AGNR students help install 800 plants in bioretention facility
Image Credit: Steve Cohan
A group of students from the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources recently helped install 800 native plants along the side of Woods Hall on campus as part of a project designed to reduce stormwater runoff.
The plants are a component of a bioretention facility created by the Anacostia Watershed Society. More than 30 University of Maryland students volunteered to help with the project, including five from the Department of Plant Science and Landscape Architecture (PSLA). Project managers from the Anacostia Watershed Society provided students with an orientation on bioretention facilities and planting techniques. PSLA students then helped supervise the planting phase which took just three hours for the group to complete.
Bioretention facilities, often called rain gardens, allow rainwater runoff from surfaces like roofs, driveways and parking lots to be absorbed into the ground as opposed to flowing into storm drains and water sources causing erosion, water pollution and flooding. Stormwater runoff is the fastest growing source of pollution to the Chesapeake Bay and its local rivers including the Anacostia and Patuxent.
For more information, contact Sara Gavin at 301-405-9235 or sgavin@umd.edu.
