Mounting NWF backyard sign......

I'm leaving for AR Sun morning, so I don't know if I'll have time to call. If only I had a cell phone. I'd call you and you could help me pass a few hours while driving. Put a post it note on your forehead. That oughta help ya remember! lol.....

I write on my hand but I suppose a post-it note attached to my forehead would work better. Here's the sign down the road, I grayed out the street number and street-

Now that's what I call a sign! That is a work of art. How neat!

Yes, that is an impressive sign housing. He actually earned it even though I see a few Queen Anne's Lace growing by the base of the sign. Getting certified as "Acres For Wildlife" by this State is considerably more difficult then getting certified by National Wildlife or any of the offers offering certification. Our "Acres For Wildlife" program assumes the land owner is controlling, managing, and eradicating invasive species of both flora and fauna. I should do something with my sign but to me and my husband, the orangy/red is a little bit too much to have out at the end of our driveway. No matter what framing it has, it is still somewhat unattractive to us. I guess we're doomed to display our certification in the garage.

lol....here I'm thinking a frame, ya know, like a frame one uses around a picture or a piece of art? I believe I could do that. Might need some help, but it's certainly doable. Equil, do I have your permission to print it?

If your husband and you didn't have color blindness, perhaps you'd see that your sign is not ugly! I love that color of burnt orange that it is. I'm thinking of putting up a picket fence for my doggy, and painting it............pumpkin! Greenfield pumpkin to be exact.

Of course, print if off for your husband or your dad.

I guess we're just not burnt orange, redwood, or terra cotta people. I like the look of it but it's not for us personally based on the overall design and building materials already chosen for our home. You've been here. We've got black rod iron accenting mid tone gray brick chimneys and accent brick work combined with our dove gray Dutch lap siding and a black shake roof with black shutters and limestone sills and that combo just doesn't lend itself to being set off by that color sign sticking out like a sore thumb no matter what it is framed in. I do like the sign you have very much. We're green people.

Can you paint the sign, around the words? That's my motto, if I don't like it, paint it. That sign deserves a place in the yard, not in the garage. It might inspire others to look at things differently.

You know, I actually thought of that at one time and was too darn lazy to follow up and see if there was even any paint that would stick and adhere to that plastic sign through the seasons without flaking off.

I don't know that it would inspire people but I don't know that it wouldn't. You raise a valid point.

Yours in plastic? Mine is metal. That's weird. Personally, I think you'd lose something by painting it. I also think, down at the beginning of your driveway, that the sign would look fine. I don't remember being able to see the house from the road. I'm a green person also, just not that color of green. Too bad we can't switch.

If I do build something similar to your neighbors, it won't be as grandiose. That's not us, or our house.

Do you know a welder? They should be able to fabricate something for you using black iron, your sign has black, something similar to the iron accents you have around there. You would tie it in that way. The color police won't come and get you because your house has no pumpkin and your sign does. Down in AR, all around the lake are these blue signs alerting fisherpeople to good fishing spots. They're nailed onto trees, at the edge of the timber. They look fine. IMHO, the signs (yours, mine, the fishies) are the color they are to grab people's attention. If they blended in, nobody would see them.

Plastic, vinyl, synthetic something or other but definitely not metal.

You can see a portion of the roof of the house from the road but that's about it. I think I'm going to just pass on putting that sign up anywhere other than in the garage until the State makes one that is more appealing to us. I could have a brick housing made for it complete with footings to match the brick on the house and it would still be the same color orang/red.

Equilibrium, you mentioned that your state had a program. I'm not sure that my state is that far-thinking but, just in case, how did you find out about it? I'll probably hear from some of my neighbors after that crack but any place that still allows and encourages clear-cutting can't be too worried about conservation of anything. They are worried about our barrier islands but I am up in the foothills. I didn't find anything on our state web site. Any suggestions?

Hi MollieB55, I would start out contacting a native plant organization in your area. If there is anything out there for you, they may very well have information available on existing programs that may be available to members as well as non members. From there I would contact your State Dept. of Natural Resources. I knew people who gave me the name and number to our Heritage Biologist and he came out and sat down with me a few times and we went over together what had been recommended by professionals that had surveyed my property. Based on my personal experiences, it will be back breaking work and there will be costs associated with clean up that you never dreamed of. In the long run, it's worth it. In my State, the incentive is that the participating landowner is given a property tax reduction. Don't let that leave you dancing on Cloud 9. So far, every year we have spent more (thousands and thousands more to be exact) than the dollar amount credited on our property tax. We figured it out and we'd have to stop spending money to improve this property and just hang out for another 40 years to make back that which we shelled out to date by riding out on the property tax reductions. One slight problem with that, this isn't a deal where once your property qualifies you get to have your certification until at such time as you sell your land. You have to continute to improve your property. That being said, the pittance our taxes are reduced still helps fund some of what is going on here and I am grateful that there was a program out there. We were going to expend family resources cleaning up over here anyway. There are some nice perks every once in a while. Last year I picked up quite a few native tree saplings from the State nurseries for free. I also get to touch base with my Heritage Biologist for free on site who offers suggestions regularly.

Equilibrium, Thanks so much for the info! I do have the address of a couple of native plant organizations for this area and can begin there. I don't know why I never thought of the Dept. of Natural Resources!. Duh, I used them all the time when I taught geology. My poor againg brain didn't jump to living things. No, I didn't imagine the tax break thing would be anything. This is something I would like to work toward just for my own satisfaction.

You've got the right attitude, "work toward just for my own satisfaction" but I did truly enjoy getting the freebies from the State Nursery.

Lauren