“It’s specifically created to treat the water that comes off our hard surfaces, like roads or parking lots,” said Britta Dornfeld, outreach coordinator with the Coon Creek Watershed District. “So it’s not going to be beautiful, but it’s actually serving a really important water quality purpose where it can take the water and remove some of the pollutants and it can release it to our water bodies so it can be a little cleaner.” A small buffer garden next to the pond was planted in the spring, and is being used by a math class at Westwood Intermediate School. When the library staff was approached with the idea of putting the buffer garden, they saw it as another way for kids to learn. “They would be learning math by planting seeds, and growing plants, and doing the grids, and the mapping, and the probability of seeds growing,” said Northtown Library branch manager Stacey Hendren. The garden itself isn’t that large right now, but it was the work of two watershed districts, the Anoka Conservation District, the library, an organization called Growing Green Hearts, and the city of Blaine. “We are all trying to collaborate and get the message out about how to protect water resources,” said Blaine water resource manager Rebecca Haug. The library hopes that it won’t just be the math class that learns from this, but that others will ask more questions about plants and the environment.
NEW GARDEN AT NORTHTOWN LIBRARY BECOMES TEACHING TOOL
BLAINE – A small storm water pond at Northtown Library may not look like much, but it’s there for a reason.
