Rain Gardens help reduce flooding and stormwater pollution, improving water quality in our streams and rivers for aquatic life and recreational users. This is becoming an ever more important part of mitigating the effects of climate change. 10 Residents per year are getting a rain garden built by the Hav-a-Rain Garden program if their home or small business ranks highly enough, they contribute sweat equity and commit to maintaining their garden. Hav-a-Rain Garden has built 50 residential gardens (through 2019) and helped Public Works build rain gardens in Bailey Park, Merwood Park and the Oakmont Parking Lot.

A Rain Garden is a depressed garden on your property designed to catch and filter the water that runs off your roof, driveway, walkway, compacted lawn areas and other impervious surfaces. Rain Gardens can infiltrate 30% more water than lawn and capture and filter the first flush of stormwater that contains the most pollutants. They greatly reduce pollutants entering the storm sewer system and reduce the volume of water entering our streams reducing flooding.

Find out how to build your own rain garden.

Harvest your own rainwater!

 Reduce water running  off roofs to help mitigate flooding at home/downstream. Make sure to use the rainwater. Plants love rain water! 

The Simple Steps to Take: Buy Rain Barrels at any home store and install or go to a rain barrel workshop (https://prc.org/programs/conservation-workshops/watershed-rain-barrels/).

Trees are valued for the beauty and many other benefits they bring to our landscapes and neighborhoods. Trees are increasingly recognized for their importance in managing runoff. Their leaf canopies help reduce erosion caused by falling rain. They also provide surface area where rain water lands and evaporates. Roots take up water and help create conditions in the soil that promote infiltration.

Use Permeable Pavement for Driveways/Patios 

Benefits to the Environment: Less rain water goes into storm sewers and more rain water goes into the ground.

Past floods, current risks, and future projections based on peer-reviewed research from the world’s leading flood modelers. The model calculates any location’s probability of flooding from the four major flood types: rain, riverine, tidal events, and storm surge.

• Clear debris from storm water drains
• Raise lawn mower blade height
• Avoid pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers on lawns and gardens
• Clean up pet waste
• Wash vehicles at commercial car washes
• Never dump anything down a storm water drain
• Compost yard and grass clippings

Use this web mapping tool to visualize community-level impacts from coastal flooding or sea level rise (up to 10 feet above average high tides). Photo simulations of how future flooding might impact local landmarks are also provided, as well as data related to water depth, connectivity, flood frequency, socio-economic vulnerability, wetland loss and migration, and mapping confidence.