Photos by Richard Maack A backyard stream that connects upper and lower ponds at the home of Paul and Barbi Holdeman is just one of several elements that attract wildlife to their property. Growing along the water’s edge are white-blooming yerba mansa and dark-leafed black taro plants.

 Paul and Barbi Holdeman’s Peoria, Arizona, landscape is the wildlife equivalent of Grand Central Station. Birds, dragonflies, amphibians, lizards and mammals come and go day and night, drawn to the life-sustaining front-yard stream and backyard pond the couple built. Located adjacent to a desert wash, their quarter-acre property hosts regular visitors, such as a coyote family that drinks from the stream early in the morning. Other creatures, including rare lowland leopard frogs (Rana yavapaiensis), moved in permanently, fortunate to find suitable habitat in the midst of a concrete jungle.

Lowland leopard frogs are on Arizona’s protected species list. The Holdemans believe the frogs in their garden migrated along the nearby Agua Fria River during a heavy rainy season a few years ago. Beautiful and melodious, these amphibians continue to reproduce, and at any given time there are two to three dozen frogs living in and around the pond.“Their croaking has almost a purring quality that is wonderful to hear at night,” Barbi comments.

The couple owns The Pond Gnome—a  business specializing in natural water-garden installation and chemical-free maintenance that aims at keeping water features safe for children, pets and wildlife. The two have been working with the Arizona Game & Fish Department to transport tadpoles to new habitats in hopes of increasing their population in other areas.

Homeowner Barbi Holdeman

Native and migratory birds abound in the landscape, including northern cardinal, Gila woodpecker, gilded flicker, flycatcher, gnatcatcher, various warblers and sparrows, Gambel’s quail, Harris’s hawk and many hummingbird species. They even had a nighttime visit from a great horned owl. “I woke our son, Parker, to see it,” says Barbi.

Parker, who is 9 years old, spends hours exploring the pond with his buddies. “Children and water seem to go together,” Barbi notes. “They love to feed the fish or hunt for frogs and toads. They’ve learned to be gentle with creatures and would rather play outside than indoors with video games. If kids have a place to discover nature, they won’t be bored.”

Paul remembers exploring the Sonoran Desert as a child; Barbi grew up in Missouri, playing near creeks and forests. Both believe so strongly that nature should be an integral part of childhood that they started a nonprofit organization to build schoolyard wildlife habitats; it is funded by an annual spring pond tour that Barbi oversees.

“Educators tell us how valuable natural habitats are as teaching tools, not only for obvious subjects like science and math, but for less tangible life skills such as patience and responsibility,” observes Barbi. Absorbing the sights and sounds of a natural setting without bombardment from traffic noise and electronic gadgets provides value for the human psyche as well, she believes.

Barbi remembers a personal example of nature’s healing power: “An autistic boy visited our pond with his mother. No matter how upset he got, the sound of water soothed him, and he was soon smiling and feeding the fish. His mother mentioned that it was one of the few times he was able to calm down without medication.”

When the couple first moved to their property in 2000, crickets and scorpions were prevalent, but as soon as the wildlife habitat began to take shape, the pests disappeared. Frogs, toads and lizards gobble up insects; dragonflies snatch gnats in mid-air; and fish consume mosquito larvae in the pond. “The public has been encouraged through years of advertising to create landscapes that are chemically dependent,” Barbi asserts. “Once you start using pesticides, it’s difficult to kick the habit, but wildlife will police the pests if given the opportunity.”