Raingarden Installation and Education
Why does BIWC care about raingardens?
The Bainbridge Island Watershed Council is committed to protecting the health and integrity of our watersheds and surface waters. Raingardens are a kind of Low Impact Development tool that can provide a natural, beautiful, and sustainable way to solve several environmental problems: they help to capture water and recharge groundwater supplies; they filter stormwater pollutants and keep them from reaching surface waters; and they do these things while providing habitat for wildlife and opportunities for people to learn about hydrology, pollution, and environmental stewardship.
This page provides an introduction to the purpose of raingardens, describes new initiatives the Watershed Council is working on with partners to provide education, outreach, and raingarden installation, and provides links to further resources about raingardens.
This page provides an introduction to the purpose of raingardens, describes new initiatives the Watershed Council is working on with partners to provide education, outreach, and raingarden installation, and provides links to further resources about raingardens.
What is a raingarden?
Water pollution from storm water run off is one of the Pacific Northwest's greatest environmental challenges; It is a major source of pollution to Puget Sound, and solutions are limited and expensive.
Every time it rains, water falls on our roof tops, streets, driveways, parking lots, and lawns, gathering all of the debris and pollutants that it comes across. The first rains of Fall (known as the "first flush" of stormwater) in particular wash the build-up of pollutants that have accumulated over the whole dry season, and can lead to high pulses of toxic chemicals into our streams and nearshore waters. Stormwater runoff threatens the health of our local waterways and negatively impacts our environment from our local stream and watershed health to the greater Puget Sound.
Building a Rain Garden is an easy solution to managing Rainwater runoff, and it has many benefits. A Rain Garden is a sustainable landscape built to catch the run-off through a natural filtration process. By using, enhancing or creating a local depression and planting wet-tolerant native plants, you develop a natural filtration system of roots and soil. Runoff is slowed, and rain is captured and moved into groundwater and the atmosphere through soil infiltration and transpiration into the atmosphere by the plants, with the soil and plants also acting to filter pollutants. This process is similar to the way a native forest absorbs water and removes pollutants.
A Rain Garden beautifies the landscape while conserving water quality, protecting our waterways, removing standing water and providing a natural habitat for insects, birds and wildlife.
Every time it rains, water falls on our roof tops, streets, driveways, parking lots, and lawns, gathering all of the debris and pollutants that it comes across. The first rains of Fall (known as the "first flush" of stormwater) in particular wash the build-up of pollutants that have accumulated over the whole dry season, and can lead to high pulses of toxic chemicals into our streams and nearshore waters. Stormwater runoff threatens the health of our local waterways and negatively impacts our environment from our local stream and watershed health to the greater Puget Sound.
Building a Rain Garden is an easy solution to managing Rainwater runoff, and it has many benefits. A Rain Garden is a sustainable landscape built to catch the run-off through a natural filtration process. By using, enhancing or creating a local depression and planting wet-tolerant native plants, you develop a natural filtration system of roots and soil. Runoff is slowed, and rain is captured and moved into groundwater and the atmosphere through soil infiltration and transpiration into the atmosphere by the plants, with the soil and plants also acting to filter pollutants. This process is similar to the way a native forest absorbs water and removes pollutants.
A Rain Garden beautifies the landscape while conserving water quality, protecting our waterways, removing standing water and providing a natural habitat for insects, birds and wildlife.
Raingarden Resources
Washington State University's Puget Sound Raingardens Page has a ton of resources for raingarden development, including a link to their comprehensive raingarden manual.
Raingardens.org is a national nonprofit raingarden organization that provides information and resources about raingarden development.
Learn more about the threats of stormwater to Puget Sound and many methods, including raingardens, that can be used to help reduce the problem at the Puget Sound Partnership's Stormwater web page.
Raingardens.org is a national nonprofit raingarden organization that provides information and resources about raingarden development.
Learn more about the threats of stormwater to Puget Sound and many methods, including raingardens, that can be used to help reduce the problem at the Puget Sound Partnership's Stormwater web page.
