Clean drinking water and healthy waterways for fishing and swimming are important to all of us, but what can we do as individuals to help?  The best place to begin is in our own yards. To help you get started, the Barnegat Bay Partnership (BBP) developed Jersey-Friendly Yards, an online guide to healthy and eco-friendly landscaping in New Jersey.

The “Bringing Nature Home to Your Jersey-Friendly Yard” conference on October 14th will showcase the website’s resources and tools for a healthier yard. Join us to hear experts share their tips about how to create wildlife habitat, improve soil health, and conserve water in your yard.  The event’s inspirational keynote speaker will be Doug Tallamy, University of Delaware professor and author of “Bringing Nature Home” and “The Living Landscape,” books that have sparked a national conversation about sustaining wildlife by planting more native species at home.

A native plant sale and exhibitors with plenty of free information will also be part of the conference. Visit Jersey-Friendly Yards for registration and additional information, including the conference agenda and speaker biographies.

This conference is made possible by the generous support of the following sponsors: Ocean County Soil Conservation District, Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Ocean County, Native Plant Society of New Jersey, Pinelands Direct, and Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey.

Jersey-Friendly Yards was developed by the Barnegat Bay Partnership with funding provided by the NJ Department of Environmental Protection. For more information about the conference, contact Karen Walzer, BBP’s Public Outreach Coordinator, at kwalzer@ocean.edu.