Habitat Hero – March 2019

Katie Scott-Kelly

Our first Habitat Hero of 2019 is Katie Scott-Kelly.  Katie and her family have worked hard to make their Cape St Claire yard a friendly place for many wildlife species-from birds to mammals to the tiniest of insects.  Katie is a Watershed Shed Steward for Anne Arundel County so she has learned the importance of providing a safe place to co-exist with us in our own backyards.  One place she started with in 2001 was a rain garden in her front yard.  Due to flooding in the basement they directed two downspouts to the rain garden and have not had any flooding since.  The rain garden not only provided a relief from storm water by slowing it down, spreading it out and soaking it in, the native plant in the rain garden offer a wonderful habitat for wildlife.  The rain garden contains joe pye weed, little blue stem, lord Baltimore hibiscus and at one time black eyed Susan’s that have kept the butterflies and pollinators happy all summer long!

The backyard contains more natives that the local fauna finds appealing.  From the New York Ironweed, wild ageratum, sassafras, dogwood, spice bush and a bottle brush buckeye there is no shortage of native plants!   The birds (and kids) adore the berries on her serviceberry, while goldfinches munch happily on the coneflower seeds. And the bee balm, obedient plant, and woodland sunflower attract a large variety of pollinators.  You can’t have butterflies if you don’t have caterpillars so Katie has a wide range of host plants for the butterflies to lay their eggs on.  These include common milkweed (that arrived on their own), fennel, pussytoes, spice bush, and sassafras.  They raised several black swallowtail caterpillars they found on the fennel so the kids could witness the transformation, even bringing them into the classroom.

Some of the backyard critters that visit include an opossum that made its way across the back fence as they enjoyed the hot tub!  A pair of screech owls frequent their back yard.  One evening, around dusk she felt something fly past her head and was delighted when she realized it was an owl.  She shared the news with the kids who replied “duh, mom, we knew about the owls!”

In addition to the great selection of native plants Katie provides she also has four compost bins in the backyard (obtained through the county for free).  Many of the falls leaves get chipped and added as well as grass clippings and kitchen waste.  They have a beautiful curvy vegetable garden in the front yard that gets help from all the pollinators she has attracted to her yard with the native plants.  A few more natives include amsonia, callicarpa, northern bay berry, red bud tree, fringe tree and columbine all adding to attraction of her landscape-both to the human eye and the delight of the wildlife that reaps the benefits.

Katie Scott-Kelly, we thank you for your contributions for a better ecosystem and your caring approach to providing habitat for our local fauna by providing the native plants that they have co-evolved over hundreds of thousands of years! You are a Habitat Hero!!