In the forest
when it rains, the
ground acts like a large, living sponge. The water is
slowed down by
clinging to the leaves on the trees, spreading out among the
grasses and leaves, and filtering down through forest
floor mulch, roots of trees, shrubs, and other plant material.
Flowing slower as it
moves downhill helps prevent erosion and
allows much of the water to sink down and replenish the local ground
water table. Water
that does make it to streams is cooler and has been cleaned by the
plants.
Because we have developed so many structures preventing the average rain
from being disbursed and filtered into the ground in a natural and
healthy way, we are basically creating flooding. No environment can tolerate
these man-made floods.. In addition, we are depriving
ourselves of clean ground water, which will one day make a desert of
this glorious forest we live in.
If - within whatever the boundaries of the land that we own or are
responsible for—we can hold and nurture the rainwater falling on that
land with the same results as the forest did 200 hundred years ago, much
of our flooding would end. Erosion would be minimized – streams would
be cool and clean – wildlife would be healthy and we would have
preserved the environment for today and many tomorrows.
One of the most efficient, effective, and inexpensive ways to
re-establish natural water processes is a rain garden. Basically a rain
garden is a man-made depression in the ground that is used as a
landscape tool to help excess storm water enter the environment in a
healthy and compatible way
