Watersmart Makeover: A Welcome to Wildlife

What kind of yard does a wildlife biologist create for herself and her family? For Shea O’Keefe, the 2025 WaterSmart Landscape Contest winner for San Dieguito Water District, it’s a yard that has a thoughtful connection to nature.

O’Keefe, a wildlife biologist who does restoration on working lands (think farmland, rangeland and forest land whose owners want to do something for wildlife) for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, has gradually created her own miniature version of a wildlife preserve in the suburbs of Encinitas.