Earth Day, rain gardens, and orcas
by Laura Blackmore, Executive Director
Beautiful spring weather is beckoning, but we’re all doing our best to stay home and stay healthy. What to do when you want to get outside, enjoy the fresh air, and also do something meaningful to mark Earth Day? Here’s my solution: it’s a good time to think about gardening, and specifically rain gardens. Gardening in general is a fun way to commune with nature and enjoy the outdoors, and for those who love gardening and also want to contribute to Puget Sound recovery, rain gardens are a wonderful way to help salmon, our Southern Resident orcas, and the health of Puget Sound’s waters.
What are rain gardens and what do they do?
Rain gardens consist of a bowl-shaped bed of spongy soil and carefully chosen plants that act as a natural filter. Rain gardens mimic the action of native forests by collecting, absorbing, and filtering rain water, in this case stormwater runoff from rooftops, pavement, patios, and other hard surfaces.
Our built environment consists of a high proportion of impervious surfaces, and so stormwater runoff flows over these surfaces and picks up oil, pesticides, fertilizers, and other pollutants on its way into our waterways. Pollution from stormwater runoff damages salmon habitat and directly harms salmon, which in turn harms the Southern Resident orcas which eat the salmon, through the bioaccumulation of toxins in their bodies. Rain gardens can help slow the flow of stormwater and filter out pollutants, which contributes to cleaner and healthier Puget Sound salmon and ecosystems.
The benefits of rain gardens
Rain gardens also slow the flow of water during heavy storms, which means they help prevent the flooding of roads, homes, and waterways.
The plants in rain gardens — which can include small trees, shrubs, herbs, sedges, ferns, and grasses — provide habitat for pollinators like bees, butterflies, and birds, along with other wildlife. Besides being functional, rain gardens are beautiful and can enhance the appearance of a yard or landscape.
Cost is always a consideration for landscape modifications, but rain gardens are affordable compared with other drain systems and have a better lifetime value than traditional systems. There are also a number of generous incentive programs throughout the Puget Sound region to help homeowners and landowners build green infrastructure like rain gardens.
The installation of a rain garden is probably the most labor-intensive part of the process, since rain gardens generally require little maintenance after they’re established. If you choose to use native plants in your rain garden, the garden will require less water during dry periods and less maintenance after the plants are established.
Resources
If you’re interested in learning more about rain gardens or about how you can establish one on your property, there are a couple great resources online. Orcas Love Raingardens, which is a collaborative partnership between local government, public services, and non-governmental organizations, offers information on rain gardens for teachers and homeowners, including information about incentives.
And 12,000 Rain Gardens, which is a cooperative effort led by Stewardship Partners and Washington State University Extension, has information about how rain gardens work, instructions for creating your own rain garden, lists of incentives and rebates available for property owners, and more.
Through either of those sites, you can find information on rain garden events and workshops, and learn how to volunteer if you’re looking for hands-on experience building a rain garden.
During this time, it’s important to do what you can to remain connected to nature and the outdoors. Getting outside in your own yard and building a rain garden can be a great way to relieve stress and contribute to the recovery of Puget Sound. While we’re staying at home to help our fellow Washingtonians, we can also help the salmon, orcas, and other species who call Puget Sound home.
Recovery work continues, even now, and it was heartening to see this photo of orcas swimming in the Thea Foss Waterway in Tacoma — right in front of the Center for Urban Waters, where the Partnership’s Tacoma offices are located. We were all working from home, but it’s good to know they were there!
