This spring, the Center for the Inland Bays will launch a campaign to create 1,000 rain gardens in the Inland Bays Watershed.

According to Sally Boswell, Education and Outreach Coordinator for the Center for the Inland Bays, the idea was inspired by the "10,000 Rain Gardens for Kansas City" program launched a few years ago. "We thought 10,000 rain gardens might be a little ambitious for our 321 square mile Inland Bays watershed, but 1,000 seems very doable."

"Our goal is to work with partners to promote the creation of 1,000 rain gardens,
not just in backyards and gardens, but at town halls, schools, churches, and in communities through Homeowners Associations.

According to the Center for Watershed Protection, stormwater has become one of the biggest threats to our waterways. "To improve water quality in our Inland Bays, we need to start thinking about rainwater as a valuable fresh water resource, not a waste product to be disposed of as quickly as possible," said Boswell.

For years, the standard practice for managing stormwater has been to get it off of our driveways, parking lots and streets as quickly as possible and into a storm drain which would channel it into a stream and then into our Bays. But this practice has caused many problems for our rivers, streams and bays.

The huge volume of water entering a stream from a drainpipe during a storm event scours out streams, destroys stream habitat and causes erosion of stream banks. In addition, stormwater off of roadways and parking lots carries with it all the pollutants that it picks up along the way, including gasoline and oil, toxic substances such as heavy metals, pesticides, herbicides and hydrocarbons, and nutrients from fertilizers, leaks from sanitary sewers and animal waste.

As the Inland Bays watershed becomes more urbanized, there is a higher percentage of impervious surface; roofs, parking lots and roadways; and a smaller percentage of land where the water can soak into the soil.

So how can rain gardens helps solve this problem?
When we minimize runoff and the pollutants associated with it, we protect water quality. According to the Center for Watershed Protection, a single house with a 1,000 square-foot roof yields 600 gallons of water from a 1-inch rainstorm.

Rain gardens are a sustainable and economical way of dealing with rainfall as nature intended. The soil and plants absorb water and filter pollutants and allow the water to percolate into the soil rather than go down a storm drain. And they're very efficient. Rain gardens absorb 30% more water than the same size area of lawn.

By capturing runoff, rain gardens capture valuable fresh water to replenish our aquifers instead of losing it to our bays and ocean where it becomes salt water.

What is the difference between a rain garden and a normal garden?

A rain garden is designed to absorb and treat runoff from impervious surfaces by collecting rain water that comes off of a roof, driveway or other impervious surface. And, it is designed to handle more water than most gardens by draining quickly. By directing water to the garden from an imperious surface, a rain garden should need less watering; and the use of native plants should eliminate most use of fertilizer and pesticides

To kick off the campaign, the CIB is sponsoring two free public events.
"Rain Gardens for Backyard Habitats" will be presented by Jason Beale of the Abbott’s Mill Nature Center on Wednesday, May 6 at 7 p.m. at Millville Town Hall on Route 26.

On Thursday, May 14 at 7 p.m., at Good Earth Market, Chantal Bouchard and Rick Gentile of Bethany Beach Gardens in Frankford, Delaware, will present "Designing your Garden with Native Plants."

On Saturday, May 16, rain gardens will be highlighted at the 5th Annual Gardening for the Bays Native Plant Sale from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m. at James Farm on Cedar Neck Road in Ocean View. Nurseries will feature native plants for your rain garden, there will be a demonstration on building a rain barrel, and there will be lots of information available on building a rain garden.

The Center for the Inland Bays has many partners to reach the goal of 1000 Rain Gardens for the Inland Bays. In fact, this idea got bigger before it even began. There will be a region-wide campaign with support from the EPA Region 3 in Philadelphia to build rain gardens in the Delaware Bay watershed and the Maryland Coastal Bays watershed as well.

Other partners include the Delaware Nature Society who will be promoting rain gardens for Backyard Habitats; the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control Watershed Assessment Division, the Sussex County Conservation District, University of Delaware Cooperative Extension and the University of Delaware Sea Grant program.

For information on the 1000 Rain Gardens for the Inland Bays or to become a partner, contact Sally Boswell at 226-8105 or at outreach@inlandbays.org

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