Creating Urban Oases for Wildlife

The Urban Oases program in New Haven, CT will create a replicable model for community-based wildlife conservation that engages new and diverse audiences, increases the availability of quality habitat in urban areas for migrating birds and other wildlife, and supports the mission of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Wildlife Refuge System. Using a combination of community-based land stewardship, demonstration gardens, citizen science, youth employment/green jobs training, and innovative environmental education programs, wildlife management techniques, and natural history interpretation, we will create a network of wildlife-friendly habitat oases and habitat improvements in municipal parks, schoolyards, vacant lots, and front yards, and in units of the Stewart B. McKinney National Wildlife Refuge.