Set among the lush maritime forest and salt marshes of Hilton Head Island, Moss Creek is a private residential community dedicated to protecting and enhancing wildlife habitat in their neighborhood. Led by Wayne Fredrick and Lou Natale, and with the help of Moss Creek’s Nature Club, this community achieved certification as a Community Wildlife Habitat through the National Wildlife Federation and the South Carolina Wildlife Federation back in May of this year.

SCWF Executive Director Sara Green and SCWF Habitat Education Manager Savannah Jordan recently joined Moss Creek’s neighborhood friends and families to celebrate this accomplishment with waterfront live music, barbeque, and a special certification ceremony.

“As a community, we appreciate that Moss Creek is blessed with a rich, diverse and beautiful natural environment. Those who have chosen to reside here over the decades recognized the importance of our natural assets and worked together to restore and expand them”, said Lou Natale.

Efforts to achieve this certification included conducting litter cleanups on roadsides and waterways, building and maintaining nesting boxes for bluebirds, bats, and owls, holding garden tours, posting “Fox Squirrel Crossing” signs on roadways, planting native plants in their demonstration Pollinator Garden, and engaging community members through education and outreach events.

The Moss Creek Community Wildlife Habitat team forged through the challenges of the pandemic to receive their certification points by creating informational videos, posting content to their social media groups and Nature Club newsletters, and joining online meetings. The team has also initiated buffer plantings with native plants on the two championship golf courses in Moss Creek, which will deter fertilizer and chemicals from entering the surrounding waterways. Moss Creek continues to add more wildlife habitats to the community and has set the example for encouraging homeowners to welcome wildlife to their own backyards.

The National Wildlife Federation’s Community Wildlife Habitat program was created to encourage communities to become more wildlife-friendly through the use of native plants and sustainable land management. Individuals or communities who are interested in learning more about certifying a space as wildlife habitat should visit: https://www.scwf.org/habitat.

Read more about Moss Creek in the National Wildlife Federation’s blog post.