Animal Planet Filming - Sweetwater in the Foothills Community Wildlife Habitat Project

Animal Planet Films Community Wildlife Habitat
Demonstration Garden April 4 & 5, 2006

Here is a little background about our journey to becoming Arizona's first Community Wildlife Habitat.

Many of you know that our project attracted the attention of David Mizejewski, the director of the habitat education programs at NWF, who is also the naturalist co-host of Backyard Habitat, a program on Animal Planet. On April 4 and 5, Rivr Media filmed two episodes at Agua Dulce, one at a residence and one at a denuded patch of common area near the community pool that the habitat team had secured permission from the HOA board to turn into a community wildlife habitat garden.

Each filmed episode focused on two or three local critters and included creating an attractive garden area with habitat that is harmonious with the featured wildlife. We wanted to make sure that the community garden makeover would be compatible with higher levels of human activity, so for the episode near the pool they created habitat that would be ideal for roadrunners and king snakes (non-poisonous), both natural predators of the rattlesnake. They also put in native plants that attract hummingbirds. The design of the garden was done by Doug Larson, a botanist who for 22 years has been landscaping much of what you see when you visit the Desert Museum. With help from Northwest Landscaping, Doug and his Desert Museum crew installed our community demo garden, including a water feature, all at no expense to our community.

We sincerely thank those community members who agreed to take part in the filming, got their hands dirty helping to do the prepping and planting, or just dropped by to watch. It was an exciting two days! If you missed seeing these episodes on Animal Planet, you can check out the DVD from our community Gate House library.

Above: Backyard Wildlife Habitat hosts Molly and David get makeup touchups before filming starts.
Below: Filming a segment with the show hosts, Julia Wirschling and Marc Lowry.

Above: Doug Larson, botanist with the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum, and neighborhood children place some of the native plants in the ground.
Below: The self-filling fountain is put in place by the landscape crew. The plants seem small now, but in a few years they will fill in and make this community habitat a beautiful area.

Community Wildlife Habitat Project Sweetwater in the Foothills • Tucson, Arizona
Animal Planet Films Community Wildlife Habitat Demonstration Garden April 4 & 5, 2006 Here is a little background about our journey to becoming Arizona's first Community Wildlife Habitat. Many of you know that our project attracted the attention of David Mizejewski, the director of the habitat education programs at NWF, who is also the naturalist co-host of Backyard Habitat, a program on Animal Planet. On April 4 and 5, Rivr Media filmed two episodes at Agua Dulce, one at a residence and one at a denuded patch of common area near the community pool that the habitat team had secured permission from the HOA board to turn into a community wildlife habitat garden. Each filmed episode focused on two or three local critters and included creating an attractive garden area with habitat that is harmonious with the featured wildlife. We wanted to make sure that the community garden makeover would be compatible with higher levels of human activity, so for the episode near the pool they created habitat that would be ideal for roadrunners and king snakes (non-poisonous), both natural predators of the rattlesnake. They also put in native plants that attract hummingbirds. The design of the garden was done by Doug Larson, a botanist who for 22 years has been landscaping much of what you see when you visit the Desert Museum. With help from Northwest Landscaping, Doug and his Desert Museum crew installed our community demo garden, including a water feature, all at no expense to our community. We sincerely thank those community members who agreed to take part in the filming, got their hands dirty helping to do the prepping and planting, or just dropped by to watch. It was an exciting two days! If you missed seeing these episodes on Animal Planet, you can check out the DVD from our community Gate House library. Above: Backyard Wildlife Habitat hosts Molly and David get makeup touchups before filming starts. Below: Filming a segment with the show hosts, Julia Wirschling and Marc Lowry. Above: Doug Larson, botanist with the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum, and neighborhood children place some of the native plants in the ground. Below: The self-filling fountain is put in place by the landscape crew. The plants seem small now, but in a few years they will fill in and make this community habitat a beautiful area.			Above: This is the "before" picture of the area that is now a community habitat demonstration garden. Below: Digging holes and planting the low water use plants that will provide food and shelter for butterflies, hummingbirds and other desert critters. Above: Hosts David and Molly discuss the walking stick project. This craft project will be part of the series filmed here for Animal Planet. Below: Host David and community resident Marc Lowry during filming. Above and below: Rivr Media gets ready to film the water feature installation for Animal Planet's Backyard Wildlife Habitat program. Community residents (at right above) watch the proceedings, while the landscape crew puts finishing touches on the plantings.