Conservation Currents
It Was a Painting Party
October 2009
by Shelly Stiles
Not all of us can find artistic inspiration in a 55-gallon, brick red, ribbed plastic barrel smelling a little of vinegar and olives (or maybe it’s pickled peppers, or artichoke hearts). But on a dreary Saturday morning recently a family of four from Bennington did.
They came to the rain barrel painting workshop at the New England Tropical Conservatory’s education center on Route 7A ready to paint Mount Rainier, one of the wettest places in the U.S., on a recycled food-grade container. (They were under the spell of Ken Burns’ PBS series on the national parks.)
Young artist Kyrsten poses with one of two barrels she decorated.
Their rain barrel, when placed beneath a shortened gutter, will capture run off from the roof of their home. They can use it to help turn their garden or lawn lush and green. And in using it they will help keep our rivers and streams clean. Rain barrels are one of several tools and techniques home owners and small businesses can use to reduce the impacts of stormwater runoff on our water resources.
Stormwater runoff, especially when it flows over surfaces such as parking lots and roadways, can carry sediments, household hazardous wastes, automobile fluids, nutrients from animal wastes and fertilizers, and other pollutants to our rivers and streams, either directly or through the storm drain system. If we can keep stormwater on site longer, permitting it to soak into the soil rather than flow away overland, we can reduce its impacts on aquatic habitat, swimming holes, drinking water and other valuable natural and community resources.
This is what rain barrels do. But although they hold water, the rain-barrel-as-water quality-guardian is a pretty dry concept. Hence the barrel decorating party, hosted by the New England Tropical Conservatory (NETC), the Bennington County Conservation District and artist Andrew Davis from the Vermont Arts Exchange.
The NETC education building has new floors (it’s a beautiful space altogether), so for the party we taped down lots of plastic drop clothes, and covered them with pieces of appliance boxes scavenged with permission from Star Electric’s dumpster. We set up a looping slide show of potential rain barrel themes (hip waders, beach balls, umbrellas, polar bears, water striders, rubber boots -- that sort of thing).
Artist Andrew gave us a lesson in brush technique. And then we several kids and adults jumped in. By lunchtime, we’d made a mountain barrel, a bug barrel, an autumn leaves barrel, a reverse-print autumn leaves barrel, a balsam fir barrel, and more. We hope to exhibit some of the barrels, and others we hope to paint at future parties, in various venues around Bennington.
Some will also play an integral part in NETC’s new stormwater management demonstration rain gardens, work on which has already begun. (Thanks in advance to the students in the horticulture program at the Southwest Vermont Career Development Center and teacher Kelly McElheny.) The NETC rain gardens will capture runoff from the center’s orange roof (the building is a former Howard Johnson’s) and an adjacent section of roof on the west side of the building.
The newly diverted rainwater will grow native grasses, wildflowers, and shrubs, among other species. Only in heavy rainfall events will the water spill over the edges of the sunken gardens and flow toward Jewett Brook.
The rain barrel/rain garden project is part of a larger initiative, all of which is funded by a non-point source pollution abatement grant from the federal Environmental Protection Agency. As part of the initiative, the Bennington County Regional Commission GIS Senior Planner Jim Henderson will map and analyze impervious surfaces (such as roofs, parking lots, and roads) in the Bennington Growth Zone. The results and other information will be shared at a public conference to be held in spring 2010.
Shelly Stiles is the district manager of the Bennington County Conservation District, whose mission is promoting rural livelihoods and protecting natural resources in Southwestern Vermont. For information on purchasing a rain barrel, contact NETC Education Director Sadie Puglisi at 802-447-7419 or sadiepuglisi@netrop.org. Learn more about rain gardens at www.netrop.org.
This column appeared in the Bennington Banner in October 2009, as one of the BCCD's Conservation Currents pieces, a bi-weekly feature written by BCCD board and staff members since August 2006.