitat restoration in areas across southwest Portland, such as Keller Woods, George Himes Park, Marquam Nature Park, and Terwilliger Parkway. “We were all doing this restoration work independently and decided we could join together and receive funding and support without competing with one another,” said Robin, who was on the Friends of Marquam Nature Park board for over 30 years. These groups joined together to form the West Willamette Restoration Partnership. With support and funding from organizations and individual donors, the WWRP raised $37,000K to restore 75 acres and remove ivy from 300 acres across these public spaces.
The WWRP quickly realized that their work would be for naught if the private properties bordering these public, natural spaces were overrun with non-native species such as ivy and Himalayan blackberry. “At the beginning, we set our goal to engage twenty-five homeowners in the program and hopefully get eight of them certified,” said Jensen.
Jensen is an artist, and the logo she created in 2009 for the certification program (the ubiquitous Spotted Towhee perched on a maple leaf branch) can be seen on certification signs and program materials today. “I figured the sign might make it to ten or twenty yards,” remarked Robin. Today, the Backyard Habitat Program has over 14,500 sites enrolled in the program and over 4,500 certified across the Portland metro area. One hundred and eighty of those are in Hillsdale.
I contacted Katherine Noble, the Backyard Habitat Certification Program co-manager, who noted the importance of cultivating native plants: “Planting native plants is crucial for protecting and fostering biodiversity in our region, as native plants are the base of the food chain. 90% of insects depend on native plants to survive, and in turn, 96% of terrestrial birds feed on insects. If we give up on our native plants, we, in turn, are giving up on our native insects and birds that rely on them. Portland Metro is a particularly crucial region for us to create more connected habitats and green spaces, as we are along the Pacific Flyway, which millions of birds use to travel from Alaska to Patagonia (and in reverse) each spring and fall. Creating habitat spaces in urban/suburban areas is also a crucial piece to creating more climate-resilient communities and mitigating urban heat island effects.”
A few weeks after I signed up for the program, a technician from the program assessed the landscape around our home. Over the course of an hour, the technician carefully documented the growing conditions and plant species present while I furiously scribbled down her observations and advice on a notepad. Thankfully, she distilled her knowledge and recommendations into an 11-page report that I received a few weeks later, along with coupons for local nurseries and information on everything from which native plants to select for your yard to pesticide and herbicide alternatives that are safer for humans and wildlife. Our certification is still in process, as we’re taking it slow and steady. The greatest expense thus far was the professional removal of mature English holly and laurel (both nuisance weeds). Procuring native species has been either free or nominal: we’ve taken advantage of the city’s Free Trees program, pop-up sales through Sparrowhawk Native Plants, and the East Multnomah Soil and Water Conservation District’s plant sales or giveaways.
My Backyard Habitat Certification folder is now dog-eared and scrawled with gardening notes and future naturescaping plans. It’s laborious but gratifying work. Jensen, who advised on many backyard transformations as a Backyard Habitat Certification technician, said, “There’s no timeline, and it's not as important that you get certified. Any efforts are better than none at all.”
It was a good reminder for me. The sore muscles that follow time spent working in my yard are far more satisfying than getting a sign in the front yard (although I will be proud when there is one). More than that, witnessing the native plants and trees my family and I carefully planted in the fall and winter flourish and grow in the spring and summer is well worth the effort. And I’ve already noticed an uptick in the number of bird species around our home.
What's in your yard? Birds, bees, native plants? Let us know.
