Washougal woman plants native pollinator garden outside local animal shelter

When Margaret Gossage moved to Portland from Phoenix in 2013, she planted a native pollinator garden at her home that eventually earned certified status from the Backyard Habitat Program, a Portland-based noprofit that provides technical assistance, financial incentives, encouragement and recognition to people that want to create natural, low-maintenance gardens. But when Gossage wasn't able to replicate the feat when she moved to Washougal several years ago, due to the size of her yard, she had to get creative. In the spring of 2021, she planted a native pollinator garden at the West Columbia Gorge Humane Society, which was recently bestowed silver certification from the environmental group. "It's just something I wanted to do, and I'm glad I accomplished it," said Gossage, who has served as a volunteer at WCGHS for the past five years. "I think it's raised awareness in our little volunteer team about backyard habitats and the importance of native plants to the environment. I'm happy to be the evangelist for that in any little way I can." Bethany Wray, program coordinator for the Watershed Alliance of Southwest Washington, a nonprofit that works with the habitat program to certify yards in Clark County, said that the garden in front of the WCGHS animal shelter is "the first public place in Washougal to be certified," according to Gossage. "It is a small area with full sun exposure and lots of radiant heat from the pavement and brick building, so it is great to see it doing so well," according to a post on the program's Facebook page. "Margaret (did a) great job coordinating this community project in Washougal." The program has certified more than 5,000 properties since launching in 2009, according to the Portland Audubon's website. "When I moved from Phoenix to Portland, I was just in heaven because nothing grew in Phoenix, and I was able to grow everything in my yard in Portland," Gossage said. "I just thought (native gardening) sounded interesting, and that's how I started learning about the importance of native plants in the habitat. And since I couldn't do it at (my Washougal) home, I thought, 'Well, let's just get it done here.' I just thought that a humane society and a backyard habitat would be a good marriage." Three-fourths of the world's flowering plants and about 35 percent of the world's food crops depend on animal pollinators to reproduce, according to the United States Department of Agriculture's website, which also states some scientists estimate that one out of every three bites of food people eat exist because of animal pollinators like bees, butterflies, moths, birds, bats, beetles and other insects. "It's important to grow native plants anywhere you live in the world because bees and birds and (other) animals need them," Gossage said. "The more native flora and fauna that you have in your yard, the better overall for the environment. There's a sign there now (which states the shelter is) backyard habitat certified and educates people and makes them go, 'Oh, what is that? That's curious. I'm going to look that up,' and maybe help push this out to other people in the community. I (also) wanted something there that would look good and (that) people would find attractive when they came to the dog shelter, rather than just a pot of dirt with weeds in it." Gossage procured the assistance of Hannah Schrager, operator of Good Year Farms, a Washougal-based nursery that specializes in native plants, to create the garden. "Hannah actually designed the layout of the garden (and figured out) what plants would work best there," Gossage said. "She donated part of the plants and gave me a discount on other plants. Then I put out a request for other volunteers to come help me plant, and three other volunteers helped me plant one day. It didn't take very long because there wasn't much in there to begin with -- just a few weeds." Gossage planted a variety of native species, including yarrow, cutleaf penstemon, pearly everlasting, meadow checkermallow, nodding onion, hairy manzanita and kinnikinnik. "We were looking for plants that would flower at different times of the season -- early summer, midsummer, late summer," she said. "We were also looking for plants that would be green all winter long so that we'd have some that still look good when the plants weren't flowering. Sometimes it just looks fried, so we have to keep it watered. When the rains come again this fall, we'll see some resurgence of some of the plants. Then in the spring, it will look great. "And as I see other plants not surviving, or holes that need to be filled, I have extra plants that I'm growing in my yard that I'll just transplant into the garden, and hopefully, eventually, it'll look like a big chaotic, lovely mess."

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