Check out each Criterion:
Are you interested in developing your backyard or woodlot to improve it for wildlife and ecosystem health?  Would you like to learn easy ways to improve soil and water quality from your backyard?  Do you want to see a larger diversity of pollinators in your gardens but don't know where to start?  This program might be right for you!! 

This free certification program helps landowners implement conservation practices in an easy to follow, systematic way.  Interested landowners can start by looking at our checklist to see what criteria their property already meets, and get ideas for new practices or plantings to improve the space.  Landowners can also request guidance and ideas from our staff and receive free one-on-one help on their property.

Check Out the CLC Checklists:

Why Certify your Landscape?


More than 165 million acres in this country are devoted to neighborhoods, towns, and lands where we live and work.  Much of this land is not inclusive to the other creatures that live on this planet; excluding many pollinators and other small creatures due to lack of habitat, food, or shelter.  Habitat fragmentation can lead to species decline and possible extinction.   

Imagine a world where we create an environment where birds, butterflies, and other creatures can find shelter and food, raise their young and migrate.  We can listen to the bird calls in the morning, learning our favorites and noticing when new ones come and go.  We can enjoy the different colors of the garden, early spring bloomers to late fall Asters--and enjoy watching the huge variety of pollinators that buzz with work during these active months, getting to know what the hummingbirds favorite flowers are.  If more of us in Androscoggin and Sagadahoc counties imagined this world for the lands that we steward by implementing healthy conservation practices around our homes then we could start to re-connect the habitat back from its fragmented state.  The way farm fields, pastures, edges, landscaped areas, and woodlands are managed can make a great difference in supporting a connected, healthy ecosystem that ultimately keeps the land resilient and functional.

Biologist Doug Tallamy, author of Bringing Nature Home, proposes a “Homegrown National Park” where we can all help to create the vast landscape of ecosystems needed to keep the water and air clean, keep farms and forests productive, and help birds, insects and wildlife recover from steep declines in recent years.  This is why we believe that certifying your landscape will be beneficial to ALL of the creatures that live in our area.

How Do I Start?

This free certification program is designed to help landowners implement conservation practices in a systematic way, with guidance and ideas from our staff and one-on-one help on their property.

First, take a look at the checklist depending on your property type:
Fill out the checklist of conservation practices you have implemented on your property.   The checklist and resource guide will give you many ideas for new practices or plantings to improve the space.  Once you think you have completed the checklist you can submit it to Andy Valley SWCD via email or by mail. SWCD staff will then visit your property (one free visit per property) to review the checklist items with you.

If you would like more assistance and recommendations for your property before you complete the checklist please contact staff early and request a site visit!  We love to walk around in your gardens and see what you're working on and what your goals are.   The first visit is complementary. (additional time and visits after are billed at the standard rate.) It is a chance to measure your progress and share ideas and practices with your neighbors, friends and family.

You can begin and submit your checklist even if you are not done, as a Aspiring Conservationist. (One visit is complimentary per landowner with additional visits at the standard rate.) There is no pass fail! It is a chance to measure your progress and share ideas and practices with your neighbors, friends and family.

Interested in getting tips for your property, but not interested in getting certified?  Thats okay!  You may use these free resources without completing the certification at all!  This free checklist is a way for landowners to learn about and understand more of the many practices and principles that we promote at the Soil & Water Conservation District.  Our certification helps you ensure you’ve covered every aspect of what’s needed to truly implement conservation on your property.  We want to make this information accessible, so that we can build more resilient ecosystems for the future.

What will I get?

· A newfound knowledge and appreciation for native landscapes that benefit ALL creatures that live there

· The chance to watch birds, pollinators, and wildlife inhabiting your land, feeding and raising young, and seeing beautiful changes in the landscape.

· Free one-on-one help and recommendations from our staff.  (The first site visit is free per property with additional visits and recommendations at our standard rate.) 

·A chance to measure your progress and share ideas and practices with your neighbors, friends, and family.

· A sign indicating your property is certified, which is a great (for bragging rights and)  to start conversations with others about your efforts. (Signs are $32)

· Receive a certificate and document that can support other conservation work, such as working with NRCS or state agencies.

· Recognition in our Annual Report, newsletters, and more.