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Great Lakes - An environmental history lesson

Posted on April 2, 2008 | Filed Under Clean Water, Great Lakes, Green Infrastructure, Healthy Waters, Rain Gardens

Gary Belan, Director of Healthy Waters Campaign
Healthy Waters, Catching the Rain

While my colleagues and I write and make videos on rain gardens, rain barrels, the importance of addressing stormwater pollution, and in general using green infrastructure to improve our rivers, I think it’s important to keep in mind why we do this. Ask anybody who is involved in conservation, whether it’s their job, they participate in a clean-up or they’re donating money, and they will tell it’s because they love being outdoors and they love the environment.

But for many people, including myself, the environment is more than just being outdoors or some abstract concept that needs protection because someone says it does. It is an active part of our lives. For my friend Patricia Pennell the Great Lakes are more than “the environment”, they are her history. Patricia is writing a series of blog posts on the Great Lakes Town Hall about her ancestors and the Great Lakes. It is a beautifully written series on how the environment, in this case the Great Lakes, runs through the blood of one family. She also has some really cool photographs, and I really recomend taking a look. Patricia first writes about the importance of the Great Lakes as a place, and then delves a little more into her family’s history there.

I think this is something we all have to keep in mind when we think of the environment. That vacation at Yellowstone, the honeymoon to Niagra Falls, or the hiking trip last weekend. These aren’t just abstract notions of the “environment”. These are all warm moments of life that we keep in our hearts and memories for our entire lives. And in Patricia’s case, generations.

Are Rain Barrels needed in the Great Lakes?

Posted on March 27, 2008 | Filed Under Great Lakes, Healthy Waters, Rain Gardens

Katie Swartz, Conservation Associate
Healthy Waters Campaign, Great Lakes Region

It is no surprise that the Great Lakes have been hit pretty hard with rain and snow the past few months. The rivers are rising so quickly that flood watches and warnings are a part of everyday life (scary!).

So, why would people in the Great Lakes be interested in conserving water when we seem to have such abundance?

Part of the allure of living in this region is being able to enjoy all four seasons, which means it still gets very hot and dry during the summer months. Gardeners search for ways to keep their plants looking healthy without putting a strain on their wallet. Rain barrels are an affordable and easy way to temporarily store water to reuse later.

So, where do I find one? Good question.

This Saturday, March 29th rain barrels will be distributed to those who pre-ordered at the Erie Street Market in downtown Toledo from 9am until noon. There will be a few extra for purchase, so come early! The barrels are 55 - 60 gallons, blue, and outfitted with all the necessary gadgets and gizmos. Go to New England Rain Barrel Company for more information.

Thanks to everyone who helped advertise this opportunity! Including Man With The Muck-Rake.

If you are outside the Toledo area, look to watershed groups and soil and water conservation districts for information and advice on where to purchase barrels and how to make them yourself.

Rain Garden How-to Video Series

Posted on January 25, 2008 | Filed Under Healthy Waters, Rain Gardens

Gary Belan, Director of Healthy Waters Campaign
Healthy Waters, Catching the Rain

Over the last couple of weeks, Patricia Pennell (West Michigan Environmental Council) and I have put together a series of how-to videos to build a rain garden. Below is a recap of the videos.

1. Rain Day Projects: Winter Rain Gardens

2. Rainy Day Projects: Where to put your rain garden

3. Rain Garden Tips: Soil

4. Rain Garden Tips: Design

Go Green New Infrastructure

Posted on January 18, 2008 | Filed Under Green Infrastructure, Healthy Waters, Rain Gardens

Katherine Baer, Director
Healthy Waters Campaign

Buffers, wetlands, and green roofs, hooray! Green infrastructure, the use of soil and plants to filter and treat water on-site, is really catching on. This includes preserving natural landscape features like streamside buffer zones as well as well as recreating landscape features by using techniques like raingardens and swales.

Green infrastructure works to help keep stormwater runoff from causing flooding problems and sewer overflows and can save energy and cool buildings, as well as providing an aesthetic benefit for communities. Additionally, these natural systems provide communities with added resilience to mitigate the changes we’ll face in a warming world.

As a way to translate these ideas into action, EPA just released their Managing Wet Weather with Green Infrastructure Action Strategy of which American Rivers is a partner. The strategy includes goals for how to incorporate green infrastructure into permit requirements for combined sewer overflows and stormwater - Washington D.C. has already incorporated these measures into their new stormwater permit, including tree planting and green roofs. New federal buildings will also be using more green infrastructure as a result of a new provision of the Energy Act.

And just in time, too. The recent Clean Watershed Needs Survey shows that $9.0 billion is needed for storm water management nationwide alone - green infrastructure is looking like a smart investment as well a good looking one.

Rain Garden Tips: Design

Posted on January 16, 2008 | Filed Under Green Infrastructure, Healthy Waters, Rain Gardens

Gary Belan, Director of Healthy Waters Campaign
Healthy Waters, Catching the Rain

So far in our video series we have talked about winter rain gardens, where to put your rain garden, and evaluating your soil. Today’s post will focus on designing your rain garden. Patricia Pennell of the West Michigan Environmental Council (home to Rain Gardens of West Michigan) wrote a little bit to accompany her video:

The other day Gary talked about how to locate and shape your rain garden so rain can get into it more easily than it can get into the storm drains. The rain garden he was standing in was beautiful, with river birch (Betula nigra) in the background. But how did the garden designer know that tree would be a good choice? How did they select the right plants? Well, they did some very good homework.

And winter is the very time to do this kind of homework, the kind of thing I call “Green Dreaming”. There are books that can help you choose beautiful native plants that will thrive in your rain garden location. One of my favorites for the Midwest is Lakescaping for Wildlife and Water Quality, by Carrol Henderson, Carolyn Dindorf, and Fred Rozumalski and the Minnesota DNR.

Garden design by a professional is a big help. There are many rules of thumb for rain gardens, such as “one plant per square foot”, but we have discovered that is not always a good idea; spacing depends on the size the plant will be when mature. If a plant will take up a space three feet by three feet in two years, the garden can get very crowded. We try to create rain gardens that have a pleasing design, a good progression of bloom, and look intentionally designed since that is what most of our beholders prefer to see. Watch the video for more handy tips and tools for designing rain gardens.

Rain Garden Tips: Soil

Posted on January 14, 2008 | Filed Under Green Infrastructure, Healthy Waters, Rain Gardens

Gary Belan, Director of Healthy Waters Campaign
Healthy Waters, Catching the Rain

Last week I wrote a brief intro for my blog post on testing your soil, and below is the video I promised. You’ll see why I wanted you all to get some supplies.

A couple things I forgot to mention in the video: Even if your soils don’t drain well, and replacing your soils with a better mixture is too expensive, you can still do a rain garden. Just put in native plants that grow deep roots. Over time, this will loosen up the soil. The drawback is it takes a year or two for the plants to establish themselves in a way that improves infiltration. That’s why we promote putting in looser soils, because you’ll be able to infiltrate more water, and sooner.

Additionally, the test I do with the water bottle is very basic, and is just supposed to give you a general idea of the ratio of clay, sand, gravel and organic matter is in your soil. I should probably do a video just on that little test, but for now this should give you a good idea. I highly recommend getting a professional soil evaluation though, if you really want to get involved with your yard and/or garden. Knowing your soil composition and pH will really help in deciding what type of plants you want to use. Patricia talks about soils in a really concise way on her page for evaluating your soil.

Later this week I’ll post a video of Patricia talking a bit about design. So keep an eye out for that.

Rain Garden Tips: Pre-video supplies

Posted on January 10, 2008 | Filed Under Green Infrastructure, Healthy Waters, Rain Gardens

Gary Belan, Director of Healthy Waters Campaign
Healthy Waters, Catching the Rain

The next topic for our rain garden tip series is going to be evaluating your soil. I was going to trying making the video yesterday, but realized later in the day that I didn’t have the right supplies. So, unfortunately I think I’ll have to postpone the video until Friday or Monday, since I’m out in the field most of today.

But the fun part is that not only am I going to talk about what to do to evaluate your soil, I’m going to show you a couple of neat little tricks on how to figure out what kind of soil you have in your back yard and also to test and see how well your yard infiltrates stormwater. I love science projects!

You don’t have to have these materials ahead of time, but in case you want to, here’s what you’ll need:

1. A clean, empty spaghetti jar with a lid, or something similar.
2. A handful of dirt from your back yard
3. A empty clean soup can with both top and bottom removed
4. A permanent marker
5. A small pitcher of water - or at least have your sink handy.

Curious? This’ll be fun. Oh, and Patricia is putting the finishing touches on her video on designing a garden, so that’s in the line-up as well. You’ll have to have your pencil and paper ready for that one.
Stay tuned…

Rainy Day Projects: Where to put your raingarden

Posted on January 8, 2008 | Filed Under Green Infrastructure, Healthy Waters, Rain Gardens

Gary Belan, Director of Healthy Waters Campaign
Healthy Waters, Catching the Rain

I hope you enjoyed Patricia’s talkon rain gardens in winter. Now that we know that rain gardens work all year round, let’s start talking a little bit about how to design your rain garden. The first thing we’ll talk about is locating the garden.

I’m standing in a large rain garden (technically it’s a bioretention cell) in Washington D.C. to demonstrate the importance of location. First, if you can build a rain garden in the middle of the city, you can put one in your yard. As for where in your yard, I give a few tips in the video. For more detail on what to do before starting, go to Patricia’s first step for rain garden design. More rain garden video tips to come…

Rain Day Projects: Winter Rain Gardens

Posted on January 7, 2008 | Filed Under Great Lakes, Green Infrastructure, Healthy Waters, Rain Gardens

Gary Belan, Director of Healthy Waters Campaign
Healthy Waters, Catching the Rain

So as I mentioned on Friday, my friend Patricia Pennell and I are putting together a series of videos to give you some tips for designing and building your own rain garden. She talks about why rain gardens even work in the winter, and gives some advice on different ways you may want to manage your garden for the winter time.

And if you’re not convinced after watching Patricia’s video, watch this video from the Connecticut NEMO program on rain gardens working in the winter.

Rainy Day Projects

Posted on January 4, 2008 | Filed Under Green Infrastructure, Healthy Waters, Rain Gardens

Gary Belan, Director of Healthy Waters Campaign
Healthy Waters, Catching the Rain

Are you a little bummed because it’s too cold outside to work in the garden or do anything outside? Well now is a great time to start planning the rain garden you want to plant this spring! Rain gardens are great ways to protect your local river or stream while beautifying your house. And building one is fun too. Now I’ve talked about rain gardens a bit on this blog (click on the rain garden category link to the right to see previous posts) but in order to prepare for the spring, I’m going do a series of posts with my friend Patricia Pennell at the West Michigan Environmental Council to give you some tips on building your own rain garden.

Ahh, summertime... To start off, visit Patricia’s site, Rain Gardens of West Michigan. The website is easy -www.raingardens.org - and there are a series of easy steps to follow to create and build your own rain garden.

One thing you might want to consider (and we recommend) is making your rain garden with native plants. Check out this article from This Old House on “Going Native in the Garden”. It’s not a complete list of natives that are available to you, but it does give suggestions for the different regions across the U.S.

If you want to get into a little more detail on native plants, do some research at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center website. They have a really good natives database you can peruse.

Don’t forget to check out our first video post on Monday.

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