FREP was awarded a Kane County Riverboat Fund Grant (on 5/12/09) for $20,500 to launch a new project - The Kane County Rain Garden Initiative. The Fox River Ecosystem Partnership is partnering with Kane-DuPage Soil & Water Conservation District, University of Illinois Extension, and the Fox Valley Park District to create two demonstration rain gardens in Kane County. In addition, the initiative will assemble and develop rain garden resources, information, and educational materials for landowners and schools for the creation of additional rain gardens in Kane County.

Since it was announced in the 5/12/09 E-Downstream Newsletter, we are already starting to get interest in the initiative! One question being asked is - are we looking for sites for the demonstration rain garden? The funds in this grant are designated for a rain garden demonstration project at the U of I Extension Research Center west of St. Charles. Fox Valley Park District will also create their own rain garden on their property. We will be featuring these rain gardens in future tours/programs, to encourage additional rain gardens in Kane County.

Those with existing rain gardens are encouraged to email info@foxriverecosystem.org so they can be included in a collective database of rain gardens in Kane County.

As part of this project, the FREP Website will be completely updated and a new Rain Garden Initiative section will be created.
For now, this page has been created to provide information as the project develops.

We look forward to working with our partners and providing these resources to our watershed stakeholders. In the future we hope to find funding to expand the Rain Garden Initiative to other counties in the watershed.