A Rain Garden In Every Community: A Project of the Rock River Coalition

PROJECT SUMMARY

Summary Statement: ‘A Rain Garden in Every Community’ will bring the concerns of storm water down to the individual or personal level. A rain garden is a slightly sunken native plant garden receiving water from a roof or paved area allowing the rain to soak in, instead of running off. A single 300 square foot garden receiving water from a home downspout will infiltrate 12,000 gallons of water a year.

The RRC demonstration rain gardens will be installed at schools or other community locations. The Coalition sees these rain gardens as a key way to educate youth, adults and community leaders about the concerns of storm water runoff and groundwater recharge. Education will involve curriculum units in the school, workshops for adults, and media coverage in papers, radio and cable.

Eight small to mid-sized communities will be selected for the project based on both teacher and administrator interest. The teachers will be trained on storm water concerns and teaching methods using materials such as the EPA Water Sourcebook, Illinois Rivers Guide, USGS Water Science for Schools, “Discover a Watershed” series and hands-on rain garden activities developed by local teachers.

A local consultant will work with the schools or communities to establish a basic design and then work with the students to finalize the design and select plants. The students will help organize and run a workshop for community members on storm water and rain gardens.

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

Why

The Issue: Storm water is one of the most critical environmental issues facing the Upper and Lower Rock River Basins in Wisconsin. More than twenty-five cities, towns and villages have or are in the process of obtaining a Storm Water Discharge Permit as required by EPA and Wisconsin statute NR 216. In 1998 a survey sent to 1600 people, followed by a Partnership Forum with a 180 participants, identified storm water and groundwater as two of the top ten issues facing the basin.

Over the past six years the Rock River Coalition (RRC) has worked with a partnership team composed of consultants and staff from state Department of Natural Resource, city public works, city planning and county land conservation. Together they have identified critical needs regarding storm water. To that end they have hosted technical workshops for developers, consultants, agency staff and elected officials as well as workshops on conservation subdivision design and effective environmental grant writing.

Environmental Stewardship: One audience that the team feels is not being effectively reached are youth and the general public. One reason is the disconnect between a problem as large as storm water and the feeling that, I as an individual, can’t do anything about it. Rain gardens pose an incredible opportunity to educate people about the issue of storm water while allowing people to take effective action to decrease their contribution to the problem. Each 300 square foot rain garden infiltrates 12,000 gallons a year enough to fill two and half tanker trucks.

In the Madison area, a number of organizations including the Rock River Coalition are working with individuals and community groups to establish rain gardens. The RRC has taken steps to bring this methodology out to the small villages and hamlets in the central part of the basin. Our Outreach Coordinator has worked to install rain gardens in a public park in Horicon, at a school in Hustisford, at a Senior Citizen Center in Watertown, at the University of Wisconsin-Extension county office in Jefferson, at a church in Madison, at the Expo Center in Waukesha and at the airport in Middleton. Community volunteers and youth have been involved with the installation of these rain gardens. (Stars on map indicate location of these rain gardens). Many more communities haven’t been reached.

The results of a 2003 survey of residents in Madison, Wisconsin and its suburbs showed that people lacked knowledge about storm water, their contribution to storm water or what they could do to help. However, they also expressed a willingness to take actions including moving downspouts and establishing rain gardens if they knew how. The RRC can be a catalyst to help people take these actions.

Who

Hustisford students, teacher and principal installing their rain garden

The project will be managed by Suzanne Wade, University of Wisconsin-Extension Basin Educator for Natural Resources. Ms Wade has 30 years experience in curriculum development, teacher training, community development, evaluation and natural resources issue education. In addition to overseeing general management of the grant, she will oversee curriculum development and evaluation.

RRC Outreach Coordinator, Ellen Rulseh, will oversee all aspects of the project involving school and community contacts including but not limited to: making initial contact, working with school officials for approval, identifying teachers, enlisting the support of community groups, setting up and advertising community workshops, arranging for media coverage, establishing budgets for each site and implementing evaluation.

The RRC currently works with Susan Priebe of Earth & Water Works LLC and Margaret Burlingham of LanDesign LCC for rain garden design and establishment. Both have experience working with youth and community groups.

An experienced environmental educator will be hired as the curriculum specialist whose job will be to adapt or write rain garden curriculum, integrate it with existing storm water curriculum, and complete a teacher’s guide. They may be involved in teacher training.

Teacher involvement: The Outreach Coordinator will contact teachers until eight 6-9th grade teachers in a diversity of locations within the basin are selected. Ms Rulseh will work with the schools, parks or public works departments to locate a site for the rain garden and to get administrative approvals. Depending on the size of the school and the age of the students, it is expected that this project will reach between 240 and 1600 students. After establishment, the rain garden will keep on teaching via permanent educational signs and additional curriculum. While the target is 6-9th grade, motivated teachers in other grades will also be considered.

Both RRC and UWEX have a long history of working with schools and will identify teachers from contact lists, as well as from the list of teachers who have completed the UW-Stevens Point Environmental Education Masters Degree Program. Media releases about the grant award from the EPA will allow other teachers to learn of the project and how to contact us. If needed, contacts will be made with school principals in targeted communities regarding the program to locate teachers and encourage participation.

Community involvement: A key component of this project is the involvement of community groups. We have a goal of reaching 160 community leaders who will help directly with the rain garden project and an additional 160 community members who will attend rain garden workshops. Based on past experience about one in five will either establish their own rain garden or will teach others about rain gardens, thus multiplying the impact of the “A rain garden in every community.”

Community group contacts will depend on which eight locations are chosen. The RRC has worked with many groups, such as lake associations, Rotary, Kiwanis, friends groups and Master Gardeners as well as various city and county departments throughout the basin. The Outreach Coordinator will talk with group leaders and make presentations about the project to enlist sponsorship and involvement.

Past partnerships of the type we will be initiating include: rain garden establishment; Jefferson County, LanDesign LLC, Earth & Water Works LLC, Dutch Designs LLC, Horicon Parks Department, Centro Hispano, St James Church, Hustisford Schools, Middleton Schools, Groundwater Guardians, Carroll College, Waukesha County, Department of Natural Resources, Watertown Senior Citizen Center: for natural shoreline restoration demonstrations; Wisconsin School for the Deaf, City of Delevan, City of Hartland, City of Watertown, City of Middleton, Village of Fox Lake, Dodge County, Walworth County, Hartland Senior Citizen Center, Friends of Dodge County Parks.