Healthy Watershed Series wraps up with a rain garden workshop and kickoff of the Columbia/Boone County Rain Garden Program.

For the past six months Missouri River Communities Network has been conducting community workshops to promote awareness of our local watersheds and the problems they face. These workshops concluded with a rain garden workshop at Jefferson Farm and Gardens outside of Columbia. The workshop was a hands-on class for the community to help with the construction of a rain garden to help with the storm water runoff from the nearby parking lot. The event was also a media kickoff for the Columbia/Boone County Rain Garden Program.
Rain gardens capture rain water from roof tops, roadways and parking lots in a planted depression, allowing the water to be absorbed by native plants and flowers and slow down the storm water, instead of allowing the storm water to rush into local streams with sediment and other pollutants.
The Columbia/Boone County Rain Garden Program is sponsored by the Missouri River Communities Network through a small grant from the Missouri Department of Natural Resources. The program includes a public outreach element to educate citizens about the benefits of rain gardens, rain garden planning assistance and small financial grants to eligible homeowners to assist in the installation of ten demonstration rain gardens, rain garden workshops, and tours of existing rain gardens in Columbia and Boone County.

The hope of the program is that is will encourage the community to think about storm water management and their role in both the problems and the solutions.