Your Yard is a Giant Sponge

Did you know your yard can act as a giant sponge and can help keep pollutants from entering waterways and harming living aquatic creatures like trout swimming in the streams?

It's true. Grass in your yard absorbs excess nutrients and contaminants. Plant roots and soil microbes can filter out contaminants like excess phosphorous, nitrogen, pet waste, toxic chemicals, motor fluids and trash before it runs off into the streams, rivers, and eventually in the lake. Aquatic plants and animals, like the trout we will soon be releasing into local streams, are dependent on clean water to survive. So anything we can do to protect what goes into the water system is important!

You can help your yard better support a safer, healthy watershed with these few at-home practices:

• Maximize your yards ability to catch and hold water- making sure roof gutters and dripping water make their way into the grass and not on concrete driveways or sidewalks

• Pick up pet waste from the yard and dispose of it in the trash

• Plant trees and shrubs around the yard! This will help hold soil in your yard better and increase the nutrients the soil needs to filter out pollutants.

• Pick up trash out of your yard that could enter the storm drain and contaminate waterways

As we think about our trout eventually swimming around in local streams, it's important to start thinking about how we can be a part of protecting their habitat by ensuring they have healthy water to live in!