Rain Gardens of West Michigan is an environmental education program focused on stormwater education, and on the values of using rain gardens and native plants in the landscape to improve urban and suburban water quality. The project was funded from 2002 through 2005 by grants from the Steelcase Foundation, the Grand Rapids Community Foundation, and the Frey Foundation. The City of Grand Rapids also funded the program as part of their community stormwater education through 2006.
Patricia Pennell, an environmental educator specializing in watershed education, is the director of Rain Gardens of West Michigan. Rachel Hackett was the 2005 program assistant, and still volunteers, much to our delight. You can contact us here.
Rain Gardens of West Michigan is one of the many water quality programs of West Michigan Environmental Action Council in Grand Rapids, Michigan. WMEAC, started in 1969, is a grass-roots, citizen-based, non-profit environmental advocacy organization. WMEAC’s greatest strength is in the hundreds of members and volunteers who find the education, sustainability and advocacy programs an opportunity to get personally involved in making our world a better, healthier, and more beautiful place to live.
The Beginning
Rain Gardens of West Michigan was born of a deep love of Michigan’s rivers, lakes and streams, a love of Michigan’s beautiful wild plants and places, and the collaborative talents of many environmental professionals.
Rain is a resource meant to nourish our world, but we build our homes and cities with the concept that rain must be gotten rid of as quickly as possible. Because of the way we traditionally design our communities, rain has been turned into a filthy waste product that t
In WMEAC’s Adopt-A-Stream program, we learned that the thing that most effects the health of our streams is the huge volume of dirty stormwater that our communities direct there as a matter of course. We also learned that most people are completely unaware of the problems caused by stormwater.
Rain Gardens of West Michigan
It seemed to us that the logical solution to this dilemma was to not only make people aware of the problem, but to give them an attractive, natural solution at the same time. Rain gardens, or bioretention systems, first conceived of by Prince George’s County, Maryland Environmental Protective department in 1990, seemed like a wonderful vehicle to teach people about stormwater issues. Rain gardens are also very attractive places to put stormwater.
We recognized that a good rain garden program could also meet the need for environmental education tools for EPA phase II stormwater mandates. Communities seeking ways to teach their citizens about stormwater would appreciate a nicely packaged method of citizen education with a proven track record and engaging information, readily available and adaptable to their own region. We built educational evaluation into the program in order to document learning about stormwater issues and solutions.
The idea for Rain Gardens of West Michigan started in the fall of 2000, based on interactions between the Michigan Wild Ones, the Wildflower Association of Michigan, West Michigan Environmental Action Council, The Kent County Michigan Stormwater Task Force, and the City of Grand Rapids Environmental Protective Services.
Our Partners
Many partners have contributed time and expertise to help make our project a success. Our current partners are the Kent County Drain Commissioner's Office, Center for Environmental Study, City of Grand Rapids Environmental Protective Services, FTC&H Engineering, RiverMaid Garden Design, Michigan State University Extension (Community Forestry), David Perkins Design, Michigan Department of Environmental Quality—Surface Water Quality Division, Geum Services Natural Landscaping, and Kalamazoo Nature Center.