SWAG��Ƶ

On September 9, 2014, the SWAG��Ƶ will hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the newest addition to its Biddeford Campus—a rain garden located between Morgane and Marcil Halls.

The rain garden project began last year when five SWAG��Ƶ faculty and staff members collaborated to apply for an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sub-contract through the Maine Campus Compact—a coalition of 17 college campuses that aims to reinvigorate the civic mission of higher education.

Alethea Cariddi, SWAG��Ƶ’s Sustainability coordinator; Thomas Klak, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Environmental Studies; Theo Dunfey, M.A.L.D., coordinator of Citizenship and Service Learning; Christine Feurt, Ph.D., assistant lecturer in the Department of Environmental Studies, director of the Center for Sustainable Communities, and co-director of the Saco River Estuary Project; and Bethany Woodworth, Ph.D., assistant lecturer in the Department of Environmental Studies, were successful in securing a  $5,000 grant to pursue a community-based environmental project.  They proposed the creation of a Biddeford Campus rain garden.

Composed of specific types of plants that are conducive to reducing the ill effects of rain water run-off, rain gardens serve as catch-basins for storm water. A form of low-impact, sustainable landscaping, they are intended to mitigate the effects of rainfall on impervious surfaces such as pavement and rooftops.  Located at the source of storm water run-off, a rain garden is designed to slow the flow of water, absorb excess nutrients and filter pollutants.

While the rolling hills and proximity to the Saco River lend aesthetic charm to SWAG��Ƶ’s Biddeford Campus, its uneven topography coupled with its closeness to a body of water present a unique environmental challenge.  Rain water, carrying environmental pollutants, flows from areas of high elevation to low elevation and makes its way through underground pipelines in the campus that eventually release the rainwater into the river.  Additionally, the downhill flow of rainwater erodes soil.

Feurt’s Sustaining Water class performed extensive background research on rain gardens. One of her students, Jordan Tate, an environmental science major in the class of 2015, who was serving as an “eco-rep,” a federal work-study student in the SWAG��Ƶ Sustainability Office, volunteered to be an intern for the rain garden project.

A Sustainability and Ecological Restoration class taught by Klak grew the plants to be used in the rain garden, using only species that are native to Maine.  The students raised the plants from seeds in an on-campus greenhouse.

Cariddi’s Sustainability Lab students created a design and installation plan for the rain garden, considering factors not only related to the garden’s function but its acceptability to the SWAG��Ƶ Community.  They strived to make the garden aesthetically pleasing and sought to create a place that students could enjoy.  Purchasing an Adirondack-style chair from the Biddeford company Conversion Products, Inc. made entirely out of 240 recycled milk jugs, the students created a serene nook in the garden for the community’s use while echoing the commitment to environmental protection that is at the heart of the rain garden project.

With the help of SWAG��Ƶ grounds staff, Cariddi’s Sustainability Lab class prepared the location by digging out the area where the rain garden was to be created.  Students in Klak’s Sustainability and Ecological Restoration class completed the plantings.  Tate laid down top soil and stones, which she says help to break up water momentum.  She also added supplemental plants.  Several students in Dunfey’s Citizenship class volunteered to perform weeding, lay additional soil, and add mulch.

 “After the first year or two, there won’t be much maintenance required,” Tate explained.  “But this rain garden is very much a work in progress.  There is a lot of experimentation to see what works, which plants are thriving in which locations, and we adjust and rearrange when necessary.”

Tate has dealt with several challenges thus far and has come up with various solutions.  “We were having some flooding initially, so we had to change the design a lot.  We had to fill up sections of the garden with rocks,” she noted.  Erosion also plagued the rain garden, requiring unanticipated amounts of mulch.  The latest obstacle is an infestation of aphids on some of the plants. 

“The other thing that you have to think about when planning a rain garden is that it has to withstand times of draught as well as times of extreme moisture,” said Tate. “So the selection of plants and their precise placements are key to the success.”

The rain garden is home to 17 native plant species, including more than 160 individual plants.  New England aster, mountain mint, pale leaved sunflowers, sheep laurel, great blue lobelia, milk weeds, and sweet fern are a few of the types of plants one can see in the garden.  The very center, the moistest area, contains an island of Siberian irises, a water-loving plant, surrounded by a circle of stones. 

Complete with a rain gage, a pebbled walking path, and a cedar bridge, the garden is marked with a plaque that explains the function of the garden and honors those who led to its creation.

A presentation about the rain garden will be held from 1:30pm to 2:00pm in Marcil Hall 318A.  After, attendees will be invited to journey outside to the garden for the ribbon cutting with Jeanne Hey, Ph.D., dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.