The corner of Van Buren and Lincoln streets were transformed Sept. 25, as volunteers and Blue Heron middle-schoolers worked with the WSU Extension to turn the plain, grassy area where weeds once flourished, and water pooled up, into a luscious rain garden, filled with flowers, grasses, herbs and shrubs. 

The rain garden was planted in a strategic spot, where water will collect and drain into the soil, instead of running down the roads and into the Puget Sound. 

“I have worked with the city over the past couple of years to identify locations that are getting higher flows (of water runoff) and also have a direct contribution to those flows going into the bay,” said Bob Simmons, water resources faculty member from the WSU Extension. 

The WSU Extension, in partnership with the Marine Resources Committee, the city, and many volunteers, works with homeowners in Port Townsend to plant rain gardens, which help prevent water runoff from going into the bay. 

Sarah and Owen Fairbank noticed that the right-of-way next to their house, on the corner of Van Buren and Lincoln streets would be inundated with water during the rainy months. 

“I noticed that, in the rain, this whole corner would go underwater, and then it would travel down Lincoln Street in a little stream,” said Sarah Fairbank, who had been volunteering as a master gardener with the WSU Extension, and knew about WSU’s rain garden program. 

She brought forward the idea of turning the street corner into a rain garden, and Simmons helped connect with the city, who excavated the right-of-way and brought in special bioretention soils, which are made up of 60 percent sand and 40 percent compost. 

The rain garden, once fully planted, will encourage water to soak into the ground instead of running off along the surface, as well as clean up polluted runoff. The soil helps with that: the sand soaks up the water, while the compost purifies it. 

The problem with rain water flowing into the bay is that, while it runs down roads, it picks up toxins, such as vulcanizers from tire compounds, copper from brake pads, other heavy metals from vehicles, and bacteria from dog waste. These toxins run into the Puget Sound, where they affect the entire food chain of marine life.

“The big problems are heavy metals,” Simmons said. “They tend to short-circuit the brains of fish. They damage the wirings of their brains … They lose their olfactory sense and they often cannot swim in a straight line anymore.”

While the effects of the contaminants are not lethal to fish, according to Simmons, research has found that the contaminants make species like Coho salmon easier prey. This could likely be the same for other marine life, Simmons said, such as the fish that salmon feed on, like sand lance and sculpin. Not only that, but if the salmon are easier prey for seals and sea lions, then there are fewer of them for the resident orcas, who are endangered, and competing with other marine life for food. 

“We have a responsibility to leave the earth as we found it, or better, particularly with climate change,” Sarah Fairbank said. 

For her, maintaining the rain garden won’t be difficult, since she already has a love for gardening and considers herself a “plant nerd.” 

Fairbank worked with Erica Guttman, a WSU Extension water resources faculty member, who heads the Native Plant Salvage Project.

According to Guttman, choosing the plants is extremely strategic. They need to be able to withstand flooding during the winter and spring, when the soil soaks up the water runoff, but also withstand summer drought. In a town like Port Townsend, the plants also need to be deer resistant, and hopefully bring some beauty to the street, as well. 

“We want it to be attractive and safe, and add to the pleasantness here,” Guttman said. “Here in Port Townsend, people are really into planting. There are a lot of beautiful gardens along the street, and we wanted to continue that tradition of having beautiful plantings. The aesthetics are important, the deer are important, the hydrology, or the water, is important, and the sun and shade is important.”

Plants like the fragrant Hummingbird Mint, and a plant called “red hot poker,” are too strong for deer to eat, while native grasses and barberry shrubs are hearty, and can withstand the shade and sun.  

“I’m excited because many of the plants are pollinator plants, many of the plants are native, and many of them are unique, in that they can take both periods of wet and periods of drought, so they’re tough, tough plants,” Fairbanks said. “It adds beauty, it cleans up the water, and it extends my garden.”

For those who think that a rain garden at their property might help prevent runoff going into the Puget Sound, they should visit extension.wsu.edu/raingarden to read more about rain gardens. According to Simmons, a rain garden is not always necessary in an area, even if it gathers a lot of water. Still, Simmons said he is always willing to come out to a home to do a preliminary evaluation, to see if a rain garden might be needed.

“You have to work upstream and catch the flows closer to where they’re starting from,” he said. “If people want to put a rain garden in, I’m willing to come out and assess, and see if it would be useful.”