Each year the PA Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) awards Growing Greener grants to municipalities for projects related to watershed restoration and protection, abandoned mine reclamation, and abandoned oil and gas well plugging projects. The EAC is thrilled to announce that Easttown Township was awarded $41,217 to fund rain garden installations throughout the Township over the next three (3) years. The Growing Greener Grant award allows the EAC to build upon its pilot residential rain garden on Pennsylvania Ave in Berwyn and the flow through downspout planter being placed at Handel’s Ice Cream this spring.
What does this mean for residents? The EAC intends to install 14 rain gardens or flow through downspout planters on residential or commercial property over the next 3 years. Four rain gardens or flow through downspout planters (connected to a home downspout system) each will be installed on properties of the first two years of the grant period; six rain gardens or flow through downspout planters will be placed in the third year of the grant period. The residential rain garden application will be open to interested residents soon.
In partnership with the Willistown Conservation Trust, the EAC will be hosting a series of public education workshops focusing on the use and benefits of green infrastructure, including rain gardens, native plants, lawn to meadow conversions, riparian buffer management and the use and benefits of rain barrels.
Nearly 70% of the Township lives within the Darby Creek watershed, a waterbody important to both human and non-human plant and animal populations. Darby Creek flows south from its headwaters in Tredyffrin Township, through Easttown, Newtown and Radnor Townships, before flowing south and ending in the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge, a major stopover site for thousands of migrating birds. Darby Creek also flows into the Delaware River, the source of our drinking water here in Easttown Township. Unfortunately, Darby Creek is impaired because of high sediment loads, urban runoff and storm sewers. Given our location at the headwaters of Darby Creek, what we as Easttown residents input into the creek sets the baseline for the rest of the waterway. By installing green infrastructure like rain gardens and flow through planters, we can lower the flow and volume of water entering Darby Creek during storm events, while also building insect and bird habitat and biodiversity in our plant selections.
The EAC hopes the creation of the new rain garden program in Easttown will encourage greater resident awareness of our waterways and our responsibilities as upstream neighbors to those populations living downstream of us.