How to Plant a Raingarden to Help Orcas

Описание: Happy Orca Month! You can help the highly endangered southern resident orcas by planting a raingarden. Learn more at http://orcasloveraingardens.org.

Video Transcript:
Hi everyone, this is Robb with Defenders of Wildlife wishing you a happy Orca Month! Something that every homeowner can do to help orcas this month is plant a raingarden!

Every time that it rains, the water that hits our streets, buildings, and lawns washes away all the chemicals and pollution on these surfaces. This includes oil from our cars, chemicals that we spray on our lawns, and any pet waste that we don’t pick up.

All this pollution gets washed down the storm drains and into local rivers and streams, eventually reaching the ocean. Stormwater runoff is the biggest source of pollution here in the Salish Sea and it has a big impact on wildlife, especially southern resident orcas.

When pollution enters the Salish Sea, it enters the food chain. Because of all this pollution, southern resident orcas are full of harmful toxics that make them sick and prevent them from raising healthy orca calves.

Stormwater runoff also destroys salmon habitat and can kill salmon before they’re able to spawn. This leaves fewer fish for the orcas to eat and the salmon that do survive are just full of pollution.

Fortunately, there are a lot of things people can do to reduce stormwater runoff. You can do simple things like fix leaking cars, going chemical-free in your yard and garden, and picking up after your pets.

For homeowners, you can go one step further by planting a raingarden! These are bowl-shaped landscaping features that capture and filter stormwater runoff and it's a great way to be a good neighbor to our endangered southern resident orcas.

Many cities and counties have programs for people like me who want to install their own raingarden.
Because I live in Tacoma, I got help from the Pierce Conservation District's raingarden assistance program.

Through this program, homeowners get a free design and low-cost plants for their raingarden. I signed up for the program last year and it was a huge help to figure out my raingarden's size
and the best plants to use.

After I got the design, I first dug out the area where my raingarden would go. Second, I connected one of my roof's gutters to a pipe that I had laid in a trench so part of my roof runoff would go directly into the raingarden.

Third, I filled a hole with special raingarden soil mix, making sure to shape the raingarden in a bowl shape. Fourth, I covered the raingarden with mulch to help keep out weeds and grass. Fifth and finally, the plants were delivered and were planted in the raingarden.

It's also important to maintain your raingarden - that means pulling weeds and removing and replacing plants as necessary.

I love my raingarden: not only do I feel good knowing that I'm doing my part to protect southern resident orcas from stormwater runoff but my raingarden also attracts bees, butterflies, birds
and other wildlife.

And if you're like me, gardening is a great way to relieve stress.

Together, we can all do our part to coexist alongside southern resident orcas. That's why Defenders and our local partners joined together to create the Orcas Love Raingardens Program.

Through this program, we've been able to reach over 500 students at 11 schools here in Tacoma to plant and maintain raingardens on their campuses or at a nearby park.

By engaging these students and giving them hands-on opportunities in the garden, we hope to inspire the next generation of leaders to plant more raingardens and protect our endangered southern resident orcas from stormwater runoff.

So take action this orca month by planting a rain garden of your own. Click the link to find some resources to help you get started and happy Orca Month!