Alright people, the West Coast has caught on to the rain gardens. So far, it seems that the Midwest is ahead of the game as far as education and design goes. The East Coast (both north and south) is catching on. It's a simple solution to help with sewage and other water quality treatment issues that does not require retrofitting a roof to make it green.
There will come a day when some cities will look at how to integrate rain gardens into their city plans, which will require a lot of coordination between various stakeholders. Engineers, architects, planners, environmental educators, foresters, parks and recreation departments, students, and interested citizens have all been working on building these multifunctional gardens. So lots of people have been going at this from many different approaches and have come up with lots of ideas and resources. How can they better share information and work together? What approaches will work best for which cities?
One city, Louisville, KY, is asking homeowners to rip up a part of there lawn to plant a patch of rain garden. Unfortunately, this article offers no details on how they are making this attractive to homeowners and offering them any type of compensation for making the switch (it's the city's sewage treatment that is asking people to do it).
Saturday, December 30, 2006
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2 comments:
See what Kansas City is doing with 10,000 Rain Gardens at http://www.RainKC.com.
In the general scheme of things perhaps these private garden schemes are not important. However I think people need to have something to do to feel that they are involved in saving the planet. In the absence of a feeling that governments on both sides of the Atlantic are doing nothing individuals can feel that they are playing their part.
Somebody needs to work out what will really make a difference and then co-ordinate all these local initiatives.
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