Bloomington Community Wildlife Habitat

CERTIFYING BLOOMINGTON AS A COMMUNITY WILDLIFE HABITAT

The Bloomington Environmental Commission, in consultation with CSL Dir. Lucille Bertuccio, has created a Natural Landscaping brochure and five factsheets to help residents of Bloomington make the national Backyard Wildlife Habitat principles local. They explain the basic philosophy and how to grow local native plants, as well as some wildlife water and shelter needs. These materials are available in PDF format to download off the Bloomington Environmental Quality Indicator Website under the lefthand column titled “Resources.”

Congratulations!

October 2008 – Bloomington has finally achieved designation as a Community Wildlife Habitat after six years of hard work by the Center for Sustainable Living, Bloomington Parks and Recreation and Monroe County Parks and Recreation. AND, of course, by the many homes, businesses, schools and churches that have certified their backyards through the National Wildlife Federation.  We are the 27th City in the nation and the second city in Indiana to be so designated. Zionsville, a much smaller city has been certified for a number of years. This certification shows that the citizens of Bloomington are interested and knowledgeable about the environment, and are willing to take action to support healthy choices for humans and wildlife.

About six years ago the Center for Sustainable Living registered Bloomington as a Community Wildlife Habitat with the National Wildlife Federation. Bloomington Parks and Recreation, Monroe County Parks and Recreation, the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, Indiana University, and many others too numerous to count helped to provide the information that went into the registration document.

We ARE registered, however, in order to be a “certified” Community Wildlife Habitat, a percentage of the homes, apartments, businesses, schools and churches in Bloomington need to be certified through the National Wildlife Federation. We are well on the way to on our goal. We need YOU to help us get certified in 2006. If you would like to certify your yard or help your school, business or church become certified, contact Lucille Bertuccio at the center for Sustainable Living, 332-8796 (csloffice@gmail.com). We have a group of Habitat Stewards (pictured below) who have been trained to assist you and would be happy to help.

Registration Information about Bloomington:

Bloomington lies 45 miles south of Indianapolis in south-central Indiana, a land of limestone, karst, ravines, mesic forests, neotropical migratory songbirds, and the home of Indiana University.

Approximately 500 million years ago a shallow sea covered Indiana. Crinoids waved their feathery legs in the same area where now the Trout Lily (pictured at right), one of our beautiful spring wildflowers, entices pollinators.

Today, stream-sides and stream bottoms are littered with the calcified remains of crinoids and other fossils.

Tiny shelled-creatures, drifted to the bottom of this shallow sea and were pressed into limestone by the layers of sediments on top of them. This dimension-quality material has been used in the formation of buildings, and carved into statues and stone decorations.  Underground limestone bedrock dissolved into this region’s karst topography that includes sinkholes, disappearing streams, and caves. Some of these caves are protected hibernacula for the federally endangered Indiana Bat. The other events were actually “non-events.” The paths of the Illinoian and Wisconsin glaciers bypassed Bloomington and Southern Indiana due to an escarpment at the northern edge of Monroe County. The force of the melting glacial waters created the dissected terrain of ravines and steep hillsides.

Hemlock, and the rare Trailing Arbutus (pictured at left), still exist as reminders of our cold glacial past.  Additionally some “tropical” plants call Indiana home, such as Papaws and Passion Flower.  Ravines and woods are covered each spring with ephemerals blooming in that small slice of time between snow melt and leaf emergence.

Five hundred years ago trees formed an unbroken canopy, clothing ravines and bottomland with an edible palate of flowers, fruits and nuts, a cornucopia for both wildlife and humans.  Shrubs provided nesting areas for the neotropical migratory songbirds (like the Scarlet Tanager pictured at right) that still travel their ancient paths to South and Central America in the fall.  They can be enticed to visit our gardens on their way to the Hoosier National Forest because of the insects that flourish under our no chemical-spray regime.

Bloomington’s Planning Department encourages developers to plant native wild plants instead of the usual junipers and yews.  And, Bloomington Parks Department has restored the creek in Bryan Park to its natural condition. No longer is it mowed to the lip of the creek but now features many native wildflowers which bloom in the fall and help speed the Monarch on its migratory flight.  The Bryan Park Neighborhood Association received a grant to restore a tributary of the creek, and hiking trails are also outlined with native prairie species.  Even Indiana University cultivates small prairie gardens in planters and lawns.

Asters at Bryan Park

The Center for Sustainable Living, Bloomington and Monroe County Park Departments have worked with many schools to help them become certified.  They have worked hard to register individual homes as well. This year we hope to certify our first Nursing Home through the actions of our newest Habitat Stewards.

Bloomington has been working hard in this endeavor, and we are confident that we will be certified as a Community Wildlife Habitat in 2006.