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FeedTonic For Our Water
Pollution is ravaging our 10,000 lakes. Can Minnesota gardeners help save them?
By James Walsh
Photo by Carol Freeman
That’s the kind of story that usually convinces Minnesotans that their prized lakes, rivers, and streams are in big trouble, says Dubats, environmental education coordinator of Rice Creek Watershed District in Blaine. “I don’t need smart statistics when I do my presentation. I just ask people, ‘How’s the lake near your house doing?’”
Even so, a few regulatory agencies keep track. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, for example, tests 10 percent of the state’s rivers and 16 percent of its lakes for water quality every two years. Of those most recently tested, 40 percent were found to be contaminated by animal and human waste, algae from phosphorus, mercury, and fertilizers.
Some nature lovers react to findings like these with true dismay. Dennis Anderson, the Star Tribune’s outdoors columnist, wrote in February 2007 that without some drastic changes, “Minnesota will continue to devolve, with its waters becoming murkier, its wetland losses accelerating, and its fish and wildlife free-falling to one declination or another. And we will become another Indiana, albeit a watery one.”
Dubats, for one, isn’t discouraged. She’s challenged. Three years ago, she began hatching a plan for a environmental stewardship campaign that would include a broad coalition of watershed districts, nurseries, nonprofits, gardening clubs, and native plant suppliers. The goal of the group, now 40 partners strong, is to convince Minnesota gardeners that they could be heroes to our streams, lakes, and rivers, just by conscientiously exercising their green thumbs.
The campaign, dubbed “Blue Thumb,” is all about working to clean up Minnesota’s water, one garden, one yard, one boulevard at a time, says Dubats. “For all the problems, planting is a big part of the solution. Empowering people about the environment is really important, rather than just depressing people all the time.”
Blue Thumb wants gardeners to know how they can help. The initiative advocates taking a three-pronged approach:
Design native gardens. Use plants such as butterfly weed and native grasses to replace some of your traditional turf lawn, Dubats suggests. You’ll increase biodiversity in your yard, add low-cost, low-maintenance beauty, and reduce the flow of fertilizers into rivers and lakes. Beds of native perennials, such as coneflowers, black-eyed Susans, goldenrod, and lobelia attract wildlife (see “A World Aflutter,” page 56). They also require little watering, fertilizer, or pesticides.
Create rain gardens. Select plants that like occasionally soggy soil for areas where water runs off your roof, driveways, or sidewalks. Plants such as swamp milkweed, blue flag iris, and culver’s root naturally filter dirty storm water, and reduce the flow of pollutants into storm sewers and, eventually, area streams and ponds.
Stabilize shorelines. Plant long-rooted natives near the shoreline to stem the flow of pollutants from yards into lakes. Adding native aquatic plants in the shallows can protect shorelines against the erosion caused by waves.
So far, Blue Thumb is zeroed in on one thing: education, education, education. Throughout the spring and summer, the coalition plans to host training seminars for everyday gardeners and Master Gardeners, and will be a constant presence at area home and garden events. (Check www.bluethumb.org for training dates.) The group also plans to introduce banners and plant tags at participating nurseries so that shoppers can identify plants that are appropriate for rain gardens, shorelines, native gardens, or all three. ”We’re trying to reach people from every angle, because storm water runoff in particular is not point-source pollution—there’s a little from here, and a little from there, and it cumulates into a big problem,” says Dubats. “There’s not a leaky pipe somewhere that we can fix.”
Other plans, such as a native plant sale that will gather area growers in one metro location for the convenience of buyers, are in the works. A hefty Blue Thumb handbook, titled The Blue Thumb Rain Garden Guide, by Rusty Schmidt and Dan Shaw, is expected to be available this month and will be sold at select garden centers for $15.
“Up until now, it seems like there’s been a schism between the scientists and the gardeners who are actually out digging in the dirt,” says Dubats. “Now’s our chance to bring everyone together for clean water.”
James Walsh is an education reporter for the Star Tribune.
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