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McKeown Students Spruce Up Rain Garden

Kindergarten through 6th grade students at McKeown Elementary School in Hampton participated in a rain garden maintenance day with the staff of the Wallkill River Watershed Management Group and Rutgers Water Resources Program.

In order to keep the rain garden looking pretty and functioning properly, students helped to pull weeds and mulched between every plant in the garden.

Rain gardens are a great way to manage stormwater because they capture polluted runoff from impervious (hard) surfaces, allowing water to seep into the ground rather than flowing directly into waterways via storm drains. The McKeown rain garden is helping to keep the Paulins Kill clean by collecting stormwater that has been contaminated by pollutants like fertilizer, pesticide, and road salt before the polluted water enters the river!