Catte, who is a business major with a passion for the environment, wanted to join the honors program, but the environmental course she picked wasn't an honors course. Lamont said it was an easy decision to advise and create an honors contract with Catte, who had a background in horticulture from working in a plant nursery. Catte also volunteered regularly with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and had a ready team of experts to give her advice. (The foundation is another nonprofit organization that works on improving the condition of the Chesapeake Bay, but it is not related to the Chesapeake Bay Trust.)
"What was different about [Catte] was that I knew she could implement that project," Lamont said. "It's rare to see a student with that type of commitment."
Catte used rain gardens on the foundation grounds to research native species of plants that would work in her garden and started collecting seeds she could use.
Lamont said she was so impressed with Catte's drive that she sought the advice of a landscape designer, Anne Guillette of Low Impact Design Studio of Pasadena, to help look for possible sites on campus and write a grant. Guillette encouraged Lamont and Catte to add four more gardens to their plan for a greater impact on runoff.
College officials "jumped right on board" when they heard about their plans, said Maury Chaput, executive director of administrative services at the college and chairman of the architectural review committee. The college had been putting in rain gardens during the past two years at its Arundel Mills satellite campus to get rid of standing water problems.
"It's worked beautifully," Chaput said.
Lamont received a $24,354 grant from the Chesapeake Bay Trust, but she still needed $1,200 to complete the project. The biology club donated $700 in proceeds from bake sales and the college's landscaping committee donated some of the plants and mulch to defray the rest of the costs.
The funding helped pay for Guillette to design four of the gardens, as well as pay for the contractors to do the curb cuts, elevate the level of the storm water drains and deliver the plants. The college used Catte's design for the garden near the walking trail, where runoff already had cut a gully into the landscape.
Sally Hornor, another biology professor at the college, collected water samples to create a benchmark for water quality to see if the rain gardens reduce pollution going into Dividing and Mill creeks. She looked at sediment and bacteria levels and is having a lab determine phosphorus and nitrogen levels. Hornor expects to see a small change because the rain gardens can divert only part of the storm water runoff on campus.
Lamont hopes that future students will take on the task of planting more rain gardens. She plans to offer service-learning credits to students who maintain the sites and help monitor water quality.
Lamont hopes the rain garden project will inspire sites off campus too.
garden guidance
For more information on rain gardens, download a Rain Garden Guide from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation Web site at cbf.org.
