Normal, Illinois - (August 27, 2010) - The public is invited to tour a new rain garden installation on the Heartland Community College’s Normal campus during the College’s annual Fall Fest on August 31. Trees Forever Field Coordinator Debbie Fluegel will be on hand from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. to answer questions about the benefits and installation of the rain garden project.
Trees Forever helped fund and coordinate the installation of the rain garden, which is part of the larger Heartland Gardens project located in the northwest corner of the College’s Normal campus. The Heartland Gardens project is a 2-acre demonstration site that showcases environmentally friendly and sustainable landscaping options.
The rain garden installation will capture and filter rain water runoff from a nearby parking lot and other campus areas. In addition, the native plants in the rain garden help filter and purify any runoff that does leave the site.
“The goal is to retain as much rain water on site, keeping it from running into the sewer system or nearby streams,” notes Trees Forever’s Fluegel. “This helps keep our streams and rivers cleaner, and even helps reduce future flooding.”
Earlier this spring, members of the Heartland Gardens Stewards group volunteered to help plant the hundreds of native plants and grasses used in the rain garden project. This group of faculty and staff volunteers also plans to help maintain the Heartland Gardens site.
Trees Forever staff assisted with the project as part of a special program funded by the National Fish & Wildlife Foundation. The goals of that program are to demonstrate techniques to improve water quality in the Upper Mississippi River Basin and to enhance wildlife habitat in the area.
For more information on Trees Forever’s water quality initiatives in Illinois log onto their website at www.treesforever.org, or contact Debbie Fluegel, Program Manager, at 309-925-9925, or e-mail dfluegel@treesforever.org. For more information about Heartland Community College’s sustainability efforts, visit www.heartland.edu/greenInstitute.
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