Weeders Welcome At Rain Garden

The rain gardens installed last spring at Windward Community College are doing their job of diverting runoff from the rainy Kaneohe campus, but they need regular maintenance to continue to effectively filter pollutants.

To that end, volunteers are invited to join a work-day from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday by the college’s Hale ‘Imiloa building to remove weeds and invasive species, prune native vegetation, and secure and/or repair downspouts and water collection basins.

The project began as a partnership between WCC and Hui o Ko‘olaupoko to install about 3,000 square feet of rain gardens and native plants in front of the science building. The goal is to capture storm water runoff from more than 18,000 square feet of imperious surface — the roof, road and parking lots. To get it started, students, professors and residents helped install more than 2,000 individual native plants of 18 different species.

To offer help and for more information, call Nalani at 381-7202 or email nalani@huihawaii.org.