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Green Team uses green thumbs to help environment

photo by Mike Conley

Eastfield sixth-grade students, members of the Master Gardeners program, teachers, Cooperative Extension Director Dan Smith and others all pitched in to plant the new rain garden at the school on Friday.

By Mike Conley | The McDowell News

Published: August 26, 2009

If a little rain must fall, then a rain garden can help keep our water clean.
On Friday, sixth-grade students at Eastfield Elementary School and members of the Master Gardeners program planted a rain garden. Located next to Eastfield's main parking lot, the garden is intended to help keep pollutants out of nearby streams and creeks.
A rain garden catches and treats water draining off surfaces such as lawns, parking lots and rooftops. During a rainstorm, runoff travels across the land and picks up pollutants such as sediment, bacteria, metals and fertilizers. Without any treatment, the polluted water would flow into Young's Fork, a tributary of the Catawba River, according to a sign for the new garden.
A rain garden acts as a sort of filter and cuts down on pollutants like sediment, trash, oil, grease and excess fertilizer. The plants in a rain garden can handle both wet and dry conditions. The rain garden at Eastfield was constructed in a low-lying area so rainwater from the adjacent parking lot will flow down into it. A culvert leading from the parking lot connects with the garden.
Dan Smith, director of the McDowell office of the N.C. Cooperative Extension Service, was among those working Friday with the students and the Master Gardeners at Eastfield. He said it is a joint project of the McDowell County school system, the Cooperative Extension, N.C. State University, the Environmental Protection Agency and the N.C. Division of Water Quality.
Smith hopes that local businesses, homeowners and landowners will consider putting rain gardens on their properties.
"It's a water quality demonstration," he said. "It filters water from paved surfaces. This is a demonstration to encourage landowners to put these kind of structures in. We have plans for people who what to put them at their houses."
A contractor previously prepared the land, and mulch was placed before the planting could begin. Megan Mailloux, an intern with the French Broad Training Center, also assisted in Friday's planting of the rain garden.
"I am making sure they are putting them in the right places and spaced appropriately," said Mailloux.
She said the plants in the garden are all wetland plants that can handle the pollutants.
"They take the toxins and the pollutants and clean the water before it goes into the stream," said Mailloux.
The rain garden is designed to capture the first one to two inches of rainfall. The water then filters down into the ground.
Sara Smith, a school counselor at Eastfield, guided the sixth-grade students with the planting. She has a group of sixth-graders called the Green Team. They help out with beautification projects around Eastfield.
"It teaches responsibility," she said. "They are also getting the science education."
Sara Smith and other teachers worked with the students Friday afternoon to get the rain garden planted. The students seemed to enjoy their break from routine classwork.
"It's fun and dirty," said sixth-grader Hannah Masiello.
"We're making the world a better place," said fellow student Brooke Martin.