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MetroParks gets grant for rain garden
By Elise Franco
Canfield
Mill Creek MetroParks, known for its beautiful rose- and tulip-garden displays, soon can add another type to its list: rain garden.
The MetroParks was awarded a $10,850 surface-water- improvement grant through the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.
“Basically the point was to fund projects that would improve water quality in wetlands, streams, rivers and lakes,” said Kirsten Peetz, MetroParks’ environmental-land manager. “We decided to apply because it would provide money for a demonstration project here at the farm.”
That demonstration project is a rain garden, something Peetz said will not only look beautiful, but also educate the public.
“A big part of water- quality issues is educating members of the public,” she said. “We felt the demonstration would be a good opportunity to do that.”
The garden is scheduled for construction in early fall in a 2,300- square-foot green space at the MetroParks Farm in Canfield, Peetz said, and should take only a few weeks to complete.
Russ Gibson, EPA nonpoint source program manager, said the MetroParks was one of 172 applicants, and one of only 19 to receive the grant.
He said each applicant went through a rigorous review, and reviewers liked what they saw in the MetroParks’ project.
“It’s a relatively small project, and its visibility for the [cost] of the project is great,” Gibson said. “It’s going to be one of those projects that people will see as a more innovative way of dealing with stormwater than normal.”
Gibson said the closest recipient to the parks was the Portage County Park District, which was awarded $46,496 for a wetlands- and stream-restoration project.
A rain garden is a planted garden that allows rain water to run off from a source such as a rooftop, driveway or parking lot, and absorb into the garden itself, Peetz said.
She said the rooftop gutter system will be disconnected and rerouted to spill into the rain garden.
“It’s going to be sculpted out and filled with plants that don’t mind being wet,” she said. “After a rainstorm, it will probably have some water in it for about 24 hours.”
Peetz said the garden will be filled with flowers, shrubs and plants native to Ohio.