become a member
To Have a Backyard for Biodiversity you should do the following:
- Grow local native plants – minimum ten species.
- Provide local native flowering & fruiting plants
- Provide clean water – Ensure that you have at least ONE of the following: Bird bath, Frog Pond, Butterfly Puddling Area, Rain Garden
- Provide species specific shelter – Ensure that you have at least TWO of the following: Bird nest box, Possum Box, Bat Box, Native Bee Hive, Solitary Bee Hotel, Insect Hotel, Brush or log pile, Rock pile or dry rock wall, Thick mulch piles, Compost bins, Frog ponds, Rain garden, Variety of planted ground covers, Lawn replaced with native tussock grasses, Wildflower meadow patch, Planted vines, Beetle Mound
- Control weed plant species and remove or limit lawn
- Grow some food, and some native food, for your family!
- Embrace some mess for example: ‘Maintain’ an un-mowed patch or have a log or brush pile
- Enclose pets and control pests
- Avoid use of chemicals when controlling pests or other uses
- Learn about and celebrate nature!
Try to do ALL of the following:
- Buy yourself a new natural history book at least once per year!
- Take photos before and after your new native planted areas.
- Share with your family and friends and neighbours
- Talk up the beauty and fascination of nature!
- Encourage others to join Backyards for Biodiversity.
Membership Inclusions
When you join Backyards for Biodiversity SEQ you will receive
- a membership card which will allow you to select two free native plants [tubestock] from participating nurseries.
- a colourful sign for your fence that acts as a conversation starter with your community
- your once-off membership fee helps us spread the word through brochures and posters, our website and blog posts, and social media.
SHARE your progress. We love to share stories about new gardens and verges, successful frog ponds and nest boxes, insect inventories and photographs of backyard creatures.
Help us Help Biodiversity!!
Protecting biodiversity and encouraging its restoration is vital work and you have joined a community committed to action. Your membership allows us to spread the word and make our community stronger.
There will be opportunities to meet like minded residents and to participate in activities designed to spread our message of bringing nature home!
WHY BECOME A MEMBER?
Think Globally, Act Locally.
This phrase was used often by conservationists in the 1980's and before. We want to bring it back.
Think Globally.
Life- all life - is indescribingly precious and valuable. Our planet, remains, the only sure bet for life in the knoweable universe and yet we seem to be hell bent on destroying it. This is unbelievably foolish given that our life, our destiny, is ultimately tied to the survival of all other life forms.
All of our citizens must realise that to meet our needs - of fresh air, clean water, chemical free food, stable climate, postive physical and mental health - we must maintain the integrity of our natural environments. When we lose biodiversity it is a clear sign that our environmental systems are suffering.
Despite the facts above, our planet's biodiversity, is in a steady decline. We have a long and sadly long list of both extinct and endangered species. Almost every species has suffered declines of abundance. In every global region life is in decline.
In Australia we have not fared better. Our mammal extinction rate is the worst in the world. Our biodiversity suffers from habitat destruction, invasive species [especially cats, foxes and toads], pollution, over exploitation and human population growth.
Knowing the information above demands that we act!
Act Locally.
We want people to act. To do something rather than just think and talk. We want people planting locally native plants: again and again and again.. We want them planting a diversity of species plus a diversity of plant forms. We want them making frog ponds and bird baths. We want them choosing particular local plants for our local bees and butterflies. We want them making bee hotels and bat boxes. We want them adding critter 'furniture' to their gardens; stones, logs, branches, mulch to offer shelter for our fauna.
We want people to act. To share their gardens and their reasons with their friends, family, neighbours and enemies. To encourage their neighbours, local businesses and politicians to encourage biodiversity in the lands that they manage.
Hopefully the more people who are enjoying biodiversity grow in their backyards the more people will be approving of its protection and / or restoration elsewhere.
We appreciate Backyards for Biodiversity is not the only solution to the biodiversity crisis, however it can be a strong positive first step. We want you to take the journey with us.
