Master Gardeners are helping to protect and restore many bodies of water by assisting with the planting of shoreland buffers and rain gardens.
A shoreland buffer is a simple and direct method of protecting a lake by preserving or restoring a buffer of native vegetation along the shoreline. These buffers slow down and infiltrate the runoff that otherwise might be going straight into the lake.
A rain garden is a shallow depression on the landscape where planted native plants will promote the infiltration of runoff coming from other areas of the landscape. Unlike shoreland buffers along lakeshores, rain gardens can be planted at properties all throughout the county.
