When Phyllis and Ivar Dolph moved into their Anacortes home four years ago, the front yard was a flat rectangle of grass with one maple tree.
Today the Dolph’s property is unrecognizable from what it once was. The once manicured lawn has been replaced with a cornucopia of trees, shrubs, native grasses and flowers.
Through a three-year effort by the Anacortes/Fidalgo Island Backyard Wildlife Habitat group, 528 residential yards on Fidalgo and Guemes islands have been certified as either wildlife habitats through the federation, as wildlife sanctuaries through the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, or both.
