GRPL Rain Garden

From GRPLpedia

History

To celebrate Earth Week 2007, the Library's 'Green Team' held a contest and asked staff to give us their ideas to make the Library a greener place to work. Many great ideas were submitted, but one staff member, Tim Warren, suggested we add a rain garden to our grounds, in an area where standing water occurs after heavy rain fall. In no time, research began on adding a rain garden at the Main Library.

With help from Dr. Dave Warners from the Biology Department at Calvin College, we began planning our rain garden in late summer/early fall 2007. After deciding that we needed funding, the Green Team successfully wrote a grant request and received funding for our rain garden from the Grand Rapids Public Library Foundation. Planning began with diagrams and picking out plants, but due Michigan winters, construction on the garden couldn't begin until Earth Day, April 22, 2008. Dr. Warners recruited the Environmental Stewardship Coalition at Calvin College and his Biology students to assist Library staff in planting the garden.

What is a Rain Garden?

A rain garden, also known as a bioretention system, is a garden made up of native plants and flowers designed to help keep storm-water runoff out of the sewer systems. The native plants act as filters, filtering out polluters such as oil, gas, and other runoff residue, while also absorbing water into the plants and loose soil. This action helps prevent the pollution from entering local lakes and streams.

Rain gardens are often constructed in a bowl shaped area; this allows the rainwater to flow into the garden where the water gets filtered by the native plants and flowers.

Rain gardens also offer a safe haven and refuge for small animals and creatures. Butterflies, rabbits, dragonflies, assorted small birds, and many others all benefit from the shelter and food provided by the rain garden.

The rainwater falling onto hard surfaces like sidewalks, roads, and parking lots causes the initial problem with storm-water runoff. This causes the water to gather pollutants such as gas and oil as it flows over these hard surfaces. When the runoff finally hits soil and is absorbed, the pollutants go with it, into the watershed, which eventually flows into local streams, rivers, and lakes, including the Great Lakes.

The Grand Rapids Public Library hopes to be a part of the solution with the addition of its own rain garden. A rain garden is a cheap and easy solution to the storm-water runoff problem. They can be any size and shape, are a nice landscape feature, and are becoming more and more important as Michigan's water continues to be threatened.

Viewing the GRPL Rain Garden

The site of the GRPL Rain Garden is on the east side of the building, where the Ryerson and Keeler buildings are joined. A sidewalk is in place to tour the garden.