Gardening for Wildlife in the Northeast Monday, July 30, 2007 By: Elizabeth Soper Milton, MA Residents Certify their Habitats NWF's Northeast office is teaming up with Gardeners Supply and the Burlington community to put Burlington on the map as a leader in wildlife habitat restoration. The Burlington Vermont Community Wildlife Habitat Initiative (BCWHI) is a multi-year program that involved community members in voluntarily restoring and creating wildlife habitat throughout Burlington, with the goal of having the city become certified as an NWF Community Wildlife Habitat. In March and April of 2007, 18 Burlington community residents participated in a 24-hour Wildlife Habitat Steward training. These Habitat Stewards will now be donating 50 hours of volunteer time towards the BCWHI and are working to certify residents, community sites and schools within the Burlington community.  Milton Outdoor Classrooms In 2004, the National Wildlife Federation received a grant from the Environmental Protection Agency to develop Habitat Stewards: Building Community-Level Ecological Stewardship in Milton, MA a community-wide education and volunteer initiative that has provided Milton with opportunities to contribute to healthy wildlife habitat by becoming stewards of their local environment. Three Milton residents were recruited and trained as Habitat Stewards Hosts and served as the local coordinators for the overall project. With help from NWF and the Boston Natural Areas Network (BNAN), they devised and coordinated an intensive 24-hour Habitat Stewards workshop, where 26 community volunteers were trained to educate and assist other Milton residents in the creation and restoration of wildlife habitat throughout their community.  In 2005, these volunteers donated over 50 hours each of service (a total of 1,427 hours!) to habitat projects, which has resulted in the certification of Milton as a National Wildlife Federation Certified Wildlife Habitat Community.  Milton is the first community in New England to be certified by NWF and the fourteenth in the country. Check out www.miltonoutdoorclassrooms.com for more information.