A Rain Garden on Whidbey

Unassuming Landscapes with Big Impact

One might mistake the landscaping of Whidbey Island's Coupeville Library for another of the island's quintessential, charming gardens. In actuality, it is home to a carefully designed but incredibly simple water treatment facility...a rain garden. Powerful mitigators of pollutants caught in run-off, rain gardens help manage stormwater, provide habitats for pollinators, help protect salmon habitats, and keep toxics from entering the local marine ecosystem, home of the endangered Southern Residential Orcas. Becoming increasingly popular in Washington state over the last decade, they are seen as an obvious solution to a wide variety of problems; an easy way for homes and businesses to collectively have a big, positive impact. In need of some rejuvenation and in honor of the region-wide Orca Recovery Event, Coupeville community members from all walks of life came together to help weed and plant a variety of grasses and flowering perennials while learning just how easy it is to implement this hugely impactful landscape.