Students plant rain garden

Published 9:50 am Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Wendy Greenfield and her eighth-graders from Southwest Middle School helped Albert Lea and the Shell Rock River Watershed District plant a rain garden at Shoff Park Thursday.

Watershed district and City employees were on hand to help the kids plant and teach them the bonuses of rain gardens.

Rain gardens are planted with grasses and flowers native to the area. Shoff Park was an ideal location because it used to be a wetland west of Dane Bay on Fountain Lake. Rain gardens often attract native birds and butterflies.

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The purpose of a rain garden is to help filter water runoff &8212; which carries sediment, phosphorus and contaminants &8212; from flowing into local lakes and streams. The rain garden at Shoff Park will directly affect the runoff going into Shoff Creek, which flows into Dane Bay.

Albert Lea has 2,020 storm sewers that empty into five local lakes, according to the watershed district. The average drainage is 2.5 billion gallons of runoff a year.

A rain garden is characterized as a landscaped area that is slightly sunken to collect and soak up rainwater, preventing it from running off into storm drains and eventually the lakes.

The rain garden project was cooperation between the city of Albert Lea, Southwest Middle School, the Lakes Restoration Committee and the Shell Rock River Watershed District.