14-year-old built a pond in her backyard in 2017. Nearly 10 years later, it has become a wildlife oasis

Maggie Johnson was only 14 when she had a class assignment where she could have done something other than write a paper or present information about the topic. She wanted to create a pond instead, as per a report by PEOPLE.

In 2017, Maggie excavated an area of her family’s backyard located in Virginia as part of a high school agriculture assignment. The little project of building a small frog pond has evolved into a bustling habitat for the wildlife.

Her family calls it “Maggie's Pond.” The pond sits in the Shenandoah Valley, where the family's rural backyard once had plenty of patchy grass but not much wildlife beyond crickets. That changed after Maggie started digging. The spot filled with water by spring 2018. It did not take long for animals to notice. "Just a few weeks after the pond was filled, the first American toads found it,” Maggie said.

A small pond brings in more wildlife

The project soon became a family effort. Maggie's parents, Anna Maria and Steven David Johnson, started learning more about native plants and how they could help bring wildlife into the yard. Other family members helped line the pond with soil and rocks and add plants around the water.

They chose plants that could help pollinators and provide places for animals to shelter. Among them were buttonbush joe-pye weed and pickerelweed. White water lilies were added later. The changes did not go unnoticed.

American toads were followed by checkerspot butterflies, ruby-throated hummingbirds and snowberry clearwing moths. The pond slowly became a place where different kinds of wildlife could find food, shelter and water.

The garden, around it has now been named a Certified Wildlife Habitat by the National Wildlife Federation. And Maggie says it keeps changing every year.

From a $160 school project to a family wildlife haven

The first version of Maggie's Pond cost about $160. That covered things like the pond liner, plants and gardening tools. The family has continued adding to it. They spend $100 each year on more plants. Year they made their biggest investment yet spending $600 on a fence to keep unwanted predators, including cats away.

For Maggies dad the pond has become much more than a school project. It is now a place for the family as well as friends and neighbors. Importantly he sees it as an example of what people can do, in their own yards.

A small patch of lawn became a pond. The pond attracted toads. Then came butterflies, hummingbirds and moths. 10 years later Maggies simple school project is still growing. And the wildlife keeps coming back.