Nine years ago, a 14-year-old girl in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley picked up a shovel for a school agriculture project. She had no way of knowing that the small pond she dug in her family's backyard would, nearly a decade later, grow into a flourishing wildlife ecosystem complete with toads, treefrogs and a thriving garden of native plants, according to a report by the National Wildlife Federation.
In 2017, Maggie decided to build a backyard pond as part of her high school agriculture class assignment. At the time, the rural backyard was little more than a patch of ordinary lawn, with patchy grass and the occasional chirp of crickets providing the only natural soundtrack. What began as a simple class project has since turned into what her family now proudly calls Maggie's Pond, a certified wildlife habitat that draws frogs, toads, pollinators and a host of other creatures through the year.
