Rebecca Olson 0:00

It's been about 18... Well, the project's been going on a little bit longer just because there's a design phase and such. But on the ground, I think, well, we we constructed a bioswale at Ken Rock last spring. And then uh fall of 2024, we constructed a bioswale at Parker Woods. And both of those are Rockford Park District Parks, so you can go and check them out, and that's what they're forgetting. [lofi music plays]

Bridget Finn 0:42

Here with us today in Rockford Public Library Podcast Studio, we have Rebecca Olson. Rebecca is the founding environmental scientist with Olson Ecological Solutions. She is here to talk to us, to Lara Griffin and I about bioswales and the health and safety of our water here in Rockford. I'm gonna start with Lara. Lara, you have been building a tribe within our Rockford Public Library audience that's interested in environmental issues. Lara, can you describe RPL Green efforts?

Lara Griffin 1:26

Yeah, RPL Green Efforts, it's a sustainable initiative for a better planet that is launched by RPL, the Rockford Public Library. And it started out with a seed library. We had a community member come to us and say, like, would you be open to having a seed library? And it is how it got started. We then were able to get donations of native seeds this past year. And so that's one of the ways that we're able to put native seeds out into the community for free.

Lara Griffin 2:02

And so I learned about Rebecca through Wild Ones, which is one of our local community organizations that is about sustainability and the environment. So I went to one of the talks that Rebecca led on rain gardens. And what caught me... why I wanted to go was because it talked about how rain gardens can help with flooding. And I don't know if you're in Rockford if you've experienced flooding, but I have. It's not fun.

Lara Griffin 2:37

And so we're finding a natural solution was one of the things that got me to that meeting, and I wanted to learn more. And then through that, I learned from Rebecca more than that, just about bioswales and different ways that we as a community can be a part of improving our environment, our water, and yeah, just through planting native plants.

Bridget Finn 3:06

Super interesting. I think it's we all learned about a problem that we have with our water. So, Rebecca, can you tell us about the problem that we face here in Rockford with our surface water? Sure. I t's a problem in Rockford, but it's a problem pretty much everywhere in the first world country that we live in, where we're dealing with more water now than we used to deal with. And the reason is twofold. First of all, we develop in such a way that we have more pavement on the ground. We have more rooftops, there's just more people and more development. And when you have development in terms of pavement and rooftops, that is called impervious surface.

Bridget Finn 3:59

And it's just those surfaces don't let water soak into the ground. So we have more surfaces that don't let water soak into the ground than we used to. That water has to go somewhere. Number two, we have more rain. And that is something that has been shown with records. The records that we use are 30 years of data. So the 30 years of data that we used to use versus the 30 years of data that we use now shows that there is more rain. Okay. So when the rain falls out of the sky, it lands on our ground, and more of those surfaces are those impervious surfaces. And so the water then flows into our curb and gutter system and returns to our surface level sources, which are our streams and our river, the Rock River or creeks.

Rebecca Olson 4:54

That's correct.

Bridget Finn 4:55

Okay, and when they flow through our curb and gutter system and they don't sink into the ground, they are not filtrated in any way, and they can pick up more contaminants and bring them, the contaminants back to the river. Is that correct? That's correct. Yes. Okay. So when Lara met you, you were discussing a community solution that was being planned, and that is bioswales. Can you just define what a bioswale is?

Rebecca Olson 5:30

Yes. So a bioswale is a landscape feature that is... think of it as a sunken garden. You know, there's a little swale to it. It carries water from point A to point B. So just like your curb and gutter does, the water flows into the beginning of the bioswale and it travels its way down this sunken garden that's long in shape. In that sunken garden, we have a couple things. We have some rock piles that are strategically placed so that the water will hit this, it makes a dam for the water, but it's not very tall.

Rebecca Olson 6:13

It might be like a foot tall of rock. So the water hits this rock and it has a hard time going through it. So the water gets backed up in this bioswale. And it just takes longer to get through the bioswale than it does to get to a curb and gutter. And then the other feature that we put in there is what we plant in there. So you've got the water has time, it has contact with the soil, and it has contact with plants. And the best plants to use are native plants because they have these massive root systems that turns the ground from a compacted soil to a sponge.

Bridget Finn 6:56

Okay, so ground that's more impervious becomes porous. And then the surface water can the storm water can flow through it, and that act of flowing through it will treat it, will remove some of the contaminants.

Rebecca Olson 7:11

Yes.

Bridget Finn 7:12

And the plants that are planted in the bioswale are chosen because of their root systems to be excellent filtration.

Rebecca Olson 7:23

Yeah. So the plants will actually they'll digest the a lot of the contaminants.

Bridget Finn 7:30

Okay. All right.

Rebecca Olson 7:30

So it really is a solution to them. It's not like we have to collect them and take them somewhere else. It's like they're just they're just...

Bridget Finn 7:39

It's not like the contaminants are left on the plants and we have to then clean them out. They're digested and done away with naturally through the process of just being consumed by the plant.

Rebecca Olson 7:49

Yes.

Bridget Finn 7:50

That's that's exciting. That's pretty cool. That's pretty good. Okay. So if if we don't have the bioswales and the storm water falls from the sky and it just hits our curve and gutter system and rushes back to the rivers, and what happens? What happens if the contaminants just get back into the rivers?

Rebecca Olson 8:12

Well, what happens is we have a couple of problems that people will face and wildlife will face.

Bridget Finn 8:22

Yes.

Rebecca Olson 8:22

We have algae blooms that are caused by some of the nutrients built up of nutrients in the water. And we have our lakes and streams will fill up faster because of the sediment that will get into the water. And we have bacteria that is harmful, fecal coliform bacteria.

Bridget Finn 8:46

Fecal, fecal.

Rebecca Olson 8:47

It's fecal. Yeah. Yeah. So it is a...

Lara Griffin 8:49

What's fecal?

Rebecca Olson 8:51

What is fecal? Fecal is poop.

Bridget Finn 8:53

Yes.

Rebecca Olson 8:53

We get too much poop in our water.

Bridget Finn 8:56

Poop. And animal poop, human poop.

Rebecca Olson 9:01

Well, it could be both because septic systems or...

Bridget Finn 9:06

Sewer systems.

Rebecca Olson 9:07

Sometimes sewer systems could leak.

Bridget Finn 9:09

Okay.

Rebecca Olson 9:10

Yes. And then otherwise it can be livestock or it can be from geese. You know, there's a lot of places where geese will congregate.

Bridget Finn 9:18

Yes.

Rebecca Olson 9:19

And they poop a lot.

Bridget Finn 9:23

We are here on the banks of the Rock River at the New Main Library. The New Main Rockford Public Library, we contend with goose poop quite regularly.

Rebecca Olson 9:31

The geese don't have to poop straight into the water. It just gets washed in there by the rain.

Bridget Finn 9:36

Gotcha. Okay. All right. So these bioswales are put into place, and then the storm water flows more slowly, is absorbed by the plants, and then our river and lakes that are fed by our river are cleaner.

Rebecca Olson 9:56

They're cleaner.

Bridget Finn 9:57

So we can be in them. We can swim in them, we can water ski in them, and will it get to our drinking water or it hits our water treatment plant cleaner already?

Rebecca Olson 10:11

Yes. And water treatment plant, it's our tax dollars at work.

Bridget Finn 10:18

Okay.

Rebecca Olson 10:18

So the more water we send to the water treatment plant, the more we have to pay. The dirtier the water is, the more we have to pay. So that's another benefit to us.

Bridget Finn 10:28

Okay, yeah, sure. That does make sense. Okay. So, how long does it take for a bioswale to be productive?

Rebecca Olson 10:40

Well, right away we have reshaped the earth and used the rocks to slow the water down. So as soon as it's built, it is productive. It's more productive than it was the way it was. And then when the plants fill in, then we finally reach that designed productivity.

Bridget Finn 11:02

Right.

Rebecca Olson 11:02

After, I mean, it's a gradual process, but three to five years.

Bridget Finn 11:09

Okay. So cool. And so when Lara you met Rebecca, did we at any point, did we have bioswales already in our area at the time you met a year ago?

Lara Griffin 11:25

Maybe one?

Rebecca Olson 11:26

Maybe one.

Lara Griffin 11:27

Yeah. There at Levings?

Rebecca Olson 11:31

Yeah. Yes, we had one at Levings.

Lara Griffin 11:33

Yeah.

Rebecca Olson 11:34

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And there might be one other one in town, but I'm not sure how visible it is. But Levings Liverpool has an example.

Bridget Finn 11:41

Okay.

Lara Griffin 11:43

Oh yeah, Nicholas has a small one. Nicholas Conservatory has a small little demonstration.

Rebecca Olson 11:49

They do now. Probably not when we met, but it's in place now.

Lara Griffin 11:54

Okay.

Rebecca Olson 11:55

Yeah. Well, it's a little bit different.

Lara Griffin 11:58

Okay.

Rebecca Olson 11:58

Over at the Nicholas Conservatory. But up in Sinnissippi Park, there is a rain garden, which is you know, the bioswale we talked about it being a sunken garden and kind of linear in shape so that the water can flow through it. A rain garden is also a sunken garden, but it's more of a detention basin shape.

Bridget Finn 12:19

Okay.

Rebecca Olson 12:19

And there's one of those at Sinnissippi that's old enough to look like it's designed to look like.

Bridget Finn 12:26

Okay, cool.

Rebecca Olson 12:27

The plants have all filled in.

Bridget Finn 12:28

Cool. Okay. So that's interesting. So, you know, you met and Lara, you learned from a talk that Rebecca gave to the Wild Ones group about different gardens, rain gardens, and things. And Rebecca, you were working, Olsen Ecological Solutions was working with a number of other agencies in town to put together a project where you constructed two major bioswales in our area, yes?

Rebecca Olson 12:58

Yes, and we did it as a demonstration so people can come and see what a bioswale is. And there's other parts of this project that not only the demonstration on the ground, but if you were interested, we can give you some technical support toward what you might be able to do on your own property.

Bridget Finn 13:18

Okay. So who were you partnered with in that effort?

Rebecca Olson 13:22

Yes. So first of all, Region 1 Planning Council here in Rockford, they spearheaded it.

Bridget Finn 13:29

Okay.

Rebecca Olson 13:29

And they received partial funding from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency.

Bridget Finn 13:34

Okay.

Rebecca Olson 13:34

And then the other partners involved were the Rockford Park District, the Soil and Water Conservation District of Winnebago County, Rockford Township, the library, of course, the city of Rockford, and Winnebago County, specifically their highway department, and then us.

Bridget Finn 13:54

Okay. Fantastic. And and we were thrilled to partner with it, but we joined you because there was such a desire on part of the EPA and Region 1 to make the project educational for our community, which is what we're doing with this podcast right now. As well as an event that we'll be having on Wednesday the 23rd at 6 p.m. at the J.R. Sullivan Theater at RPL's Nordlof Center at 118 North Main, downtown Rockford, where Rebecca Yu and Eric Tyson from Region 1 and Sean...

Lara Griffin 14:33

from Winnebago County Highway department, yeah.

Bridget Finn 14:38

We'll all be talking about the projects. But what did our group achieve over the last has it been 18 months? Has it been a year? It's been a year.

Rebecca Olson 14:49

It's been about 18. Well, the project's been going on a little bit longer just because there's a design phase and such. But on the ground, I think, well, we constructed a bioswale at Ken Rock last spring, and then fall of 2024, we constructed a bioswale at Parker Woods. And both of those are Rockford Park District parks, so you can go and check them out, and that's what they're for.

Bridget Finn 15:16

Very cool.

Rebecca Olson 15:17

Yes. And Ken Rock is in the city, and it's in a neighborhood that has curb and gutter, and that curb and gutter goes straight into Buckbee Creek, and even the people that live around there might not realize that it's a creek because Buckbee Creek at that point is a concrete channel. And so the water, the rain water, hits the rooftop, runs down the gutter, goes into the street, goes down into the sewer pipe, and then you know, you don't see it anymore.

Rebecca Olson 15:55

But what happens is right at Ken-Rock Park, it would outlet into Buckbee Creek, which is a concrete channel. So think about that. That water has picked up some things along the way, and once that would get in the water, that would be considered pollutants. And those things could be, you know, nutrients and sediment from living things like leaves and grass, and it can be oil and gas from roads, road salts, heavy metals, it can be all kinds of things. And in that neighborhood, the water doesn't have a chance to drop them out, they go straight into the creek.

Rebecca Olson 16:41

And so what we did is we interrupted that path. And instead now of going straight into Buckbee Creek, that water goes from the rooftop, down the gutter, into the pipes underground, and then it spits out into our bioswale instead. And now here's our opportunity, the water's opportunity to... it needs to slow down, and we have the rock piles in there to slow it down.

Rebecca Olson 17:10

It needs to interact with soil and plants, and as it goes through the soil and plants, it'll soak into the ground and the plants will digest that the nutrients out of that water...

Bridget Finn 17:26

And the contaminants.

Rebecca Olson 17:27

Yes, and the contaminants, and then it'll go down the linear sunken garden and do that several times, and then it will get dumped into Buckbee Creek concrete channel.

Bridget Finn 17:41

And it will be there in a cleaner form.

Rebecca Olson 17:44

In a cleaner form. There'll be less water at the end and it'll be cleaner.

Bridget Finn 17:49

Nice.

Lara Griffin 17:50

And I suggest if people would go and see it because it's not small.

Rebecca Olson 17:54

It is not small.

Lara Griffin 17:56

Huge.

Rebecca Olson 17:56

It's an acre.

Lara Griffin 17:57

Yeah.

Bridget Finn 17:58

Oh, the bioswale is an acre.

Lara Griffin 18:00

It is huge. And to think about like when I first saw, before they constructed it, it was just flatland, like you were saying. And then when Winnebago County came and dug it up, like deep, really deep, then it's cut it's really neat to see with all the plants how all the water is going to be filtered through all of that. And then when you walk past the bioswale, you'll see that creek. Like I had never thought, I'm like, that's a creek, but it's just all pavement, it's just all concrete. And I'm like, and they call it a creek. So it seems a little broad.

Rebecca Olson 18:39

It's a part of the creek that we have just concreted.

Bridget Finn 18:43

Yeah.

Rebecca Olson 18:43

Yes. And and what I love about Ken-Rock is that you can stand between the creek and the bioswale and you can look at both and see the difference. And it's really visual.

Bridget Finn 19:00

Wow. Okay. So there was the construction, and so the construction of these bioswales is quite an undertaking. And, you know, that's why we have the highway department and you know, everybody showing up with, you know, backhoes and you know, to to dig out an acre in order to... and volunteers coming to plant the plants in the place and everything. That's fantastic. There's two locations, right? There was the Ken-Rock that you just discussed, and Parker Woods.

Rebecca Olson 19:38

And Parker Woods.

Bridget Finn 19:39

A nd what... were there reasons why those areas were chosen?

Rebecca Olson 19:43

 Uh-huh.

Bridget Finn 19:43

Okay.

Rebecca Olson 19:44

Couple reasons. The reason that I really enjoy is that Ken-Rock is quite urban, like we just talked about with all the concrete.

Bridget Finn 19:53

Right.

Rebecca Olson 19:54

And Parker Woods is in a neighborhood that is kind of a rural residential neighborhood. So they don't have curb and gutter. Instead, they have open swales along the sides of their roads. And you see this a lot when you're driving in the country. You see on either side of the road there's just a dip a ditch.

Lara Griffin 20:15

Sure.

Rebecca Olson 20:16

And it's mowed. You know, it's mowed grass or it's unmowed grass. So in their development, they have these ditches on the sides of the roads and it's mowed grass. And that's where their water is routed. And then from those roadside swales, the water would cut through the park and go straight into a creek. And that creek would run to Kent Creek. But the creek it runs to doesn't have a name.

Rebecca Olson 20:45

It's just a small little creek that ends up intersecting with Kent Creek. And so there was a beautiful opportunity that we could see. There was already a little bit of shaping to the ground. There was already... the water already had a path there. So we're not changing any of that. We're just reshaping it gently. We're putting in those rock check dams, they're called, those rock piles I've been talking about to slow it down and putting in the plants and making the water spend a little more time there.

Bridget Finn 21:20

Okay, perfect. All right.

Lara Griffin 21:22

Yeah, it's beautiful too. It's one of the prettiest areas if you want to check out a bioswale. It's just looking at it from the seasons, like going out there from April through today, just seeing how the leaves change and everything, but seeing it's just one of the prettiest areas for a demonstration bioswale.

Bridget Finn 21:50

So that's great. Okay. And during the event here at the library where we're talking more about these bioswales and their construction, will we be able to see photography and video of the construction of the bioswale?

Rebecca Olson 22:07

Yes, absolutely.

Bridget Finn 22:09

Good, good. I'm glad. And then hopefully soon enough we'll be able to show you that through our website as well. And it's very exciting. Yeah. Okay, so these bioswils are now in place, it's been a long year of construction and planting and winter. And now spring is happening again and water is certainly flowing. And because of these bioswales and all of the agencies who are involved in... the volunteers who were involved in putting them together, we should have cleaner lakes and cleaner river to swim in.

Bridget Finn 22:43

The water that is reaching our treatment plants is is doing so in a cleaner way. And...

Rebecca Olson 22:49

Yes, it is.

Bridget Finn 22:50

We need more of them. We need more bioswales and and... Yes. And there are other things that people can do aside... and what are some things that people can do to, you know, take better care of their water.

Rebecca Olson 23:04

I'll tell you what people can do at home, but I also want to mention that if people are interested in playing a part in these demonstration projects, we do have one more planting day. Oh, actually, we have one more planting set of days.

Lara Griffin 23:20

Right.

Rebecca Olson 23:20

And one is Saturday, May 3rd.

Lara Griffin 23:23

Right.

Rebecca Olson 23:23

And the next one is the following Tuesday.

Bridget Finn 23:27

Okay.

Rebecca Olson 23:27

And people can sign up for that through the Region One Planning Council on their Engage R1 website.

Bridget Finn 23:36

Excellent.

Rebecca Olson 23:37

In fact, they can find out all about the project on that website.

Bridget Finn 23:41

We'll include a link to that website and our show notes.

Rebecca Olson 23:44

Okay, perfect. Sounds good.

Bridget Finn 23:46

That's great. So Saturday, May 3rd...

Rebecca Olson 23:49

Yes.

Bridget Finn 23:50

...will be another planning day where volunteers are needed, and you can learn about that and and sign up for that opportunity through the Region One website, which we'll include in our show notes. That's exciting. H ow great to be a part of the project, the big community project. What else can people do at home on their own?

Rebecca Olson 24:10

So people can do things at home at different levels. Some of the things that people can do at home are super easy. And it just has to do with thinking differently about the way you treat your water. And so, it is just habits. So, for example, when you're mowing your lawn or picking up your leaves, some people put them in the gutter. And it's easy because it disappears.

Rebecca Olson 24:42

Why does it disappear? Because the leaves in the grass get washed away into the underground pipes and they go either to the river or they go to the water treatment plant. And either one is a problem because those leaves and grass, they decay, they decompose...

Bridget Finn 25:02

Right.

Rebecca Olson 25:03

...and they release their nutrients and they release their organic matter, and now it's in our water.

Bridget Finn 25:08

That's right.

Rebecca Olson 25:09

And either we have to pay to clean it out because it's at the treatment plant, or it went straight into the river.

Bridget Finn 25:14

Okay.

Rebecca Olson 25:14

So you can keep your grass clippings and your leaves out of the gutter.

Bridget Finn 25:20

Right.

Rebecca Olson 25:20

You can reuse water, you can use less water, and you can reuse your water. If want to look into gray water, that is a keyword that you can Google and learn just about the idea of reusing water, and there's been some fantastic ways that people reuse water. But at home, you can do it really simply. I mean, what you can find when you Google are you know, reusing water through buildings and underground storage and stuff like that.

Rebecca Olson 25:55

But at home, you can just think about, okay, we have a bunch of these every... dinner's over and people didn't drink all their water. Well, what do you do with it? Do you go to the sink and you dump it out? And then you go back to that same sink and fill up a pitcher to water your plants.

Bridget Finn 26:09

Right.

Rebecca Olson 26:09

You could just reuse the drinking water.

Lara Griffin 26:12

I do that with my kids' water all the time. They have so many cups. So I just go and dump it in my house plants.

Bridget Finn 26:17

And your house plants in your watering can.

Rebecca Olson 26:19

I have a pitcher and it's not clear because this water is going to get a little gooky.

Bridget Finn 26:25

Yeah.

Rebecca Olson 26:25

And that's you keeping the gook out of the system, right? So, I just have like a metal pitcher sitting by my kitchen sink that I can pour it into. So, you know, it's just at your own time, you can take that gray water and go use it.

Bridget Finn 26:42

Yeah, I love that. And then I was surprised and laughing to learn that I could also reuse the water that I boil vegetables in.

Rebecca Olson 26:49

Yes, because that some of those nutrients have leaked into the water. You've got butter in there, you've got salt maybe.

Bridget Finn 26:56

Oh.

Rebecca Olson 26:57

So let's not put that down the sink.

Bridget Finn 26:59

No.

Rebecca Olson 26:59

But our houseplants will be fine with it. It's not enough to hurt them. And they will filter it and they will, they will digest it. And so your houseplants will become your filter.

Bridget Finn 27:10

Okay. But if I'm just boiling broccoli without butter and salt, that's good for my houseplants.

Rebecca Olson 27:15

Yeah, yeah, it's all good for your houseplants. It's all fine for your houseplants. No matter what's in that water, your houseplants will use it, eat it.

Bridget Finn 27:25

Good to learn.

Rebecca Olson 27:26

Yes. And then the other big one is to minimize the use of your garbage disposals.

Bridget Finn 27:32

Oh.

Rebecca Olson 27:32

So throwing any material, food material down there, it's going to decompose. And now it's decomposing in our water system. Rather than keeping it out of the water and either composting it, which is the best option. But even if you throw it away, you're keeping it out of the water.

Lara Griffin 27:53

I had never thought about it that way before. Like to keep well, it's good for your...

Rebecca Olson 27:59

When we were young...

Lara Griffin 28:00

Uh-huh.

Rebecca Olson 28:01

I think we were taught to not throw anything away because of the landfills, which is another whole problem. So it's, you know, where are you going to put the... composting is best, but, if you have to choose between put it in our water system and put it in the landfill, I would say put it in the landfill.

Bridget Finn 28:18

Okay.

Rebecca Olson 28:18

That's my personal opinion on that. So let's say you want to do a little bit more at home, that you're motivated to do a little bit more. You can buy a rain barrel and put it at the end of your gutter. And that will... part of the problem with having all this surface water is that it all comes at one time and it all rushes into the streams at one time. So the rain barrels have to fill up before they release that water.

Rebecca Olson 28:47

And you can use it as gray water. You can use it to, you know, water your lawn or your garden or so it's another part of that gray water concept. You also incorporate native landscaping, those massive roots. You can incorporate them into your to your landscaping. And if you want to be more involved, then you can build a bioswale. If you have a place where water runs, you can you can handle it through a bioswale. You can handle it through a rain garden. You know, you can...

Bridget Finn 29:28

Let's talk about the rain garden because that's Lara, what you were talking about, you were interested in in planting a rain garden at your own home, right? When you first met Rebecca.

Lara Griffin 29:37

Yeah.

Bridget Finn 29:38

What can people do with the rain gardens? What's a rain garden all about?

Rebecca Olson 29:43

Yeah, it's it's finding a low spot in your yard and building that sunken garden, digging out a shallow area where the rain water can gather, and then taking your gutters and routing them to that spot. And so now you have an area where you are letting the rainwater soak into the ground and you are filtering it. And then if you have an area that's smaller than the amount of water that you have, you're gonna have it overflow into and it'll run where it normally runs. But it'll be less and it'll be cleaner.

Bridget Finn 30:21

Right.

Rebecca Olson 30:24

Do you want to talk about your particular situation at home and what you're thinking about with the...

Lara Griffin 30:32

Yeah, I'm still looking into getting the native plants in. So I love that like wild ones all have native plant sales. I think that we have some native seeds here too. And I think we've talked about you can actually plant at any time of the year basically because of the way that native seeds work. Just that they can, even if it's cold out, some of the seeds need that like cold before they will germinate.

Rebecca Olson 31:06

So even just thinking through that, I'm starting to get my husband over into where he's kind of like, okay, maybe we don't have to have a lawn. And he's kind of like, we could have like native plants and we could create this landscape like the one that Olson did at Nicholas Conservatory. I love the look of the long grass side, and that's something I keep in mind that I would like to do in my backyard. Yes.

Lara Griffin 31:42

Because it's so pretty and it would just be great for landscaping and creating a boundary too.

Rebecca Olson 31:50

Yes.

Lara Griffin 31:50

Or an area where you'd want to like sit or you know, yeah. So I just think about the whole idea of having a lawn more like a rug size and then using native plants more as like being the show.

Rebecca Olson 32:07

Yes. And that's something I would encourage people to think about. How much of your lawn do you actually use? How much do you actually want mowed for some purpose that you actually use?

Bridget Finn 32:19

Right.

Rebecca Olson 32:20

And what could you do with the rest of it?

Bridget Finn 32:22

And I've heard of that. Have your mowed lawn be more of an area rug, to Lara's point, than room-to-room, wall-to-wall carpeting. And then let native plant fill in and bring back some of the bugs that survey environment and some of the yeah...

Rebecca Olson 32:40

Bring back the pollinators, help our food system.

Bridget Finn 32:44

That would be great.

Rebecca Olson 32:45

Yes. We depend on them and it's just not direct. So it's hard to see.

Bridget Finn 32:51

Right.

Rebecca Olson 32:52

But if our pollinators are in trouble, then we're in trouble.

Bridget Finn 32:56

Right. Well, I'm so glad that our community of interested people in Rockford, you know, is growing. They can learn more, of course, by becoming a part of RPL Green efforts. That getting a newsletter.

Lara Griffin 33:15

Right. We'll put it in the show notes link so that you can sign up.

Bridget Finn 33:18

Right. And then you can learn about any of the classes or events that we have talking about these issues that are gonna help our community and thus our entire nation, you know, really use their land and water in a way that is more sustainable. I'm so glad that I got to learn about it from you, Rebecca. I just think it's super exciting.

Rebecca Olson 33:46

I'm thrilled to work with you both.

Bridget Finn 33:48

I know. It's been it's been a great project. And it promises so much more in the future. There's a lot to learn, but there's a lot that we can do without much effort to make a big difference in the way our world is serving us.

Rebecca Olson 34:04

Yeah, and I just want to say one more thing about the benefits of doing this type of work because I haven't touched on it yet, and that is our groundwater. And we have dependency on our groundwater. It's our drinking water, and we're pulling it out of the ground, and we need to put it back. And this this is helping to invigorate those underground water sources.

Bridget Finn 34:31

And ground water... for those of you who are more like me who didn't know before this conversation the difference between surface water and groundwater. Groundwater is different from the surface water we're talking about routing. And so yeah, lots to learn and lots to be aware of and work towards. And I'm happy that we get to it with you.

Lara Griffin 34:53

Yes. Thank you so much.[lofi music plays]

Rebecca Olson 34:55

Thank you.