Clean water is precious. Thankfully, rain gardens are a useful—and beautiful—tool to help keep water systems healthy. These deceptively simple plantings filter runoff from impervious surfaces, conserve the resource and prevent the standing water that mosquitos use for breeding, all in an eye-catching display that can benefit birds and pollinators, too. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, a rain garden traps and processes runoff 20 to 30 percent more efficiently than a lawn.
Recognizing the worth of rain gardens, homeowners in the Flathead Valley of northwestern Montana are using them to help preserve the region’s pristine rivers and lakes, especially in light of the area’s population boom.
“The growth in the Flathead is unprecedented,” notes Samantha Tappenbeck, a resource conservationist for the Flathead Conservation District. “We are in the fastest growing micropolitan in the nation.”
Indeed, this area, which enjoys the spectacular scenery of Glacier National Park, its surrounding mountain ranges and crystal-clear waterways, experienced 15-percent population growth in the past couple of years. Conservation organizations and likeminded citizens realize that without proactive measures, their most precious resource is vulnerable to the increased pollution that
