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St. Paul Raingarden Walking Tour

Display Date: 
Thursday, August 25, 2011 - 6:00-8:00 pm
Location: 
Como neighborhood, St. Paul

Participants in last year's tour enjoyed learning how to help clean our local waters with eye-catching native plants, not to mention the frequent site of monarchs alighting on blazing star.

Photo: www.flickr.com/friendsmissriv

Led by staff from Capitol Region Watershed District (CRWD) and Metro Conservation Districts, and hosted by Friends of the Mississippi River, this tour features several award-winning raingardens in St. Paul’s "Garden District." Each was constructed by CRWD and St. Paul’s Department of Public Works as part of the Arlington Pascal Stormwater Improvement Project, recipient of a 2010 Minnesota Environmental Initiative natural resource protection and restoration award. In addition to improving water quality, these raingardens are also a neighborhood amenity — contributing beauty, wildlife interest, and an opportunity for education in this subwatershed of Como Lake.

The tour will involve walking on paved park trails and sidewalks for approximately 2 miles over a two-hour time period. The tour is free and open to all, but capacity is limited to maintain a quality experience. Pre-registration is required and early registration encouraged and appreciated. This webpage will be updated when the tour has reached capacity. (The meeting place will be emailed to registrants only.)

Ready to register?

To ensure a high-quality experience, capacity is limited and pre-registration required. To sign up, contact FMR Program Assistant Erika Guenther at eguenther[at]fmr.org or by selecting "Erika Guenther" in the dropdown menu under "Category" in our contact form. She can also be reached at 651-222-2193 x23. Please include: the name of the event, your name, address and phone number and the number in your party.

You will receive a confirmation email and additional details, such as directions and what to wear, from eguenther[at]fmr.org within, at most, a week. If you have earthlink or an active SPAM filter, please add Erika's email address to your contacts to ensure receipt.

The confirmation, including location details, will be sent via email. (If you do not have email access, we would be happy to call you but please allow more time for a response.) Read more…

More about the gardens
These raingardens were installed as part of the Arlington-Pascal Stormwater Improvement project, a six-year, community-wide endeavor to improve the water quality in Como Lake while addressing neighborhood drainage and flooding issues.
Project partners utilized a unique cost-share system and worked across municipal borders to implement a variety of innovative stormwater management techniques including constructing the largest underground storage and infiltration tank in Minnesota, installing infiltration trenches directly under roadways, retrofitting a regional treatment pond to serve as a water feature at Como Golf Course, and creating native plant rain gardens throughout the neighborhood.
These efforts have resulted in a 77-pound annual reduction in phosphorus loading, exceeding the reduction goal of 58 pounds, and have successfully reduced neighborhood flooding.
Partners: 
Thank you Capitol Region Watershed District, Metro Conservation Districts, and City of St. Paul Public Works Department!
Notice: 
Pre-registration is required; early sign-ups are encouraged and appreciated. See above.